ENZYMOLOGY
ASSIGNMENT-I
ENZYMES USED IN DETERGENTS
MISCELLANEOUS DETERGENTS
PEROXIDASES................................................................. 10
PULLULANASE................................................................ 10
ENZYME FORMULATION................................................... 11
PRODUCTION OF ENZYME BASED DETERGENT........ 13
ENZYME STABILITY............................................................. 14
APPLICATION OF ENZYME BASED DETERGENT........ 16
BENEFIT OF USING ENZYME IN DETERGENT.............. 19
CONCLUSION .......................................................................... 20
BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................... 22
History
The original idea of using enzyme as detergents was described in 1913 by Dr
Otto Rohm, who patented the use of crude pancreatic extracts in laundry pre-
soak compositions to improve the removal of biological stains. In the same year,
the first enzymatic detergent named Burnus was launched, but was not popular
because of its own limitations. Subsequently, Bio- 40 - a detergent containing a
bacterial protease was produced in Switzerland and launched in the market in
1959 and it gradually became popular. In the period from 1965 to 1970, use and
sale of detergent enzymes grew very fast. In 1970, the use was distorted due to
dust production by formulations leading to allergies to some workers. This
problem was overcome in 1975 by encapsulating the granules of enzyme. From
1980s to the 1990s, several changes took place in the detergent industry like
development of softening through the wash, development of concentrated
heavy-duty power detergents, development of concentrated or structured or non-
aqueous liquid detergent.
Introduction
Enzymes have been used to improve the cleaning efficiency of detergents for
more than 35 years, and are now well accepted as ingredients in powder and
liquid detergents, stain removers/laundry pre-spotters, automatic dishwashing
detergents and industrial/institutional cleaning products. Detergent enzymes
account for about 30% of the total worldwide enzyme production and represent
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Enzymes used in detergents are protein catalysts that consist of long chains of
amino acids. They are similar to protein catalysts present in all living cells
where they control metabolic processes, convert food nutrients to simple
molecules, convert these molecules to energy and to new cell material. As
catalysts; enzymes speed up specific chemical reactions, in mild conditions of
temperature and pH, without being altered or consumed in the process.
Consequently, small quantities of enzyme can repeatedly catalyze the
breakdown of millions of molecules in minutes. Enzymes function optimally in
detergents at temperatures of 20 - 60C and within a pH range of pH 7.5 - 10.5.
The performance of enzymes in detergents depends on number of factors,
including the detergent’s composition, type of stains to be removed, wash
temperature, washing procedure and wash-water hardness. To help formulators
optimize enzymatic detergent washing efficiency, Specialty Enzymes provides
wash laboratory technical services. In our wash laboratory, customer, base
detergents are evaluated on standard soils in both a model wash system (Terg-O-
Tometer) and in full-scale household washing machines.
Table 1 Compositions of an enzyme detergent
Constituent Composition (%)
Sodium tripolyphosphate (water softener, loosens dirt)a 38.0
Sodium alkane sulphonate (surfactant) 25.0
Sodium perborate tetrahydrate (oxidising agent) 25.0
Soap (sodium alkane carboxylates) 3.0
Sodium sulphate (filler, water softener) 2.5
Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (dirt-suspending agent) 1.6
Sodium metasilicate (binder, loosens dirt) 1.0
Bacillus protease (3% active) 0.8
Fluorescent brighteners 0.3
Foam-controlling agents Trace
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Perfume Trace
Water to 100%
Detergent Enzymes
Proteases
The serine group initiates the nucleophilic attack on the peptide bond to form a
tetrahedral intermediate, which undergoes an active hydrogen transfer,
facilitated by both the histidine and aspartyl residues. The net effect of the
addition of water across the bond generates the original protein. The protease
hydrolysis involves the transfer of electrons between the amino acids at the
active site and substrate. For proteases the three-dimensional arrangement of the
catalytic triad is required for the enzyme to be active. Disturbances in the
confirmation are likely to affect enzyme efficacy and therefore cleaning
performance.
These were susceptible to oxygen bleaches and calcium sequestrates. But
now, stable protease can be obtained .
