Introduction to Environmental Biotechnology - Environmental Biotechnology: Theory and Application - page 3

inconvenience. This is in no way intended to be disparaging to industry; it simply
represents commercial reality.
In many respects, there is a logical fit between this thinking and the aims
of environmental biotechnology. For all the media circus surrounding the grand
questions of our age, it is easy to forget that not all forms of biotechnology involve
xenotransplantation, genetic modification, the use of stem cells or cloning. Some
of the potentially most beneficial uses of biological engineering, and which may
touch the lives of the majority of people, however indirectly, involve much
simpler approaches. Less radical and showy, certainly, but powerful tools, just
the same. Environmental biotechnology is fundamentally rooted in waste, in its
various guises, typically being concerned with the remediation of contamination
caused by previous use, the impact reduction of current activity or the control of
pollution. Thus, the principal aims of this field are the manufacture of products in
environmentally harmonious ways, which allow for the minimisation of harmful
solids, liquids or gaseous outputs or the clean-up of the residual effects of earlier
human occupation.
The means by which this may be achieved are essentially twofold. Environmen-
tal biotechnologists may enhance or optimise conditions for existing biological
systems to make their activities happen faster or more efficiently, or they resort
to some form of alteration to bring about the desired outcome. The variety of
organisms which may play a part in environmental applications of biotechnology
is huge, ranging from microbes through to trees and all are utilised on one of the
same three fundamental bases - accept, acclimatise or alter. For the vast majority
of cases, it is the former approach, accepting and making use of existing species
in their natural, unmodified form, which predominates.
The Scope for Use
There are three key points for environmental biotechnology interventions, namely
in the manufacturing process, waste management or pollution control, as shown
in Figure 1.1.
Accordingly, the range of businesses to which environmental biotechnology
has potential relevance is almost limitless. One area where this is most apparent
Figure1.1 Thethreeinterventionpoints