New Cellulases from Cow Rumen

Reference Number TO 02-00107

The Challenge
A large variety of products derived from plant materials - for example cotton-containing textiles, paper, starch or also fruit and vegetable juice - contain residues of cellulose or related fibres. An elegant way to minimize the fibre content is the bioconversion of cellulose to soluble sugars and glucose catalysed by the group of microbial produced cellulases. Especially endo-1,4-ß-glucanases ensure the increase of product quality during the production process. The major obstacles limiting the application of these enzymes are a low catalytic activity under process conditions, low thermostability and high manufacturing costs. But the tremendous commercial potential of cellulases in a variety of applications remains the driving force for research in this area.

The Technology

We offer a variety of new endo-1,4-ß-glucanases isolated from cow rumen to over-come the disadvantages of the up to now com-monly used enzymes. This offered heterogeneous set of new cellulases shows ad-vantageous pH- and temperature optima, high stability and interesting substrate spectra and is therefore applicable to a broad range of in-dustrial applications.

Commercial Opportunity
Cellulases have a wide range of industrial applications. The main applications are in textile, paper and pulp, food and animal feed, fuel and chemical industry. Additionally they can be used in waste management, pharmaceutical industry, protoplast production, genetic engineering and pollution treatment. The global market has a volume of more than 2 Bn. Euro and is constantly growing with a rate of 5-10% per year.
As the offered enzymes have several advantages compared to commonly used cellulases they commercially have a great potential.

Advantages are:
- favourable pH-optimum
- high stability at higher temperatures
- high specific activity
- resistance against detergents
- easy production by fermentation
- low costs of production
- increased product quality

Patent situation
Pending national/regional applications in EP, US, AU, NZ (WO06003175).