Introduction - Bioprocess Engineering: Kinetics, Biosystems, Sustainability and Reactor Design - page 9

less “green” than biological and other sequential disassembling processes due to their severe
operating conditions, poor selectivity or by-products generation, and thermodynamic
restrictions.
The promise of a biorefinery to supply the products human needs is shown in Fig. 1.4 for
the various examples of building blocks or platform chemicals that sugar (a specific example
of glucose) can produce, besides the very basic building blocks of CO and H 2 . For example,
glucose can be fermented to ethanol by yeast and bacteria anaerobically, and lactic acid can be
produced by lacto bacteria. As shown in Fig. 1.4 , each arrow radiates from the glucose in the
center represents a route of biotransformation (or fermentation) by default, whereas chemical
transformations are shown with labeled arrows. For example, glucose can be dehydrated to
5-hydroxymethylfurfural catalyzed with an acid, which can be further decomposed to levu-
linic acid by hydration. All these chemicals shown in Fig. 1.4 are examples of important plat-
form (or intermediate) chemicals, as well as commodity chemicals. For example, ethanol is
well known for its use as a liquid transportation fuel. Ethanol can be dehydrated to ethylene,
which is the monomer for polyethylene or dehydrognated and dehydrated to make 1,3-buta-
diene, monomer for the synthetic rubber. Ethanol can also be employed to produce higher
alcohols and alkenes.
Are you prepared to be at the forefront of developing, designing, and operating these
processes for the sustainability and comfortability in humanity?
1.5. B IOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOPROCESS ENGINEE RING
Biotechnology is the use or development of methods of direct genetic manipulation for
a socially desirable goal. Such a goal might be the production of a particular chemical, but
it may also involve the production of better plants or seeds, gene therapy, or the use of
specially designed organisms to degrade wastes. The key element is the use of sophisticated
techniques outside the cell for genetic manipulation. Biotechnology is applied biology; it
bridges biology to bioprocess engineering, just like applied chemistry or chemical technology
bridges chemistry to chemical engineering.
Many terms have been used to describe engineers working with biotechnology. The two
terms that are considered general: Biological Engineering and Bioengineering come from the
two major fields of applications that require deep understanding of biology: agriculture
and medicine. Bioengineering is a broad title including work on industrial, medical, and agri-
cultural systems; its practitioners include agricultural, electrical, mechanical, industrial, envi-
ronmental and chemical engineers, and others. As such, Bioengineering is not a well-defined
term and usually it refers to biotechnology applications that are not easily categorized or in
medical fields. Biological Engineering stems from engineering of biology which is also a general
term. However, the term Biological Engineering is initially used by agricultural engineers for
the engineering applications to or manipulation of plants and animals and is thus specific.
For example, the Institute of Biological Engineering has a base in, although not limited to,
agricultural engineering. ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc.)
brands Biological Engineering together with Agricultural Engineering when accrediting BS
(Bachelor of Science) and MS (Master of Science) in engineering and technology educational
programs. On the other hand, the Society for Biological Engineers was created within