Enzymatic hydrolysis of plant raw materials: state and prospects

Plant raw materials are practically an inexhaustible natural resource, since they are constantly renewed in the process of plant photosynthesis, which determines the prospects for their use for industrial processing in various ways, including hydrolytic. The main biopolymer components of plant biomass in terms of their quantitative content are polysaccharides, the hydrolytic processing of which by acidic or enzymatic hydrolysis leads to the formation of monosaccharides and various products obtained from them. This review of scientific literature analyzes theoretical concepts and the current state of research on the development, improvement and prospects for the use of enzymatic hydrolysis of plant raw materials. The efficiency of this process and the composition of the resulting products largely depend on the features of the supramolecular structure of cellulose, the content of hemicelluloses and lignin in the raw material, the balance and activity of the cellulase complex of enzymes. It is shown that the main directions of development and improvement of the processes of enzymatic hydrolysis of plant raw materials at present are the production and use of more effective strains of microorganisms that produce highly active enzymes, the directed creation of complex enzymes (hydrolyzing not only cellulose, but also hemicellulose, as well as destroying lignin), the development of methods for pretreatment of raw materials to increase the reactivity of cellulose and remove lignin and improve the processes of fermentolysis.