INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

Submitted By: Imtiyaz Ahmed

Submitted To: Dr. Azhar Hussain

DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY
HAZARA UNIVERSITY MANSEHRA
2021

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
What is Industrial Biotechnology?................................................................................. 3
Downstream processing and metabolic engineering...................................................... 6
Funding programmes ..................................................................................................... 8
References ...................................................................................................................... 9

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What is Industrial Biotechnology?

Industrial biotechnology is one of the most promising new approaches to pollution

prevention, resource conservation, and cost reduction. It is often referred to as the

third wave in biotechnology. If developed to its full potential, industrial

biotechnology may have a larger impact on the world than health care and agricultural

biotechnology. It offers businesses a way to reduce costs and create new markets

while protecting the environment. Also, since many of its products do not require the

lengthy review times that drug products must undergo, it's a quicker, easier pathway

to the market. Today, new industrial processes can be taken from lab study to

commercial application in two to five years, compared to up to a decade for drugs.

The application of biotechnology to industrial processes is not only transforming how

we manufacture products but is also providing us with new products that could not

even be imagined a few years ago. Because industrial biotechnology is so new, its

benefits are still not well known or understood by industry, policymakers, or

consumers.

Industrial biotechnology includes modern application of biotechnology for sustainable

processing and production of chemical products, materials and fuels. Biotechnological

processing uses enzymes and microorganisms to produce products that are useful to a

broad range of industrial sectors, including chemical and pharmaceutical, human and

animal nutrition, pulp and paper, textiles, energy, materials and polymers, using

renewable raw materials.

Use of biotechnology to substitute existing processes makes many of these industries

more efficient and environmentally friendly, contributing to industrial sustainability in

various ways. This paradigm change involves various areas, ranging from the most

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known ones, such as pharmaceutical and agricultural, to production of materials such

as biopolymers and also bioplastics.

Industrial biotechnology can produce the same results as the petrochemical industry,

but using biological catalysts instead. Application of the state of the art of a vast range

of scientific disciplines to industrial biotechnology, namely biochemistry,

microbiology, genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, systems biology and process

engineering is the foundation for leveraging the rapid, specialized and competitive

growth of the sector, based on biocatalysts that enable high productivity, performance

and stability.

With the adoption of industrial processes based on biotechnology, metabolic

engineering has become an increasingly important subject. The goal of metabolic

engineering is to maximize the production of compounds that are of industrial interest

in microorganisms that act within this context as cell factories through their genetic

manipulation.

According to a recent OECD study (The Bioeconomy to 2030: designing a policy

agenda, http://www.oecd.org/futures/bioeconomy/2030), the industrial applications of

biotechnology in 2030 will be responsible for 39% of the economic value generated

by Biotechnology, which illustrates the healthy investment in research and

development expected in this area.

From the beginning, industrial biotechnology has integrated product improvements

with pollution prevention. Nothing illustrates this better than the way industrial

biotechnology solved the phosphate water pollution problems in the 1970s caused by

the use of phosphates in laundry detergent. Biotechnology companies developed

enzymes that removed stains from clothing better than phosphates, thus enabling

replacement of a polluting material with a non-polluting biobased additive while

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improving the performance of the end product. This innovation dramatically reduced

phosphate-related algal blooms in surface waters around the globe, and

simultaneously enabled consumers to get their clothes cleaner with lower wash water

temperatures and concomitant energy savings.

Rudimentary industrial biotechnology actually dates back to at least 6000 B.C. when

Neolithic cultures fermented grapes to make wine, and Babylonians used microbial

yeasts to make beer. Over time, mankind's knowledge of fermentation increased,

enabling the production of cheese, yogurt, vinegar, and other food products. In the

1800s, Louis Pasteur proved that fermentation was the result of microbial activity.

Then in 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming extracted penicillin from mold. In the 1940s,

large-scale fermentation techniques were developed to make industrial quantities of

this wonder drug. Not until after World War II, however, did the biotechnology

revolution begin, giving rise to modern industrial biotechnology.

Since that time, industrial biotechnology has produced enzymes for use in our daily

lives and for the manufacturing sector. For instance, meat tenderizer is an enzyme and

some contact lens cleaning fluids contain enzymes to remove sticky protein deposits.

In the main, industrial biotechnology involves the microbial production of enzymes,

which are specialized proteins. These enzymes have evolved in nature to be super-

performing biocatalysts that facilitate and speed-up complex biochemical reactions.

These amazing enzyme catalysts are what make industrial biotechnology such a

powerful new technology.

Industrial biotechnology involves working with nature to maximize and optimize

existing biochemical pathways that can be used in manufacturing. The industrial

biotechnology revolution rides on a series of related developments in three fields of

study of detailed information derived from the cell: genomics, proteomics, and

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bioinformatics. As a result, scientists can apply new techniques to a large number of

microorganisms ranging from bacteria, yeasts, and fungi to marine diatoms and

protozoa.

