INDUSTRIAL ENZYMES FOR SUSTAINABLE BIO-ECONOMY:
Large scale production and application in industry, environment, and agriculture
Amare Gessesse
Nelson Mandela African institute of Science and Technology (NM-AIST),
Arusha, Tanzania
First Bio-Innovate Regional Scientific Conference
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 25-27 February 2013

Participating laboratories
No. Academic Institution Country
1 Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Tanzania
Technology (NM-AIST)
2 Addis Ababa University Ethiopia
3 University of Nairobi Kenya
4 University of Dar es Salaam Tanzania
5 National University of Rwanda Rwanda
6 Lund University Sweden
7 Natnl Inst for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology India
Industrial partners
8 Leather Industry Development Institute Ethiopia
9 Modjo Tannery Ethiopia
10 Sumbawanga Agriculture and Animal Food Industry Tanzania
11 Bekas Chemicals Plc Ethiopia

Major Aim
Use the region’s biodiversity as a source of
Novel Industrial Enzymes!

Africa’s Biodiversity

Produsts from Our Microbial Biodiversity
> 73 C
pH > 10
> 95 C

Industrial Enzymes
Industry Environment Agriculture
Leather tanning Degradation Animal feed
Starch processing of residual additive
waste
Detergent Feed
Detoxificatio processing
Textile
n of toxic
Chemical/ substances Agroprocessing
Pharmaceutical
Food processing
Protein hydrolysis
Biofuel

Advantages of using industrial
enzymes?
Direct Indirect
• Foreign currency • Reduction in environmental
• Export of enzymes pollution
• Value addition to raw • Cleaner production
materials
• Help to save foreign
• Job creation currency
• Enzyme production
• Example: the leather industry
• Value addition

Current Worldwide Industrial
Enzyme Production
• Over 120 enzyme
companies
• Dominated by Europe and
North America
• Control >90% of the
world industrial enzyme
market
• None from SS Africa
Europe and North America control
• Enormous potential in >90% of world enzyme market
SS Africa
Why?

Africa’s Performance in Science & Technology
Population Tertiary Education
Scientific research Patent registration
Source: www.worldmapper.org

Research on enzymes

Alkaline proteases

pH profile of AL-20 (A) and AL-89
proteases (B) Temperature profile of AL-20
(A) and AL-89 proteases (B)

A rial
S tability of A L-20 protease w ith and w ithout E D T A treatm ent
100
R e s id u a l a c tiv ity (% )
100 80
R e s id u a l a c tiv ity (% )
80 60
60 40
65°C
40
20
20
0
0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
0 50 100 150 200
Tim e (m in)
T im e (m in) E D T A treated and assayed w ith E D T A
2+
N o E D T A and assayed w ith 10 m M C a
100
V ia
R e s id u a l a c tiv ity (% )
70°C 100
R e s id u a l a c tiv ity (% )
80
80
60
40
60
20 40
0 20
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
0
T im e (m in)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Tim e (m in)
S ta b ility o f A L -2 0 p ro te a se to E D T A tre a tm e n t F ig.4. E ffect of detergents on stability of A L-20 protease and other proteases.
A L-20 protease at 60°C (circle), subtilisin at 50°C (square), protenase K at 60°C
(triangle), and endogenous enzym e at 50°C (diam ond)

Use of a new fungal neutral protease
isolated at AAU for bating
Test Unit Comm. Protease
enzyme BACC 480
Tensile strength N/mm2 28.2 29.5
Percentage elongation % 59.4 68.1
Tear load N/mm 39.7 37.7
Mean tear load (parallel to the back bone) N 28.0 24.0
Mean tear load (perpendicular to the back) N 28.0 29.0
Average tear load N 28.0 26.5
Distension at burst mm 11.8 11.2
Tested at the Leather Industry Development Institute, Addis Ababa
(Tested with staff from LIDI)

Alkaline protease from alkaliphiles
• Several alkaline (Buffer alone) (Buffer + enzyme)
protease producers
• From soda lakes
• Example: Sheep skin
• Vibrio sp R-11 protease (Buffer alone) (Buffer + enzyme)
• Interesting application for
dehairing
Cow hide

Enzyme production potential
benefits
• In enzyme production
• Substrate account for 30 – 40%
of the cost
• Here we use hair & mineral salt
solution
• Use of the enzyme lead to
reduction in pollution
• Na2S
• Lime
• Protein
• Reduction in import
• Na2S
• Other chemicals

Detergent applications
• Detergent industry As detergent additive
• Alkaline proteases
• Alkaline amylases
• Protein hydrolysis
• Microbiological media
• Animal feed
• Food application
• Enzyme production cost
• Considered as key

Enzymes for processing of starch
containing crops
• Starch sources
• Cassava
• Enset
• Cereals
• Products
• Glucose
• Fructose
• Maltose
• Confectionary
• Jams
• Beverages
• etc

Animal feed
• Feed utilization by
monogastric animals
• Unable to digest
pentosatans
• Low availability of
phosphate
• Enzymes
• Xylanases
• Phytase

Xylanase and cellulase activities of T.
reesei Rut C-30 (Mulaa et al.)

Pulp and paper industry

Microbial
Strain
Submerged Solid state
fermentation fermentation
Animal
Cell free Extraction &
Cell Feed
Biomass supernatant separation
separation
Solvent
Compost
Supernatant Solvent
Spent
recovery
Enzyme
Concentrate
Biogas
Enzyme
Stabilization
Compost
Enzyme product

Main considerations
• Nature of the organism • Environmental issues
• Growth under SSF or • Reduction of pollution
SmF • Serve as a model
• Depend on the organism
• Byproduct utilization
• Relative enzyme yield for cost reduction
• SSF • Feed
• SmF • Biogas
• Cost • Compost
• Initial investment
• Product recovery
• Growth substrate

Scaling up fermentation process?
• Mode of fermentation
• Solid state fermentation
• Submerged fermentation
• Organisms
• Bacteria
• Fungi
• Enzymes
• Proteases
• Amylases
• Xylanases, etc

Gap in the transfer of research results to
commercial products
• The gap
• How to scale up?
• Absence of private sector
(or is risk avert)
• Lack of entrepreneurship
skill in academia
• Capital
• Lack of role models
• Important to bridge the
gap

Can we change course?
• Scale up production
• Pilot scale
• Evaluation under
application condition
• Stabilization
• Collaboration with end
users
• Ultimately
• Can we establish new
companies?

If yes, what do new companies need?
• Proper care
• Public sector
• Creation of an enabling
environment
• Those in academia must
• Learn entrepreneurship
skills
• Proactive

We need to jump big!

We need to jump big!
Thank you!