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Mechanistic Model Development for a Multi-Enzyme Protein Hydrolysis Process

Nilsson, Tito LU (2023) KETM05 20231
Chemical Engineering (M.Sc.Eng.)
Abstract
New food products are constantly put on the market. Today the focus often lies in creating
nutritional and sustainable products to reduce the environmental impact of the product in
question. One example of this is the approval of the yellow mealworm, Tenebrio Molitor, as a
novel food in the European union. To efficiently include the protein fraction of the yellow
mealworm into food formulations, knowledge of the techno-functional properties of the protein
is crucial. The techno-functional properties of the protein have further been demonstrated to be
manipulable by partial enzymatic hydrolysis. This thesis aimed to develop a mechanistic
mathematical model that describes the change in the molecular weight distribution of the
protein... (More)
New food products are constantly put on the market. Today the focus often lies in creating
nutritional and sustainable products to reduce the environmental impact of the product in
question. One example of this is the approval of the yellow mealworm, Tenebrio Molitor, as a
novel food in the European union. To efficiently include the protein fraction of the yellow
mealworm into food formulations, knowledge of the techno-functional properties of the protein
is crucial. The techno-functional properties of the protein have further been demonstrated to be
manipulable by partial enzymatic hydrolysis. This thesis aimed to develop a mechanistic
mathematical model that describes the change in the molecular weight distribution of the
protein due to multi-enzymatic hydrolysis. Which could later be used to tailor the techno-
functional properties. The developed model showed good result in being able to capture the
expected multi-enzyme systems behavior, but it was necessary to introduce empirical
adjustment factors to calibrate the model adequately with literature data. Synthetic data was
created to examine the potential of accurately estimating the model parameters and to examine
the temperature and pH dependence of the system through response surface methodology.
Estimation of the parameters with the synthetic data revealed that the optimization procedure
is likely to be sensitive to converge in local minimums. Correlation matrices also revealed a
high interdependence among the parameters, making the task of finding a unique optimal
calibration difficult. The empirical model used in the response surface method showed potential
to capture the expected temperature and pH dependencies of the model, if given correct
estimations. (Less)
Popular Abstract (Swedish)
Fler och fler livsmedelsprodukter dyker upp på marknaden som marknadsförs som
miljövänliga, jämfört med liknande alternativ. På senaste tiden har forskning om insekter som
livsmedel fått ett lyft, även om få produkter finns tillgängliga för konsumenter än.
Mjölbaggen, Tenebrio Molitor, är en insekt som nyligen blev godkänt livsmedel i Europeiska
unionen. Proteinet i mjölbaggar anses näringsrikt och kan vara ett hälsosamt tillägg i
livsmedelsprodukter. Samtidigt som det är mer miljövänligt än många andra proteinkällor.
Proteiner är långa kedjor av molekyler som kallas aminosyror. Kedjornas längd kan variera
drastisk, från enstaka syror till flera hundra, eller fler. När protein extraheras från källan
kommer extraktionen innehålla en... (More)
Fler och fler livsmedelsprodukter dyker upp på marknaden som marknadsförs som
miljövänliga, jämfört med liknande alternativ. På senaste tiden har forskning om insekter som
livsmedel fått ett lyft, även om få produkter finns tillgängliga för konsumenter än.
Mjölbaggen, Tenebrio Molitor, är en insekt som nyligen blev godkänt livsmedel i Europeiska
unionen. Proteinet i mjölbaggar anses näringsrikt och kan vara ett hälsosamt tillägg i
livsmedelsprodukter. Samtidigt som det är mer miljövänligt än många andra proteinkällor.
Proteiner är långa kedjor av molekyler som kallas aminosyror. Kedjornas längd kan variera
drastisk, från enstaka syror till flera hundra, eller fler. När protein extraheras från källan
kommer extraktionen innehålla en blandning av alla möjliga kedjelängder. Förhållandet
mellan andelarna av olika längder har stor påverkan på smak och konsistens när det
inkluderas i livsmedel. Påverkan som protein har kan justeras genom att dela upp
proteinkedjorna till kortare kedjor med hjälp av enzymer. Denna process kallas hydrolys.
Den här tesen syftade till att skapa en modell som beskriver hydrolysen av protein med hjälp
av olika enzymer. En modell är, enkelt sagt, matematik som beskriver vad som hade hänt i ett
verkligt experiment. Modeller beskriver aldrig verkligheten exakt men om dem gör ett
tillräckligt bra jobb kan de ge bra uppskattningar. Detta kan i sin tur spara mycket tid och
resurser då färre verkliga experiment behöver utföras. Modellen som skapades visade god
potential att beskriva hydrolysprocessen och hur kedjelängderna varierar på grund av
enzymerna. Men samtidigt påvisades det att ta fram de exakta matematiska uttrycken i
modellen kan vara svårt, och vidare utveckling av modellen är nödvändigt. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Nilsson, Tito LU
supervisor
organization
course
KETM05 20231
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Mechanistic Model, Enzyme, Hydrolysis, Chemical Engineering
language
English
id
9128696
date added to LUP
2023-06-22 11:43:55
date last changed
2023-06-22 11:43:55
@misc{9128696,
  abstract     = {{New food products are constantly put on the market. Today the focus often lies in creating
nutritional and sustainable products to reduce the environmental impact of the product in
question. One example of this is the approval of the yellow mealworm, Tenebrio Molitor, as a
novel food in the European union. To efficiently include the protein fraction of the yellow
mealworm into food formulations, knowledge of the techno-functional properties of the protein
is crucial. The techno-functional properties of the protein have further been demonstrated to be
manipulable by partial enzymatic hydrolysis. This thesis aimed to develop a mechanistic
mathematical model that describes the change in the molecular weight distribution of the
protein due to multi-enzymatic hydrolysis. Which could later be used to tailor the techno-
functional properties. The developed model showed good result in being able to capture the
expected multi-enzyme systems behavior, but it was necessary to introduce empirical
adjustment factors to calibrate the model adequately with literature data. Synthetic data was
created to examine the potential of accurately estimating the model parameters and to examine
the temperature and pH dependence of the system through response surface methodology.
Estimation of the parameters with the synthetic data revealed that the optimization procedure
is likely to be sensitive to converge in local minimums. Correlation matrices also revealed a
high interdependence among the parameters, making the task of finding a unique optimal
calibration difficult. The empirical model used in the response surface method showed potential
to capture the expected temperature and pH dependencies of the model, if given correct
estimations.}},
  author       = {{Nilsson, Tito}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Mechanistic Model Development for a Multi-Enzyme Protein Hydrolysis Process}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}