Lyophilization or freeze-drying of enzymes is one of the strategies we are using in the Revoluzion project to develop enzymatic additives that can be included during the industrial production of different bioplastic formulations, withstanding extreme processing conditions. This technique consists of freezing and dehydrating enzymes under vacuum conditions, obtaining them in a solid form, preserving their catalytic properties and avoiding denaturation, hydrolysis or aggregates formation. Therefore, this procedure allows increasing the shelf life of the enzymes and their long-term storage.
Moreover, different additives or cryoprotectants, both hydrophilic and hydrophobic, can be employed to minimize the possible damage on enzymatic properties due to the freezing process. However, the presence of these compounds may have a negative impact on catalytic activity once enzyme is rehydrated, so it is necessary to optimize the lyophilization process conditions carefully for each enzyme.
Thereby, in the Revoluzion project we will obtain lyophilized enzymatic additives with great stability and similar catalytic properties to those enzymes in solution.