An economical method for production of S-phenyl-L-cysteine from keratin acid hydrolysis wastewater (KHW) containing L-serine was developed by recombinant tryptophan synthase. This study provides us with an alternative KHW utilization strategy to synthesize S-phenyl-L-cysteine. Tryptophan synthase could efficiently convert L-serine contained in KHW to S-phenyl-L-cysteine at pH 9.0, 40 degrees C and Trion X-100 of 0.02%. In a scale up study, L-serine conversion rate reach 97.1% with a final S-phenyl-L-cysteine concentration of 38.6 g I-1. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.