Enzyme Engineering Potentials in Mitigating Global Warming and Climate Change Aspects

Have you ever wondered how we can combat global warming and reduce our carbon footprint? How efficient our actual approach is? Enzyme engineering may be the solution.

 It plays a significant role in a wide range of applications and can help solving one of the biggest challenges our world is facing today that is climate change and global warming. It helps reducing energy consumption, to produce green fuels, break down pollutants, converting CO2 into useful products and can also be used in biosensors to measure and detect environmental pollutants.

Enzyme engineering is the process of designing, modifying, or creating enzymes to improve their catalytic efficiency, specificity, stability, or to introduce new functions. It involves the application of various techniques such as protein engineering, directed evolution, rational design, and computational methods. Enzyme engineering plays a significant role in a wide range of applications, including industrial processes, environmental remediation, and healthcare.

Driven by the increasing global demand for sustainable technologies, the regulatory requirements to reduce emissions and the urgent need and struggles companies face to cut off their emissions, the market of enzymes engineering based solution is reaching serval hundred billions already, which represent a great opportunity to invest in developing and implementing  such solutions.

Some examples of enzyme engineering applications are:

• Industrial bio catalysis: Engineered enzymes are widely used in the pharmaceutical, chemical, and food industries to catalyse specific reactions, improve product yields, reduce the need for harsh chemicals, and lower energy consumption.
• Bioenergy production: Enzyme engineering can improve the efficiency of enzymes that break down biomass, such as cellulases and hemicelluloses, to produce biofuels from renewable sources like plant matter or agricultural waste.
• Environmental remediation: Engineered enzymes can be used to break down pollutants and contaminants in the environment, such as pesticides, plastics, and oil spills, thus aiding in bioremediation efforts.
• Biosensors: Enzymes engineered for increased sensitivity and specificity can be used in biosensors to detect various analytes, such as glucose, lactate, or environmental pollutants.
• CO2 utilization: Engineering enzymes, such as carbonic anhydrase and format dehydrogenase, can help in converting CO2 into useful products like chemicals, fuels, or building materials, thereby reducing CO2 emissions and mitigating climate change.

Image courtesy of Amal Mabrouki

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