β-Glucosidases represent an important group of enzymes due to their pivotal role in various biotechnological processes. One of the most prominent is biomass degradation for the production of fuel ethanol from cellulosic agricultural residues and wastes, where the use of immobilized biocatalysts may prove advantageous. Within such scope, the present work aimed to evaluate the feasibility of entrapping β-glucosidase in either sol-gel or in Lentikats supports for application in cellobiose hydrolysis, and to perform the characterization of the resulting bioconversion systems. The activity and stability of the immobilized biocatalyst over given ranges of temperature and pH values were assessed, as well as kinetic data, and compared to the free form, and the operational stability was evaluated. Immobilization increased the thermal stability of the enzyme, with a 10 °C shift to an optimal temperature in the case of sol-gel support. Mass transfer hindrances as a result of immobilization were not significant, for sol-gel support. Lentikats-entrapped glucosidase was used in 19 consecutive batch runs for cellobiose hydrolysis, without noticeable decrease in product yield. Moreover, encouraging results were obtained for continuous operation. In the overall, the feasibility of using immobilized biocatalysts for cellobiose hydrolysis was established.

Isomaltulose is a noncariogenic reducing disaccharide and also a structural isomer of sucrose and is used by the food industry as a sucrose replacement. It is obtained through enzymatic conversion of microbial sucrose isomerase. An Erwinia sp. D12 strain is capable of converting sucrose into isomaltulose. The experimental design technique was used to study the influence of immobilization parameters on converting sucrose into isomaltulose in a batch process using shaken Erlenmeyer flasks. We assessed the effect of gelatin and transglutaminase addition on increasing the reticulation of granules of Erwinia sp. D12 cells immobilized in alginate. Independent parameters, sodium alginate concentration, cell mass concentration, CaCl2 concentration, gelatin concentration, and transglutaminase concentration had all a significant effect (P < 0.05) on isomaltulose production. Erwinia sp. D12 cells immobilized in 3.0% (w/v) sodium alginate, 47.0% (w/v) cell mass, 0.3 molL−1 CaCl2, 1.7% (w/v) gelatin and 0.15% (w/v) transglutaminase presented sucrose conversion into isomaltulose, of around 50–60% in seven consecutive batches.

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