The development of loofa sponge-based immobilized metal affinity adsorbents was reported in this study. We showed that by grafting hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) to loofa sponge the chelating capacity was increased by 117% from 2520 45 umole/g to 5478 77 timole/g. Results of equilibrium adsorption study showed that the adsorption capacity of the HEC-grafted loofa sponge-based immobilized metal affinity adsorbent for the recombinant His-tagged trehalose synthase, 2.45 mg/g, was 62% higher than that of the adsorbent without HEC conjugation, 1.51 mg/g. The employment of the trehalose synthase-loaded loofa sponge-based immobilized metal affinity adsorbent as the biocatalyst for the conversion of maltose to trehalose in repeated-batch operations was conducted. It was found that after 20 cycles 70% of the initial activity was retained. The decline in activity could be attributed predominantly to the desorption of trehalose synthase from the loofa sponge-based immobilized metal affinity adsorbent.