A simple and eco-friendly method of gelatin production from bone: One-step biocatalysis

摘要

Conventional gelatin production based on liming is time-consuming and leads to significant land pollution and wastewater. Thus, an efficient and ecologically compatible method of gelatin production from bone has to be developed. In this study, a novel one-step enzymatic method was proposed, and the new method showed excellent results, with time reduction for ossein hydrolysis from 3-8 weeks to 3 h and without the need for liming and deliming, thereby reducing alkali usage substantially and saving nearly 60% water. In addition, 4 steps with low yield involved in conventional gelatin extraction were replaced by 1 step with relatively high yield in the new method. The gelatin obtained from the one-step enzymatic method possesses similar physicochemical properties except for the isoelectric point. Moreover, environmental assessment and financial analysis demonstrated the environmental benefit and economically feasible of the enzymatic method, suggesting the potential of one-step biocatalysis as alternative route to sustainable development for bone gelatin industry. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.