Uses of Immobilised Enzymes

Immobilised enzymes are used in many industrial processes. OCR requires you to know these examples.• Glucose isomerase: converts glucose to fructose. Fructose is sweeter than glucose, so less is needed to sweeten food. This is used to make high-fructose corn syrup for the food industry.• Penicillin acylase: used to make semi-synthetic penicillins. These are modified penicillins that some penicillin-resistant bacteria are still sensitive to.• Lactase: hydrolyses lactose into glucose and galactose. This produces lactose-free milk for people who are lactose intolerant.• Aminoacylase: used to produce pure samples of L-amino acids from mixtures of L- and D-forms. L-amino acids are used to make pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and food additives.• Glucoamylase: converts dextrins (short chains of glucose from starch breakdown) into glucose, used in syrups and in fermentation.• Nitrile hydratase: converts acrylonitrile to acrylamide, which is used to make plastics (polyacrylamide).In each case the enzyme is held in a column or bed, the substrate solution passes through, and the product comes out free of enzyme. This is why immobilisation suits large-scale, continuous production: the enzyme is reused, the product needs less purification, and the enzyme's greater stability allows the process to run for long periods.To answer questions, remember each enzyme with its substrate → product and the use of that product.