Oils, production using biotechnology

Ganesan, D., Rajendran, A., Thangavelu, V., 2009. An overview on the recent advances in the transesterilication of vegetable oils for biodiesel production using chemical and biocatalysts. Reviews in Environmental Science and Biotechnology 8 (4), 367—394. 

Potential consumer benefits from biotechnology (56) are cost and quaUty. The use of biotech means to increase the level of various sulfur-containing amino acids in coffee proteins, and to enhance sucrose and oil levels, could have an impact on the flavor and aroma of the finished ground coffee product. Also, caffeine level modification/elimination through genetic manipulations of the coffee plant could yield low caffeine coffee without additional processing by the manufacturer. 

Various novel applications in biotechnology, biomedical engineering, information industry, and microelectronics involve the use of polymeric microspheres with controlled size and surface properties [1-31. Traditionally, the polymer microspheres larger than 100 /urn with a certain size distribution have been produced by the suspension polymerization process, where the monomer droplets are broken into micron-size in the existence of a stabilizer and are subsequently polymerized within a continuous medium by using an oil-soluble initiator. Suspension polymerization is usually preferred for the production of polymeric particles in the size range of 50-1000 /Ltm. But, there is a wide size distribution in the product due to the inherent size distribution of the mechanical homogenization and due to the coalescence problem. The size distribution is measured with the standard deviation or the coefficient of variation (CV) and the suspension polymerization provides polymeric microspheres with CVs varying from 15-30%. 

Shellflo-S. In one area at least, biotechnology has something to offer the oil industry. Many of the polymers used in drilling fluids are based on natural products. They can be cheap like starch or guar or offer performance no synthetic can match, such as xanthan or succinoglycan. Shellflo-S is for use now in such areas as well completion, but more widespread use could follow if its particular range of properties are seen to be useful, and the cost of production is reduced. 

Use of biotechnology in the oil industry is almost unknown. As a whole, only a few initiatives related to use of biofiltration for gas treatment has reached refining operations. In the exploration and production segment of the oil industry, MEOR has been known and employed to a certain extent in secondary or tertiary recovery of oil. 

The essential task of modern biotechnology is to change an organism s genetic material (DNA) to allow for the production of a useful protein. The gene for the protein must first be isolated and engineered so that it will drive production of the protein. The product may be the protein, or it may be a modified organism, such as a bacterium that cleans up oil spills, a tree that removes mercury from contaminated sod, or a virus that treats cancer. 

In addition to the use of ethanol in cars and trucks, the chemicals industry, faced with daunting increases in petrochemicals costs, has a new appetite for bioethanol. In fact, bioethanol can be used to create plastics—an area that consumes vast quantities of oil in America and around the globe. Archer Daniels Midland is constructing a plant in Clinton, Iowa that will product 50,000 tons of plastic per year through the use of biotechnology to convert com into polymers. 

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