Integrated Environmental Biotechnology - Environmental Biotechnology: Theory and Application - page 233

10
Integrated Environmental
Biotechnology
The essence of environmental biotechnology as an applied science, as we have
set out to demonstrate in the preceding chapters of this topic, is the harnessing of
pre-existing organisms and natural cycles to bring about a desired goal. Some-
times this is achieved by relatively unsophisticated means. At others it requires
rather more in the way of engineering, adaptation or modification, in one form or
another, to fit nature's original to the intended purpose. Thus, though the exact
form of any given iteration may differ, the underlying paradigm remains the same.
Applying what is effectively a naturalistic model leads to some inevitable con-
clusions with far-reaching implications for the future of this particular discipline.
The fundamental necessity of mutual interactions in nature is readily accepted
and understood. Hence, the natural cycles obligingly dovetail together at both the
gross and the microscopic levels, with interplay existing between the organism
and its environment as well as between the various central metabolic pathways.
Since such integration exists already between bio-processes, and these are the
very stuff upon which environmental biotechnology is based, the potential for
integrated applications is clear.
At its simplest, this involves the sequential use of individual technologies to
provide a solution in a linked chain of successive steps, often termed a 'treatment
train'. The other extreme is the wider amalgamation of larger fundamental prob-
lems and their resolutions into a single cohesive whole. This topic began by
looking at the key intervention areas for environmental biotechnology and defined
the three legs of that particular tripod as pollution, waste and manufacturing. This
theme has been further developed, to examine how old pollution can be cleaned
up and how the rational treatment of solid wastes and effluent can contribute
to the reduction of new pollution. So-called 'clean' technologies represent the
logical end-point of this discussion, when the production processes themselves
assist in the reduction of waste and the minimisation of pollution, in the ultimate
integrated system.
All industrialised countries face the same three problems in attempting to marry
economic growth with environmental responsibility, namely the need to marshal