Industrial Production of L-Malic Acid by Immobilized Microbial Cells

Abstract

Recently, industrial applications of immobilized microbial cells as well as immobilized enzymes have been undergoing development. In 1969, we succeeded in industrializing a process for continuous optical resolution of DL-amino acid using immobilized aminoacylase, which was prepared by ionic binding of mold aminoacylase to DEAE-Sephadex (1). By using this immobilized enzyme system the costs for producing optically active amino acids such as L-methionine, L-phenylalanine, L-tryptophan and L-valine were significantly reduced. This is reputed to be the first industrial application of immobilized enzymes in the world.