In: Biology
Industrial biotechnology is one of the most promising technologies around; it has the potential to address some of the world’s greatest challenges, such as feeding a growing population and offering new alternatives to our scarce natural resources. Although there is a long way to go, if industrial biotechnology reaches its full potential it has the potential to impact the world.
Biotechnology is not a new concept; traditional products like bread, beer, cheese, wine, and yoghurt all make use of natural processes. In the 1800s, Louis Pasteur proved that fermentation was the result of microbial activity. Then in 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming managed to extract penicillin from mold. In the 1940s, large-scale fermentation techniques were developed to make industrial quantities of this wonder drug, but it wasn’t until after the second world war, that the biotechnology revolution began, making way to modern industrial biotechnology as we know today.
Alcohol production is one of the most basic applications of industrial biotechnology. For instance, beer is made from water, a starch source such as barley, brewer’s yeast and a flavouring such as hops. First generation biofuel is produced by fermenting plant-derived sugars to ethanol, using a similar process to that used in beer and wine-making, or by converting plant-oils to biodiesel.
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