A strategy for eliminating or greatly reducing the need for physical/chemical treatments or the use of whole microbes for lignocellulosic biomass and organopollutant degradation is disclosed. The soybean is a practical, cost-efficient and sustainable bioreactor for the production of lignin-degrading and cellulose-degrading enzymes. The use of soybean as a transgenic overexpression platform provides advantages that no other industrial scale enzyme expression system can match. Availability of a battery of related plant biomass degrading enzymes in separate transgenic soybean lines provides unprecedented flexibility in industrial and bioremediation processes. Depending upon the particular application, selected soybean-derived powdered enzyme formulations can be used, and their sequential addition can be orchestrated. Manufacturing enzymes using transgenic soybeans wherein these enzymes are capable of lignocellulose and organopollutant degradation into useful or nontoxic products will dramatically change biomass engineering schemes and environmental remediation practices. This technology has a sum of advantages that other protein expression system cannot duplicate, including the manufacturing of individual enzymes in a cost-effective manner that allows flexibility in cocktail composition, ease of application, and long term storage in the absence of a cold chain.

The present invention relates to transgenic microalgae for the production of cell wall degradative enzymes having a heat-stable cellulolytic activity (HCWDEs) and their relative uses in the biodegradation of cellulose or lignocellulose sources in the industrial field.

Embodiments of the invention are generally directed to lignin-modifying enzymes and systems and methods of their manufacture. In many embodiments, the lignin-modifying enzymes are lignin-degrading enzymes capable of breaking down lignin into component parts that are usable for other purposes. Several embodiments are directed to systems for producing lignin-modifying enzymes in vivo, including in yeast and/or plant species, and certain embodiments are directed to methods of creating these systems, including transfecting the species to produce lignin-modifying enzymes.

An enzyme formulation includes an encapsulated fungal enzyme which is effective for degrading at least one material selected from the group consisting of hydrocarbons, vulcanized rubber, synthetic rubber, natural rubber, vulcanized polymers and perfluorinated compounds. A degradation method includes treating one of the above-mentioned materials with an encapsulated fungal enzyme to degrade the material.

An enzyme formulation includes an encapsulated fungal enzyme which is effective for degrading at least one material selected from the group consisting of hydrocarbons, vulcanized rubber, synthetic rubber, natural rubber, vulcanized polymers and perfluorinated compounds. A degradation method includes treating one of the above-mentioned materials with an encapsulated fungal enzyme to degrade the material.

Embodiments of the invention are generally directed to lignin-modifying enzymes and systems and methods of their manufacture. In many embodiments, the lignin-modifying enzymes are lignin-degrading enzymes capable of breaking down lignin into component parts that are usable for other purposes. Several embodiments are directed to systems for producing lignin-modifying enzymes in vivo, including in yeast and/or plant species, and certain embodiments are directed to methods of creating these systems, including transfecting the species to produce lignin-modifying enzymes.

A lignocellulolytic multi-enzyme complex in the form of a cellulosome, which includes a lignin-modifying enzyme and a carbohydrate-active enzyme, is provided herewith, as well as bifunctional chimeric enzymes having lignin and cellulose/hemicellulose degrading capacity. Also provided are methods of degrading lignocellulolytic biomass, and compositions and systems for effecting the same.

A composition comprising mesoporous aggregates of magnetic nanoparticles and free-radical producing enzyme (i.e., enzyme-bound mesoporous aggregates), wherein the mesoporous aggregates of magnetic nanoparticles have mesopores in which the free-radical-producing enzyme is embedded. Methods for synthesizing the enzyme-bound mesoporous aggregates are also described. Processes that use said enzyme-bound mesoporous aggregates for depolymerizing lignin, removing aromatic contaminants from water, and polymerizing monomers polymerizable by a free-radical reaction are also described.

A composition comprising mesoporous aggregates of magnetic nanoparticles and free-radical producing enzyme (i.e., enzyme-bound mesoporous aggregates), wherein the mesoporous aggregates of magnetic nanoparticles have mesopores in which the free-radical-producing enzyme is embedded. Methods for synthesizing the enzyme-bound mesoporous aggregates are also described. Processes that use said enzyme-bound mesoporous aggregates for depolymerizing lignin, removing aromatic contaminants from water, and polymerizing monomers polymerizable by a free-radical reaction are also described.

The presently disclosed invention relates to an enzymatic pre-treatment method for efficient saccharification of lignocellulosic materials. The invention involves a process for releasing carbohydrates/sugars from processing the agricultural feedstock and pre-treating the processed feedstock with lignin modifying enzymes (LME) to produce the reaction mixture which is further used for releasing free carbohydrates/sugars. More particularly, it relates to the production of lignin modifying enzymes and efficient delignification of lignocellulosic materials by using lignin modifying enzymes to prepare ethanol or other bio-chemicals.