Amylases
Amylases facilitate the removal of starch-based food soils, by catalyzing the
hydrolysis of glycosidic linkages in starch polymers. Generally, starch-
containing stains are of chocolate, gravy, spaghetti, cocoa, pudding, etc.
Amylases can be classified as: :
a-amylases are mostly used for detergents, although recently other carbohydrate
cleaving enzymes such as pullulanases or isoamylases have also been described
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for this application. a-amylases bring about the primary hydrolysis of starch into
the oligosaccharides and dextrins. Currently, these enzymes are produced from
bacteria. Bacillus subtilis. Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, and Bacillus
licheniformis. These are available under the trade names Maxamyl- Genencor
Int or Termamyl -Novo Nordisk
Lipases
Tomato-based sauces, butter, edible oils, chocolate and cosmetic stains are very
difficult to remove as they form due to greasy food stains. Body soils, sebum
and sweat on collars, cuffs and underarms, are generally composed of a mixture
of proteins starch pigments and lipids. Lipases hydrolyze the water insoluble
triglycerides components into the more water-soluble products as
monoglycerides, diglycerides, free fatty acids and glycerol. The Novo Nordisk
launched the first lipase product in 1987. They transferred the lipolase gene into
the fungus Asper6yillus oryzae for industrial production, Genencor followed in
1993 with lumafast (Pseudomonas menocina) and Gist-Brocades in 1995 with
Lupomax. .
Lipases possess a catalytic triad that is similar to the serine proteases of trypsin
and subtilisin type. Hence, these are also called as serine hydrolysate lysate.
Lipases can decompose a fatty stain up to 25%, which then can be removed
very easily because of the hydrophilic character (Dorrit et al, 1991). It is
generally thought that lipases get adsorbed on to the hydrophobic stain during
the washing period. And, during the drying cycle when the water content is
decreased, the enzyme is activated and can hydrolyze triglycerides in the stain.
This facilitates the removal of stain in the next wash cycle (Dorrit et al 1991).
The enzyme also has stability over a broad range of temperature 30C to 60C.
These novel alkaline lipases also retained 100% activity in the presence of
strong oxidants.
Efforts are on to manufacture enzymes that can work below the normal
temperature range of 30C to 40C to save energy. It has been observed that
energy consumption per wash in household washing machine (3 kg clothes) at
low temperature (30C) is less than 1 % of the energy used at a higher
temperature (60C) (Edvardetal, 1991). .
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Cellulases
These enzymes introduced in the late 1980s were described for the first time in
a Japanese patent filed by Murata. These enzymes are used in UK and US since
1991. Cellulases remove microfibrils from cotton and cotton-blended fabrics.
These microfibrils stick out from the main fibre of cotton and are formed during
use and repeated washing condition of the tissue. This makes garments and
household textiles unusable. The cellulases can be used as softening agents, to
remove soil particles and to revive colours. .
.
The overall cellulose structure has two types of region; one that has a higher
order of crystallinity is called crystalline region. The other type has less
structured order, and hence is called as amorphous regions. The activating but
not hydrolytically acting enzyme was named as C i-activity. According to this
concept, microorganisms that are able to degrade crystalline cellulose have C i-
activity. This enzyme is not present in that microorganism that attack only
substituted cellulose like carboxymethyl cellulose as they have Cx-activity.
It was observed that sebum in the interior of cotton fibres cannot be removed by
ordinary detergents satisfactorily, although they readily remove sebum on the
exterior of the fibres. Alkaline cellulase interacts selectively with cellulose in
interfiber spaces in the interior of fibre, and selectively removes the sebum soil.
The removal of the soil is by the hydrolysis of amorphous regions (Murata et al,
1991).
Currently, the cellulases used in detergents are manufactured from bacteria and
fungi. Bacterial cellulases have been in use since 1987, for example, Biotex.
Some genetically engineered strains, which are widely used include
Streptomyces sp. KSM-2, Bacillus KSM-635. The fungal cellulase from
Humicola isolens DSM1800 is active under mild alkaline conditions.
Peroxidases:
These are one of the newest classes of enzymes that have been included in
detergent formulations. Peroxidases are subclass of general oxidoreductases and
are very popular and commercially available for manufacturing detergents.
