Holistic Evaluation of Enzyme Immobilization Processes: A Method for Evaluating the Entire Production Process

Abstract

Enzyme immobilization plays a fundamental role in improving the industrial application of enzyme catalysis, as it greatly influences catalyst stability, reusability, and process control. However, due to the complexity of enzyme production and the variety of different immobilization strategies, research often focuses on isolated parts of the overall process, making an overall comparison of different production and immobilization strategies difficult. This study aims to present a structured, comprehensive method for the evaluation and comparison of immobilized enzyme processes. We identified 7 distinct process phases, each described by key performance indicators (KPIs), and showcase the evaluation in two case studies. In order to gain a complete insight, we then defined and calculated the meta KPIs “recovered activity efficiency”, “space time activity”, “total volumetric turnovers”, and “total process productivity” by assessing the formally calculated KPIs for an efficiency-based evaluation approach. We also utilized the E Factor analysis as a sustainability-based evaluation approach to estimate environmental impacts. We showed that only a holistic view of all phases, by comparison of meta KPIs, allows for accurate comparison of the processes. Additionally, the structured evaluation can be used as a tool for the identification of weak points in each process to elucidate paths for improvement.