Industrial enzyme applications are part of our everyday life since mankind discovered the benefits of transforming milk, grapes, and grains to durable, palatable, more tasteful products such as yoghurt, wine, beer, and bread. At that time, the microorganisms and enzymes that led to this transformation were used unconsciously. Since then, our knowledge about enzymes, and the development of technologies on how to adapt, produce, and apply them has improved dramatically, especially in the last few decades. This has led to a wide spectrum of enzyme applications that we come across in products from the food and drink, chemical, pharmaceutical, biorefinery, and the human and animal nutrition industry.

This book shall direct the perspective to a variety of enzyme types and their applications that are actually used in industrial processes. When we conceived this book, we asked the following questions: Which solutions can enzymes provide to address the needs of industries and consumers? Which enzymes provide which solutions, and why have these particular enzymes been chosen and are successfully competing with other solutions? What was the decisive advantage of the use of enzymes over the competitive process? What enzyme features were required and how were these obtained during enzyme development?

The book is written by experts from different industries who develop and apply enzymes in their teams to address various problems: from enabling “simple” cost reduction and process innovations for existing products (which often goes hand in hand with ecologic benefits) to product innovations, developing new products that provide additional value (e.g. sustainability, purity, nutritional) for consumers. We are very happy that we could attract authors from various industries that were willing to share insights into their work. Writing publications from an industrial position is often not the prime priority and is conflicted by company policies. Particularly for this reason, the contributions in this book provide unique and individual insights into industrial drivers and strategies for the implementation of enzymatic processes.

This textbook on Industrial Enzyme Application will serve as a reference guide for academic and industrial researchers and provides a unique, industrial perspective on the development and application of enzymes. It will help understand the industrial drivers in searching for and developing an enzymatic solution. We also hope the described examples inspire students and practitioners to develop new applications, providing our world with more sustainable solutions that enzymes are perfectly capable of providing.