Novo Nordisk produces this under the brand name Guardzyme obtained from
mushroom Corprinus cinereus. It is a heme containing protein, which in the
presence of H2O2 can mediate the oxidation of fugitive dyes in solution and
inhibits the dye transfer.
Pullulanases:
Enzyme formulations .
Enzymes are formulated mainly in two forms, as a liquid product or as a
granular product .
i. Enzyme pulling: :
The enzyme (dry) is dispersed into a molten wax, non-ionic surfactant,
or polymer matrix, and then sprayed in a cooling tower to form solid,
spherical, molten water-soluble or water dispersible material with a
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melting point above 50C. This technique offers the advantages of high
throughput and ability to recycle particles that fall outside the desired
size range but has a drawback i.e., the particle has relatively poor
physical strength, leading to break- up and high dust generation in
subsequent processing. Polyethylene glycols can be used to improve
physical strength and thus lesser dust formation, but as particle break-
up cannot be completely ruled out, it is not used widely at present.
Enzyme stabilization
Most early enzyme products such as detergent proteases were just powders.
Almost all of them were granulated and further protected by coatings. Another
method to prevent enzyme dust in the air is liquid formulations. Today a lot of
research work is being done in the different formulations and stabilization
techniques in many enzyme detergent production facilities.
The enzymes used in various detergent formulations are subject to proteolytic
and autolytic degradation on storage and sudden exposure to harsh operating
conditions results in rapid inactivation of enzyme activity. Loss of enzyme
activity is also encountered during storage in the factory, shipment to client(s)
and/or storage in client(s) facilities. Hence, storage stability is of prime concern
to enzyme manufactures. The rate of enzyme inactivation is largely dependent
on temperature, pH and other detergent components such as surface active
agents, sequestrants and bleaching agents. Moreover, the higher the temperature
and alkalinity, the less stable is the enzyme.
The loss of the enzyme activity is mainly due to the partial unfolding of the
polypeptide chain, since the inactivating agent breaks down the delicate balance
of noncovalent bonds which maintain the native conformation. The ideal
approach to stabilize the enzyme would be to identify the mechanism of
inactivation and then design a procedure which would prevent that mechanism.
In order to protect the enzyme against denaturation, addition of stabilizers like
calcium salts, sodium formate, borate, polyhydric alcohols and protein
preparations have proved successful. To prevent contamination of the final
commercial crude preparation during storage, addition of sodium chloride at
18–20% concentration has been suggested. These processes maintain the
enzyme activity and improve storage stability. In certain cases, for the purpose
of convenience in handling and storage, liquid enzyme preparations
are often brought to powder form by vacuum or air drying which are milder and
less expensive than lyophilization.
The stabilization of enzymes has also been made possible through use of protein
engineering to design tailor-made enzymes with specific enzyme properties and
stability and this technique is leading new insights into the process of
biocatalysis. Protein engineering is rapidly emerging today as a new science and
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breakdown of very few peptide bonds which can be easily removed during the
washing process. Presently, use of dual enzymes in detergent formulations is
practised, wherein the enzymatic hydrolysis and degradation can be broadened
considerably in comparison to a single enzyme approach.
Recently, workers of the Genencor International Inc., USA have developed
enzymes called endoglycosidases which deglycosylate biopolymers like
glycoproteins which are widely distributed in living organisms. They employed
rDNA technology to develop Endo-b -N-acetyl glucosaminidase H (Endo H) as
a cleaning agent. Endo H has a unique property to remove bacteria
(Staphylococci and E. coli) from glass and cloth surfaces in buffer and detergent
solutions.
At present, most of the advanced countries like Japan, United States and some
European countries almost invariably use the detergents incorporated with
enzymes. Interestingly, in Japan, all detergent brands contain enzymes. In India,
a few premium detergent brands presently available in the market like Ariel
(Procter and Gamble (India) Ltd.), Surf Ultra, Rin Biolites, Revel Plus
(Hindustan Lever Ltd.) and Zymo (Henkel) contain enzymes in their
formulations. Recently, Procter and Gamble (P&G) has introduced a new
cellulase enzyme in the detergent powder, Ariel, presently marketed in India,
that eliminates the fuzz formed during washing and tumble-drying, particularly
of the cotton fabrics. The manufacturers claim that use of this product retains
the colour and improves the texture of the fabric on repeated washings.
