Introduction to Environmental Biotechnology - Environmental Biotechnology: Theory and Application - page 9

a fundamental paradigm shift becomes overwhelming and the implications for
relevant biological applications can be immense.
There is a natural tendency to delineate, seeking to characterise technologies
into particular categories or divisions. However, the essence of environmental
biotechnology is such that there are many more similarities than differences.
Though it is, of course, often helpful to view individual technology uses as
distinct, particularly when considering treatment options for a given environ-
mental problem, there are inevitably recurrent themes which feature throughout
the whole topic. Moreover, this is a truly applied science. While the importance
of the laboratory bench cannot be denied, the controlled world of research trans-
lates imperfectly into the harsh realities of commercial implementation. Thus,
there can often be a dichotomy between theory and application and it is pre-
cisely this fertile ground which is explored in the present work. In addition,
the principal underlying approach of specifically environmental biotechnology,
as distinct from other kinds, is the reliance on existing natural cycles, often
directly and in an entirely unmodified form. Thus, this science stands on a foun-
dation of fundamental biology and biochemistry. To understand the application,
the biotechnologist must simply examine the essential elements of life, living
systems and ecological circulation sequences. However engineered the approach,
this fact remains unwaveringly true. In many respects, environmental biotech-
nology stands as the purest example of the multi-faceted bio-industry, since it is
the least refined, at least in terms of the basis of its action. In essence, all of its
applications simply encourage the natural propensity of the organisms involved,
while seeking to enhance or accelerate their action. Hence, optimisation, rather
than modification, is the typical route by which the particular desired end result,
whatever it may be, is achieved and, consequently, a number of issues feature as
common threads within the discussions of individual technologies.
Integrated Approach
Integration is an important aspect for environmental biotechnology. One theme
that will be developed throughout this topic is the potential for different bio-
logical approaches to be combined within treatment trains, thereby producing
an overall effect which would be impossible for any single technology alone
to achieve. However, the wider goal of integration is not, of necessity, confined
solely to the specific methods used. It applies equally to the underpinning knowl-
edge that enables them to function in the first place and an understanding of this
is central to the rationale behind this topic. In some spheres, traditional biology
has become rather unfashionable and the emphasis has shifted to more exciting
sounding aspects of life science. While the new-found concentration on 'ecolog-
ical processes', or whatever, sounds distinctly more 'environmental', in many
ways, and somewhat paradoxically, it sometimes serves the needs of environ-
mental biotechnology rather less well. The fundamentals of living systems are
the stuff of this branch of science and complex though the whole picture may be,