NSF Award
8960528
Marine biomass from seaweeds offers especially important commercial components for the food, pharmaceutical, and biotech industries. Components of marine biomass now finding commercial markets are alginates, agars, and carrageenans, all polysaccharides, i.e., polymeric carbohydrates or hydrocolloids. Unique to marine polysaccharides is the degree of sulfation; lower sulfate contents are generally considered high-value specialty items. In Phase I it is proposed to experimentally investigate the potential for identified sulfatase enzymes to cleave the sulfate groups on selected seaweed-derived polysaccharides with the objective of increasing their commercial value. To this end of a reduction in ester sulfation via sulfatase enzymes, comprehensive input/output assays will be performed, as well as an evaluation of rheological properties to identify improvements in gelling. In Phase II continuous flow process systems will be investigated using immobilized sulfatase enzymes with the objective of documenting and verifying percent conversions and reaction kinetics.
