Biotechnology, agriculture/processing

All industrial biotechnological production processes use complex cultivation media which consist of agricultural by-products (beet or cane molasses, corn-steep liquor, cottonseed meal, whey permeate, peanut floiu-, soybean meal, distillation residues, etc.). In addition polysaccharides (starch, dextrose, malt extract, maltodextrins, etc.) and proteins (e.g. caseinate, yeast autolysates, etc.) are used as energy sources for the microorganisms and cells. These systems... 

Applications of gels spans several fields, including the food industry, medical, biotechnology, chemical processing, agriculture, civil engineering, and electronics. Some of these applications are listed in Table 3. 

Biotechnological processes, life-cycle assessments for, 24 183 Biotechnology, 3 816 advances in, 13 330 application to agriculture, 13 283 in chemical transformations,... 

The aroma compounds from the tropical fruits described in this chapter can be very important for consumers and industry as they are exotic and extremely pleasant however, the production of these compounds by biotechnological processes should be emphasised since the extraction from the fruits is a hard task. Many tropical soils contain less nitrogen and phosphorus, have lower capacity to absorb fertilisers, and therefore have lower conventional productive capacity, but some tropical soils have been very intensively farmed and further intensification is possible in other areas. Thus, the evaluation of a sustainable agriculture in tropical regions requires a sophisticated approach including the estimation of the risk of microbial or insect infestations. As many fruits go directly to fresh markets or to immediate processing, a continuing supply of the flavour manufacturers in the future is not completely assured. 

Major applications of chitosan were previously focused on sludge dewatering, food processing, and metal ion chelation until the mid-1980s. Further, it has received considerable attention for its commercial applications in agriculture, chemistry, biomedical, food, cosmetic, and biotechnology industries (Alasalvar et ah, 2002 Knorr, 1984 Kurita,... 

The excellent reviews by Hobman (1984), Zadow (1984), and Short (1978) should be consulted for specific references to the above-mentioned products and processes. The expansion of biotechnology applications to agricultural areas should aid in increasing utilization of lactose as an industrial chemical. 

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