In dishwashing
Enzymes have been successfully used in laundry detergents for many years as
an aid to remove tough stains. However, the interest in using enzymes in
automatic dishwashing detergents (ADDs) has increased recently. Both laundry
and dishwashing detergents share similar functions such as removal of stains
from egg, milk and starch-based soilings, etc. The performance of the enzymes
in the ADDs is strongly influenced by the ADD formulation and the conditions
of the automatic dishwashing. At present, proteases and amylases are the only
two enzymes which have found major application in dishwashing detergents. In
particular, enzyme-based dishwashing detergents are less abrasive in function
and thus are suitable for use on delicate chinaware; they prevent the erosion of
designs and colours. This application was first exploited in Japan where the use
of richly decorated chinaware and wooden kitchen utensils is widespread.
Enzymatic ADDs have gained widespread usage since the last decade. In the
past 2–3 years, ADDs with enzymes were launched in several European
countries, viz. Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and the United
Kingdom. In Japan, all major ADD brands contain enzymes, whereas only one
brand in the US market currently contains enzymes. However, at present, there
are no enzymatic dishwashing detergents available in India.
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Other uses
The application of enzyme-cleaners in the optical industry is important,
enabling one to give 100% safe and efficient cleaning to lenses. In India,
presently one such enzyme-based optical cleaner in the form of tablets
containing Subtilopeptidase A is being marketed by M/s Bausch and Lomb
(India) Ltd. Enzyme detergents have also found application in hospitals.
Promod 153L, a protease enzyme-based cleaner, has been used to clean surgical
instruments fouled by blood proteins.
Benefits of enzymes
The past decades with a growing number of enzyme applications in consumer
detergents have led to major improvements in terms of benefits for consumers.
Weight-efficiency
Because enzymes act as catalysts (which can be used repeatedly to speed up
chemical reactions without themselves being depleted) they are very weight
efficient and cost effective. In other words, they can potentially replace a larger
usage of conventional chemicals in the detergent. From an eco-toxicological
viewpoint, enzymes can be considered as highly optimized laundry products
ingredients which contribute positively to the overall environmental profile of
detergents.
Other
Technical and consumer research has demonstrated that the formulation of P&G
detergents with enzyme has led to significant consumer benefits in terms of
performance. The benefits of enzymes are related to both the laundry process
and the wash results, and include the abilities to:
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Soften fabrics;
Conclusions
Thus to conclude, cleaning forms an important aspect for the maintenance of
hygiene and safety of foods in the food processing industry. Improperly cleaned
food-contact surfaces lead to the accumulation of food particulates which favour
the formation of biofilms, i.e. attachment of microorganisms. These cause post
contamination and spoilage of foods. It is, therefore, necessary to understand the
interactions of the biotic and abiotic entities in the food-processing operations
and further effectively analyse the impacts of cleaning and sanitation from a
microbiological viewpoint. The use of enzyme-based detergents as biocleaners
can also serve as a viable option to overcome the biofilm problem in the food
industry.
Further, the technology and production of these enzymes and the enzyme-based
detergents is mostly patent-protected. As such most of the enzymes used in the
detergent industry in India are being imported. Even the large scale detergent
manufacture seems highly technical requiring specific know-how and
infrastructure. Work has been going on in the recent past in order to develop an
indigenous technology on different enzyme systems in certain well reputed
laboratories, viz. National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, National Chemical
Laboratory, Pune and Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh. Due to
their high efficiency and safety, it is assumed that the enzyme detergents will
eventually capture a bulk of the Indian detergent market.
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As in the other sectors of the chemical process industry, where enzymes are
increasingly playing a crucial role in making conventional processes more
environment-friendly, the detergents industry has also benefited from the
introduction of enzymes. The enzyme detergents are proving to be better than
the traditional detergents with respect to washing performance, but there are still
few constraints like the inability of the enzymes to withstand high alkalinity and
variable temperatures. However, these hurdles are likely to be overcome in the
near future with newer & better technologies, which would open up a wide
array of opportunities for the detergent enzymes industry.
Bibliography
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