This tutorial review focuses on recent advances in technologies for enzyme immobilisation, enabling their cost-effective use in the bio-based economy and continuous processing in general.

Enzymes are excellent catalysts that are increasingly being used in industry and academia. This Perspective provides a general and practical guide to enzymes and their synthetic potential, primarily aimed at synthetic organic chemists.

Biocatalysts have been supercharged through genetic and chemical modifications, expanding their capabilities.

In the movement to decarbonize our economy and move away from fossil fuels we will need to harness the waste products of our activities, such as waste lignocellulose, methane, and carbon dioxide. Our wastes need to be integrated into a circular economy where used products are recycled into a manufacturing carbon cycle. Key to this will be the recycling of plastics at the resin and monomer levels. Biotechnology is well suited to a future chemical industry that must adapt to widely distributed and diverse biological chemical feedstocks. Our increasing mastery of biotechnology is allowing us to develop enzymes and organisms that can synthesize a widening selection of desirable bulk chemicals, including plastics, at commercially viable productivities. Integration of bioreactors with electrochemical systems will permit new production opportunities with enhanced productivities and the advantage of using a low‐carbon electricity from renewable and sustainable sources.