By: Bala Jeya Ganesh Babu and Charlotte Li
For tens of thousands of years, humans relied on Mother Nature for whatever they needed in order to be more secure. Humans made garments and fabrics out of wool, colored them with plant colors, and built dwellings and furnishings out of tree wood. However, when organic chemistry developed the means to synthesize many of these chemicals on their own at the turn of the twentieth century, the tendency shifted. Artificial dyes were used to color the plastics, which substituted wood and metals. But then biology began to retaliate against many of these petroleum-based, manufactured consumer items. Biodegradable products became appealing again when the amount of non-degradable synthetics in the environment increased.
The biotechnology industries began to look for strategies to substitute petroleum-based non-degradable synthetic materials in nature, and an entire branch of biotechnology, known as white biotechnology, is dedicated to this. It combines living cells and enzymes to manufacture products that are readily biodegradable, consume less energy, and generate less waste. This is not a new development; in fact, biotechnology has long played a role in industrial operations. Bacterial enzymes have been widely employed in food production and as active ingredients in washing powders to reduce the usage of artificial surfactants for decades.
The creation of biodegradable plastics was one of the initial tasks on white biotechnology's priority. These studies have mostly focused on polyesters of 3-hydroxy acids (PHAs), which are organically generated by a wide spectrum of bacteria as an energy store and source of carbon over the last 20 years. These compounds have characteristics similar to manmade thermoplastics and epoxies ranging from propylene to rubber, but microorganisms in soil or water break them entirely and quickly.
Here are some of the applications of white biotechnology:
Metabolite Production- to sustain the large fluxes of carbon and energy that’s needed for rapid metabolite production to be solely based on the growth efficiency of micro-organisms. There are three classes of metabolite:
Exopolysaccharides that are both in the oxidation state and the rate of production appears to be related to the growth and efficiency of producing organisms. For the maximum rate of producing an organism, there is a bias towards carbon and energy fluxes being integrated. These alterations may negatively affect production rates as well.
There is a production of metabolites that are similar to organic acids and some of the secondary metabolites that result in the overall outcome of reducing equivalents and/or ATP. It is assumed that the capacity of the organism to dissolve this product that’s associated with energy limits its volume for rapid production.
Biosurfactants as well as other secondary metabolites that are made up of moieties of significantly different oxidation states production from only one carbon source that is not favored as well as the fact that not considered improvements in the specific production rate along with the final broth concentration that may be achieved if there is a mix of carbon sources being used. There may be a possibility to customize the production by careful selection of production organisms and its starting feedstock, so much so that the harmful physiological consequences of metabolite overproduction on the production organism are going to be minimized.
Waste Treatment - Is a type of technology that can be effective, it can be a useful tool and help provide solutions, which are sustainable. This technology can be used to help monitor and reduce the risk of contaminated sites, clean up water, soil, and air, or reuse wastewater. Many parts of the world don’t have ways to get rid of their trash and waste, with this technology we can conserve scarce water resources but also help fertilize agricultural land, help convert industrial and other wastes into useful products, treating sewage, reduce water usage, etc. Overall, waste treatment has been a large help in many countries in the world, developing or developed, it has helped multiple countries decrease their water usage by 10-80% and under some processes, it was possible to reduce the use of petrochemical solvents by 90%.
Production of Biocontrol Agents- Biocontrol Agents control plant diseases and is the suppression of populations of plant pathogens of living organisms. Biocontrol Agents are applied to crops for biological control over plant pathogens. They act over a range of modes of action. Some interact with plants by causing resistance or priming plants without any direct interaction with the targeted pathogen, others act on nutrient competition or other ways of modulating the growth conditions for the pathogen. The production of biocontrol agents would be essential to achieve disease control also help understand the mode of action that is vital to be able to characterize possible risks for humans or the environment and risk the resistance development against the Biocontrol Agents.
Bio-Based Fuel & Energy- It is biomass that can be directly converted into liquid fuels, which are called “biofuels”. They help meet transportation fuel needs. The two most common types of biofuels used today are ethanol and biodiesel, both of which are a representation of the first generation of biofuel technology of today. Activities that successfully validated critical technologies for cellulosic ethanol production helped provide a valuable amount of advances in the industry of hydrocarbon biofuels, “drop-in fuels”. These “drop-in fuels” already can serve as a petroleum substitute in existing refineries, tanks, pipelines, pumps, vehicles, and smaller engines.
Recovery of Metals- Recovering metals may be recovered by electrolysis, which is a system that is widely used for precious metal recovery. It also can be used to recover other metals from drag-outs, such as nickel and chromium. Electrolysis cells are marketed to different sizes, these can operate down to metal contents that are less than 100mg/l. When operated it can achieve low emissions of levels for water, or recycling of rinse-water, etc. The benefits of this include: recovery of metals that can be reused, the reduction of metals in drag-outs meaning that their constant decrease in effluent concentrations, and that in the separation of metal solution containing cyanide, the anodically oxidative destruction of the cyanide will take place compared to the medal winning.
All microorganism products could eventually replace a large number of natural oil thanks to white biotechnology. Non-biodegradable papers and plastic can be substituted to a large extent with biodegradable alternatives. White biotechnology has significant environmental and economic benefits. However, this necessitates a diverse set of applications. White biotechnology is a significant contender because of growing environmental concerns and the promise of cheaper fuel in the future.
Sources:
Frazzetto, Giovanni. “White Biotechnology.” EMBO Reports, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Sept. 2003, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1326365/.
Niglia, Savannah. “Things You Need to Know about White Biotechnology.” Explore Biotech, 17 Jan. 2020, https://explorebiotech.com/about-white-biotechnology/.
Linton JD. Metabolite production and growth efficiency. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek. 1991 Oct-Nov;60(3-4):293-311. doi: 10.1007/BF00430371. PMID: 1807199.
Ovi, & Sara. (2017, July 31). The Role of Biotechnology in Waste Management | Greentumble. Greentumble. https://greentumble.com/the-role-of-biotechnology-in-waste-management/
Köhl, J., Kolnaar, R., & Ravensberg, W. (2019b, July 19). Frontiers | Mode of Action of Microbial Biological Control Agents Against Plant Diseases: Relevance Beyond Efficacy | Plant Science. Frontiers; Frontiers. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.00845/full
Biofuel Basics | Department of Energy. (n.d.). Energy.Gov; U.S Department of Energy. Retrieved January 14, 2022, from https://www.energy.gov/eere/bioenergy/biofuel-basics
Recover and/or recycle metals from waste waters | EE Metal. (n.d.). EE Metal; METAl. Retrieved January 14, 2022, from https://www.ee-metal.com/techniques/recover-andor-recycle-metals-from-waste-waters/
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