The pollution of soil and water by industrial and house-hold products is a serious problem afflicting the modern world. Synthetic compounds are frequently occurring environmental contaminants because of their extensive use, found in numerous aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
The use of enzymatic technologies for removing these contaminants provides a safe and economic alternative to commonly used physical-chemical treatment
ChiralVision is actively designing, developing and testing various immobilization technologies to turn enzymes into usable catalyst that can neutralize contaminants in our environment.
Enzymatic decontamination technology for waste water ("Endetech")
Between 2012 and 2015 ChiralVision participated in the EU funded project called "ENDETECH" (ENzymatic Decontamination TECHnology). The objective of this project program was to develop a technology which aimed at eliminating persistent pharmaceutical pollutants in wastewaters originating from drug manufacturing sites, households, hospitals and animal farms, thanks to an innovative ENzymatic Decontamination TECHnology. The pharmaceutical pollutants targeted in priority during this project were antibiotics, hormones & endocrine disruptors and anti-cancer drugs.
ChiralVision (the Netherlands) has worked closely with 5 other partners originating from different countries: Da Volterra (France), c-LEcta and the Goethe Frankfurt University (Germany), the European Membrane Institute from the CNRS (France) and the Catalan Institute for Water Research (Spain).
The ENDETECH research project has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007-2013] under grant agreement n°282818.
Sustainable phosphorus recovery from agricultural residues ("Phosfarm")
ChiralVision partnered in the EU funded project called "Phosfarm" between 2013 and 2016. PhosFarm addressed the needs of an increasing market for economically and environmentally sustainable phosphorus (P) recovery from agricultural residues. The overall objective of the PhosFarm project was to develop a technology for the efficient recovery of phosphorus from agricultural residues, including a novel enzymatic process for the mineralisation of the organic phosphorus compounds into phosphates, which can be easily recovered by precipitation. In this way, the total phosphorus recovery was increased by 30 to 80%.
The research leading to results in this project receives funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n°605771
Larger scale API production processes tend to move from chemo to biocatalytic methods for reasons of cost effectiveness.
The food industry utilizes a variety of enzymes for processing of foods. For example immobilized lipases can act on a variety of substrates including natural oils, synthetic triglycerides and esters of fatty acids.
Enzymes can replace traditional chemicals or additives and help to save water and energy in a variety of production processes.
The market for industrial enzymes is to expand significantly with the cosmetics industry being one of the principle drivers.