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B.Tech-Biology Minor subject

Elective I

Industrial Biotechnology Paper-I

Unit 1: Introduction

Module No: 1.1.1: Introduction to Industrial Biotechnology

Biotechnology is an advanced branch of biology having many applications in
different fields of biology such as agriculture, medicine, forestry, food sciences,
environmental science and plant and animal sciences.

The name Biotechnology was coined by Karl Ereky, a Hungarian scientist in 1917
Biotechnology is a combined term for Biology and Technology.

Biotechnology is the use of cells or products of these cells for the service of
human, while industrial biotechnology deals with the production of these
products on industrial level. In 1980, it was the first time the term the Industrial
biotechnology was used. Industrial biotechnology is mainly characterized by
conversion of renewable biomass to products used in the consumer, chemical or
energy industries.

Industrial biotechnology or white biotechnology that can be defined as

follows: INDUSTIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY is the application of biotechnology for the
industrial processing and production of chemicals, materials and fuels. It includes
the practice of using micro organisms or components of micro organisms like
enzymes to generate industrially useful products, substances and chemical
building blocks with specific capabilities that conventional petrochemical
processes cannot provide

Before industrial biotechnology, chemical industry was used to produce

commercial products. Industrial biotechnology uses renewable resources like
wheat, corn, straw etc., and chemical industry uses fossil resources like coal, gas,
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and petrol etc., the reason why we prefer industrial biotechnology over chemical
industrial are

1. High reaction rate

2. Improved conversional efficiency
3. High product purity
4. Low energy consumption
5. Decrease in chemical waste

And because of these advantages the biotechnology is starting to penetrate the

chemical industry according to recent statistics the use of industrial biotechnology
in chemical industry was 5% in 2002 which was increased in the year 2010 up to
10%.

Industrial biotechnology is the application of biotechnology for the

environmentally- friendly production and processing of chemicals,
pharmaceuticals, materials and bioenergy. It is widely regarded as the solution to
find alternatives for the diminishing amount of fossil resources such as oil and
natural gas. Industrial biotechnology is also referred to as white biotechnology,
plainly symbolizing its role in providing clean and sustainable processes.

Industrial biotechnology uses enzymes and microorganisms to make

products in sectors such as chemistry, food and feed, paper and pulp, textiles and
energy. Instead of using high temperature, energy- intensive processes using
chemical catalysts, Industrial biotechnology achieves the same or even better
results using biological catalysts (enzymes) operating at low temperature.

Feed stocks , instead of being derived from fossil fuels, are typically
agricultural materials such as starch, and their residues, such as stems, leaves etc.
These are converted first to simple molecules such as sugars and then
transformed into a wide range of end products via fermentation. This will enable
a much more complete utilization of agricultural crops, with all obvious benefits.
INDUSTIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY also provides us with tools for the development of
new products, that cannot be made by using traditional synthetic methods and
processes. In short INDUSTIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY will lead to (new) products
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manufactured with less energy consumption, reduction of green house gas

emissions, higher yields and reduced waste.

INDUSTIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY uses enzymes and microorganisms to

make biobased products in sectors as diverse as chemicals, food and feed, health
care, detergents, paper and pulp, textiles and bioenergy. The process works by
transforming biomass- ex. Agricultural products, organic waste,,, algae into
biofuels and biobased chemicals, in the same way as crude oil is used as a feed
stock in the production of chemicals and fuels. In this way, INDUSTIAL
BIOTECHNOLOGY could save energy in production process and could lead to
significant reductions in green house gas emissions, helping to fight global
warming. It can also lead to improved performance and sustainability for industry
and higher value products.

INDUSTIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY is a very promising field because of

avoiding limited fossil resources as starting meterials, but in some instances
competing with Industrial biotechnology feed stocks.

INDUSTIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY, although already successfully

established in some sectors, is still in its infancy. More in-depth knowledge is
essential to fully explore the wide- range of possIndustial biotechnologyilities of
INDUSTIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY and to transform the traditional chemical and
chemical related sector to a sustainable, competitive, innovative and
sophisticated sector. To achieve this a multi disciplinary approach is needed,
including disciplines such as biotechnology, organic chemistry, bio chemistry,
microbiology, genomics, proteomics, bio informatics and process engineering.

Industrial biotechnology is also known as white biotechnology, because it got

positive environmental aspects like

Reduce waste generation

Reduce energy consumption
Remove use of solvents
Elimination of dangerous intermediate products
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Applications

Industrial biotechnology has applications in a number of markets that affect

our daily lives: in chemicals; in food processing; and in textiles just to name a few.
Additionally, industrial biotechnology may not only help with better processing of
materials, but it may also play an important role on reducing emissions and
increasing efficiencies in the manufacturing process. Industrial biotechnology is
transforming many of the worlds industrial operations. The promise of industrial
biotechnology has always been to replace the use of fossil energy and
hydrocarbon- based materials with renewable, plant based resources and
naturally occurring microbes to produce more cost-effective and environmental-
friendly materials for textiles, fuels, chemicals, pollution prevention and even
human pharmaceuticals.

- Bacterial enzymes have been used widely in food manufacturing and as

active ingredients in washing powders.
- Transgenic E.coli are used to produce human insulin in large scale
fermentation tanks
- The by far highest production volume in INDUSTIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY is
bioethanol produced from renewable raw materiels. Today, starch from
corn, sugarcane and wheat are the main feed stocks used to produce
ethanol as a substitute for gasoline. The alternative is to derive ethanol
from cellulosic material in wood, grasses and more attractively,
agricultural and food processing waste such as straw. Cellulosic ethanol
has a 90% reduction in Green House Gas emission and can be used as
base chemical and biofuel.
- Bio- based polymers are one of the important milestones on the white
biotechnologys agenda.
- Today we see also the results of the recent developments of new
processes combining biotechnology and chemical synthesis, such as the
production of poly ethelene from bioethanol
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- Another established sector is the production of fine chemicals such

amino acids, lipids, organic acids, vitamins etc, which find applications in
the pharmaceutical industry, the food and feed industry, the production
of detergents and cosmetics and many other sectors.