Industrial biotechnology companies use many specialized techniques to find and

improve nature's enzymes. Information from genomic studies on microorganisms is

helping researchers capitalize on the wealth of genetic diversity in microbial

populations. Researchers first search for enzyme-producing microorganisms in the

natural environment and then use DNA probes to search at the molecular level for

genes that produce enzymes with specific biocatalytic capabilities. Once isolated,

such enzymes can be identified and characterized for their ability to function in

specific industrial processes. If necessary, they can be improved with biotechnology

techniques.

Downstream processing and metabolic engineering

In comparison with conventional processes, white biotechnology processes run under

relatively mild reaction conditions. Moderate temperatures and the use of aqueous

media reduce the energy requirements and the number of problematic by-products.

Since product concentration and formation rate are often very low, the resulting

products need to be purified and recovered in marketable quantities in a process that is

referred to as downstream processing. Product quantity can also be increased by

optimising the manufacturing processes or biocatalysts used, for example by

enhancing important metabolic activities, switching off less important ones (metabolic

engineering) or optimising enzymes by directed evolution (enzymatic engineering).

White biotechnology uses renewable resources such as carbohydrates from cereals,

corn and sugar beet or vegetable oils from sunflowers, rapeseed and oil palms.

Increasing efforts are also being made to use waste products as raw materials. The

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energy supplier badenova operates a biomethane plant in the city of Eschbach and

uses male corn plants as fermentation substrate. The male corn plants are simply used

to pollinate female corn plants and are then removed from the field once they have

fulfilled their purpose.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology (IGB) and

partners from industry began operating the EtaMax pilot plant close to Stuttgart

Central Market in October 2012. The plant produces methane from fruit and vegetable

waste. The co-products of the fermentation process are used in algae breeding in

photobioreactors where the microalgae produce fatty acids, pigments and proteins.

Residual algae biomass is mixed with biowaste and converted into methane.

Revenues of industrial biotechnology companies have grown

In 2012, Germany was home to 61 companies (10.8%) working in the field of

industrial biotechnology (source: biotechnologie.de). These companies are focussed

on the development of technical enzymes, new biomass utilisation strategies and

biotechnological production processes. The majority of dedicated biotechnology

companies in the white biotechnology sector are active in the fields of food/feed and

pharmaceutical production, followed by chemistry, cosmetics and energy. The

biotechnologie.de information portal identified an increase in sales to 193 million

euros in 2012 (up 9.1% from 2011). The R&D budget of the companies was similar to

that of the previous year, i.e. around 47 million euros.

In Baden-Württemberg, seven companies and seven universities, two universities of

applied sciences and two non-university research institutions are working or carrying

out research in the field of industrial biotechnology.

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Funding programmes

With the “National Research Strategy BioEconomy 2030”, the German government is

laying the foundation for realising the vision of a biobased economy, “one which

produces sufficient healthy food to feed the world and supplies quality products made

from renewable resources.” Industrial biotechnology plays a key role in the transition

to a biobased economy. This is also reflected in the funds the German government has

invested in industrial biotechnology projects. In fact, funding has increased from 31

million euros in 2010 to around 67 million euros in 2011.

In April 2011, the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) launched the

“Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Initiative” under the “National Research

Strategy BioEconomy 2030” with the goal of encouraging research into

biotechnological methods for the production of goods from renewable resources and

replacing equivalent products made from fossil raw materials. The BMBF has plans to

set aside up to 100 million euros for such projects over the next five to ten years.

Proposals can be submitted until 1st June every year; the deadline for final

submissions is 1st June 2015.

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References

Boundless (2016-05-26). "Industrial Production of Antibiotics". Boundless.

Vandamme, E. J. (1992-01-01). "Production of vitamins, coenzymes and related

biochemicals by biotechnological processes". Journal of Chemical Technology

and Biotechnology (Oxford, Oxfordshire: 1986). 53 (4): 313–327.

doi:10.1002/jctb.280530402. ISSN 0268-2575. PMID 1368195.

"Microbial Production of Vitamins: An Overview". Biology Discussion. 2015-09-21.

Retrieved 2017-02-23.

"Corynebacterium species | Johns Hopkins ABX Guide". www.hopkinsguides.com.

Retrieved 2019-11-11.

Singhania, Reeta Rani; Patel, Anil Kumar; Pandey, Ashok (2010-01-01). Soetaert,

Wim; Vandamme, Erick J. (eds.). Industrial Biotechnology. Wiley-VCH

Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA. pp. 207–225. doi:10.1002/9783527630233.ch5.

ISBN 9783527630233.

EPA, OCSPP, OPP, US. "What are Biopesticides?". www.epa.gov. Retrieved 2017-

03-12.