Bioprocessing, biotechnology

Science (microbial community genomics microbial in situ bioremediation proteomics and metabolomics PCR and revolutions in microbiology (6) engineering (bioprocessing, biotechnology, combining unit operations) (2)... 

Bioprocessing and Biotreatment of Goal. The use of biotechnology to process coal to make gaseous and Hquid fuels is an emerging field... 

Bioprocess Control An industrial fermenter is a fairly sophisticated device with control of temperature, aeration rate, and perhaps pH, concentration of dissolved oxygen, or some nutrient concentration. There has been a strong trend to automated data collection and analysis. Analog control is stiU very common, but when a computer is available for on-line data collec tion, it makes sense to use it for control as well. More elaborate measurements are performed with research bioreactors, but each new electrode or assay adds more work, additional costs, and potential headaches. Most of the functional relationships in biotechnology are nonlinear, but this may not hinder control when bioprocess operate over a narrow range of conditions. Furthermore, process control is far advanced beyond the days when the main tools for designing control systems were intended for linear systems. 

Bioprocess The facility necessary in a biotechnology clean room to protect the worker, the product, and the environment. 

Although it is possible to obtain cells from whole animals or plants and to cultivate them in suitable nutrient solutions, in general they are not as easy to handle as microbes. Nevertheless, plant and animal cells are a valuable genetic resource for biotechnology and many newly developed bioprocesses rely on transfer of their genes to micro-organisms. 

Despite the inherent disadvantages of bioprocesses, there are many advantages which can make a biotechnological approach to chemical synthesis the sole or desirable approach. The possible advantages of bioprocesses are shown in Table 2.4. 

In bioprocesses, the feedstocks required to grow the catalysts and produce the chemical renewable are generally renewable resources, such as sugar from crops. Conversely, purely feedstocks chemical synthesis relies largely on non-renewable resources such as oil, coal and natural gas. It follows that as non-renewable resources dwindle, it is likely that biotechnology will become increasingly important to the chemical industry. 

Ghose, T.K., Bioprocess Computation in Biotechnology , vol. 1. Ellis Horwood Series in Biochemistry and Biotechnology, New York, 1990. 

Process economics for biological products was discussed by Harrison et al. (op. cit., pp. 334—369) and Datar and Rosen [in Asenjo (ed.). Separation Processes in Biotechnology, DeUcer, New York, 1990, pp. 741-793] at length, and also by Ladisch (op. cit., pp. 401—430). They provided some illustrative examples with cost an yses. Bioprocess design software can also prove helpful in the overall design process (Harrison et al., op. cit., pp. 343-369). 

Nevertheless, there are several hurdles to overcome. Biotransformation has to compete with a chemical production process. The production of bio-based bulk chemicals and intermediates from white biotechnology must be economically viabile [67]. This means that the biotechnological product must be cheaper to produce or of higher quality than products based on classical chemical routes. And, incidentally, switching to a novel process takes time and money. Therefore, process solutions are required which are adapted to the special needs of biocatalyzed reactions. Within this chapter, several specific tasks have been addressed, illustrating universal possibilities to overcome the limitations found in bioprocesses. 

Research and development in industry and in academia have enhanced and will enhance bioprocesses working at the interface of chemical process engineering and biotechnology. For... 

Lau, J.,Tran, C., Licari, P. andGalazzo, J. (2004) Development of a high cell-density fed-batch bioprocess for the heterologous production of 6-deoxyerythronolide B in Escherichia coli. Journal of Biotechnology, 110,... 

Biotechnology can potentially provide solutions to some of these problems. Bioprocesses are, in general, environmentally better than chemical refining processes. 

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