Treatment of industrial waste using lipases

Due to their wide range of catalytic reactions in both aqueous and nonaqueous conditions, microbial lipases play an indisputable role among biocatalysts. In addition, lipases are favored over chemical catalysts because of their excellent specificity and stability, in many applications. The production of meat, dairy, fats and oils, surfactants, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals is just a few of the processes and industries that use microbial lipases, particularly bacterial and fungal lipases. Lipases may also be used to clean industrial wastes such as wastewater that contains a lot of lipids. Excessive lipids in wastewater result in major environmental issues such as blockage of sewer lines and the formation of greasy layers on the water's surface that block sunshine and oxygen from penetrating, negatively harming aquatic life. Existing physico-chemical treatment approaches for lipid-rich wastewater are expensive, unfriendly to the environment, and have problems with secondary contamination. Although it is yet understudied, microbial lipase-mediated bioremediation offers an appealing alternative strategy to deal with these challenges. As a result, this chapter tries to analyze, review, and identify any potential research gaps in the few studies that have been done on the use of lipases in industrial waste treatment. The chapter focuses primarily on the sources of lipids discharged in wastewater and related issues, existing methods for removing lipids, and the relevance of lipase-mediated treatment for lipid-containing wastewater, which provides a general overview of the management of lipid waste. The commercially available microbial lipases and the need for additional research and development for environmental use are also summarized in this chapter.