Biocatalysts Builds Specialty Enzyme Factory

Biocatalysts Ltd. (Bensenville, IL) is building what it says is a unique production plant for specialty intracellular enzymes. The new plant improves efficiency of production for an otherwise costly and troublesome process.

The company says that while today’s enzymes can be easy to produce in large batches, its specialty enzymes undergo a cell breaker process that releases the enzyme from its sludge after fermentation. While producing these enzymes is possible in small-scale operations, large-scale operations have traditionally been viewed as quite challenging, if not impossible. Now, Biocatalysts says its new plant can produce batches of up to hundreds of kilograms of high-activity, freeze-dried enzymes.

“In the past, customers would go to a contract research company for enzyme development and then look for a contract manufacturing company to make the enzyme,” says Stuart West, Biocatalysts managing director. “Having all this under one roof enables us to develop novel enzymes very rapidly and cost-effectively.”