**8. Cellulase market demand**

Demand for industrial enzymes in developed countries such as the US, Western Europe, Japan and Canada was relatively stable during the recent times while in developing economies of Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Africa and Middle East regions, demand is increasing day by day [147]. Currently, by dollar volume cellulases are the third largest industrial enzyme globally, because of their extensive applications in animal feed additives, as detergent enzymes, cotton processing, juice extraction and paper recycling. However, cellulases may become the largest quantity industrial enzyme, if ethanol produced from lignocellulosic biomass through these enzymes becomes the major transportation fuel [112, 148]. They contribute to 8% of the worldwide industrial enzyme demand [149]. The international market for biofuel enzymes is expected to reach \$9.0 billion by 2017 [150]. Global demand for industrial enzyme's projected to grow 4.0% per year to \$5.0 billion in 2021. Key players in the global cellulose market are Amano enzyme U.S.A, Worthington Biochemical Corporation, MP Biomedical LLC, Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC, Prozmix LLC, Creative Enzymes, bio-WORLD, Amano


#### **Table 4.**

*Suppliers and sources of enzyme samples [122].*

Enzyme Inc., Zhongbei Bio-Chem Industry Co., Ltd., Hunan Hong Ying Biotech Co., Ltd., Genencor and Novozyme are major producers they are known worldwide for cellulase production. All above companies played a noteworthy role for reducing production cost of cellulase several folds by their active research and are still continuing to bring down the cost by assuming novel technologies [112]. A few suppliers and source of enzyme samples are list below (**Table 4**). North America accounted for largest market share in global cellulose production in 2017. Production is depended on the increasing production of biofuel. According to a report by United States Energy information Administration in July 2018, the production of biofuel has increased in the U.S. from 1891 trillion butane to 2332 trillion, increasing at a CAGR of 5.4 during 2013 to 2017.

### **9. Future prospects**

The demand for cellulases is increasing day by day due to its volatile and the rise in oil prices which induced a shift in interest towards the application of cellulases in producing biofuel using lignocellulosic biomass [151]. Enhancing the cellulase activity and reducing the cost of production of enzyme are two key issues regarding the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulosic biomass. Genetic techniques can be used to clone the cellulase coding sequences into bacteria, yeasts, fungi, plants and animals to create new cellulase producing systems with improved production and activity of enzyme [152]. One of the major drawbacks of SSF is the low thermal conductivity of the solid medium used in SSF which restricts the removal of excess heat generated by microbial metabolism. The elevated temperature in bioreactors may lead

**75**

**Acknowledgements**

*Overview of the Process of Enzymatic Transformation of Biomass*

to denaturation of thermo labile proteins [153]. Thus the thermo stable, modified fungal and bacterial strains are also good future prospects for cellulase production [62]. Interchangeably more advanced strategy is to engineer microbes for producing all major enzymes involved in cellulose hydrolysis in optimum ratio which may decrease the expenditure greatly [154]. Although the cellulase enzyme cost has dropped due to improvements in expression vectors and on-site production still there is a necessity of engineering a new generation cellulase cocktails that would further reduce cellulase cost. Efforts have to be made via hunting both diversity rich environments and extremophilic niches for identification of novel cellulase producers [150]. It can be made possible through following four approaches:

i.Mining novel cellulase genes via culturable/nonculturable strategies.

iii.Designing novel cellulases through protein and metabolic engineering by understanding molecular mechanism and mode of interaction of cellulases

iv.Using mathematical, biophysical and enzymological approaches for cellulase production through consolidated bioprocessing in a cost-effective

Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant biomass on the earth. They are the potential source of biofuels, and other useful chemicals. But one of the most severe hindrances in this process is the structure of biomass itself. This problem can be resolved up to a greater extent by various types of pretreatments and enzymatic

Consolidated bioprocessing includes cellulose production, hydrolysis of cellulose and fermentation of Pentose and Hexose sugars in a single step which will reduce production cost and increase production/conversion efficiency as compared to the processes performing dedicated cellulase production. A good pretreatment should result in increased cellulose content and decreased hemicelluloses/lignin content of biomass. Another problem is the yield and efficiency of enzyme. Yield of enzyme can be increased by optimization of different parameters involved in enzyme production using one variable or statistical approach (RSM). Alternatively novel proteins with enhanced production can be synthesized by protein and metabolic engineering. Enzyme engineering must be focused

on (1) to increase cellulase specific activity on pretreated biomass through enzyme cocktail (2) to increase cellulase stability for cellulase recycling, and (3) to reduce enzyme production costs. Consolidated bioprocessing microorganisms or consortium would simplify the whole process and increase productivity. The above three approaches would be integrated together for maximizing the process for lignocellulosic biomass management/conversion in to value added products.

Authors acknowledge CSIR, UGC, DST and HSCST for financial support in the

form of fellowship and major research project (DST/INT/UKR/P-14/2015).

hydrolysis, engineered cellulases and by consolidated bioprocessing.

ii.Improving production technologies by using novel bioreactors.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85036*

with substrates.

manner.

**10. Conclusion**

*Overview of the Process of Enzymatic Transformation of Biomass DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85036*

to denaturation of thermo labile proteins [153]. Thus the thermo stable, modified fungal and bacterial strains are also good future prospects for cellulase production [62]. Interchangeably more advanced strategy is to engineer microbes for producing all major enzymes involved in cellulose hydrolysis in optimum ratio which may decrease the expenditure greatly [154]. Although the cellulase enzyme cost has dropped due to improvements in expression vectors and on-site production still there is a necessity of engineering a new generation cellulase cocktails that would further reduce cellulase cost. Efforts have to be made via hunting both diversity rich environments and extremophilic niches for identification of novel cellulase producers [150]. It can be made possible through following four approaches:

