This reference book originates from the interdisciplinary research cooperation between academia and industry. In three distinct parts, latest results from basic research on stable enzymes are explained and brought into context with possible industrial applications. Downstream processing technology as well as biocatalytic and biotechnological production processes from global players display the enormous potential of biocatalysts. Application of 'extreme' reaction conditions (i.e. unconventional, such as high temperature, pressure, and pH value) - biocatalysts are normally used within a well defined process window - leads to novel synthetic effects. Both novel enzyme systems and the synthetic routes in which they can be applied are made accessible to the reader. In addition, the complementary innovative process technology under unconventional conditions is highlighted by latest examples from biotech industry.

Andreas Liese is Professor for Technical Biocatalysis at the Hamburg University of Technology. He studied chemistry at the University of Bonn, Germany and carried out his doctoral research at the Research Center Jülich, Germany. From 1998 to 2003 he was assistant professor at the University of Bonn and at the same time head of the Enzyme Group within the Institute of Biotechnology II (Prof. Dr. C. Wandrey), Research Center Jülich. During a sabbatical in 2000 at Pfizer Global Research & Development, San Diego, USA, he there initiated a R&D group on biocatalysis. From 2003 to 2004 he worked as associate professor at the University of Münster, soon receiving a full professorship for Technical Biocatalysis 2004 at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) as the director of the Institute of Technical Biocatalysis. In 2003 Liese received the Award of Up-and-Coming Teacher in Higher Education in the field of biotechnology (DECHEMA, Germany). He is elected member of the steering committee 'Biotechnology' of the DECHEMA e.V. since 2005 and elected member of the steering committee of the German Catalysis Society since 2009

Dr. Lutz Hilterhaus is Junior Group Leader at the Institute of Technical Biocatalysis at the TUHH in Hamburg, Germany. He carried out his studies of chemistry at the University Münster before moving to Hamburg. Having obtained his PhD from TUHH in the working group of Prof. Liese in 2008, he spent one year with Prof. Bornscheuer at the University Greifswald before taking up the possibility to start his habilitation at TUHH. Dr. Hilterhaus has authored over 30 scientific publications and has received the 'Karl-Heinz-Ditze Preis für besondere Leistungen in den Ingenieurwissenschaften' in 2008.

Dr. Ulrich Kettling is Head of R&D at the Clariant Biotech & Renewables Center, München. Before he worked at Süd-Chemie AG until Süd-Chemie was acquired by Clariant in 2011. Before joining Süd-Chemie, he was co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Direvo Biotech AG, Köln. Dr. Kettling graduated in Biotechnology at the Technical University Braunschweig and obtained his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen.

Garabed Antranikian is Professor at the Hamburg University of Technology, where he is head of the Institute of Technical Microbiology. He studied Biology at the American University in Beirut. At the University of Göttingen he completed his PhD in Microbiology in 1980 in the laboratory of Professor Gerhard Gottschalk and qualified as a post-doctoral lecturer (Habilitation) in 1988. In 1989 he was appointed to a professorship in Microbiology at the Hamburg University of Technology. He was president of the International Society for Extremophiles and is chief editor of the scientific journal Extremophiles. In 2004 he was awarded the most prestigious prize for environment protection by the president of the Federal Republic of Germany. Since 2007 he is the coordinator of the 'Biocatalysis2021' Cluster and the 'Biorefinery2021' Cluster of the Ministry of Education and Research and he is chairman of IBN Industrial Biotechnology North. He is member of the Academy of Sciences of Hamburg and member of the Union of the German Academies of Sciences (acatech). He was vice president for academic affairs from 2009 to 2011 before he became president of Hamburg University of Technology in April 2011.