Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter V
S
UMMARY OF
F
UTURE
R
ESEARCH
P
RIORITIES
A.
I
NTRODUCTION
Petroleum-based fuels and related materials are finite and expected to enter a period of
diminishing availability within the next several decades. As a result, economies based on
petroleum and its feedstocks will have to move towards using fuels and materials that are
renewable, environmentally friendly, and of greater availability. Science and engineering
communities worldwide are exploring many options. Several promising areas for future
exploration and development are identified in the following sections.
B.
G
ENETIC
E
NGINEERING
Current research in genetic engineering platform technologies is proceeding at an almost
incomprehensibly rapid pace under the impetus of medical and basic biological research
goals. While environmental biotechnology has much to gain from advances in these research
goals, the support in these technologies and pace of progress are already sufficiently great, but
funding for environmental goals is limited such that agencies with primarily environmental
goals are encouraged to direct their support toward research priorities in other areas.
C.
B
IOREACTOR
T
ECHNOLOGIES
Since bioengineering for pollution prevention involves relatively low-value products,
requiring optimal bioproces sing for commercial feasibility, improvements in bioreactor
technology should be a high priority in general in this field. In addition, several areas are
worthy of specific mention:
•
Sensing.
Real-time sensing of gases and aqueous metabolites is of central importance
because it allows or has the potential to facilitate model validation, development of
descriptive kinetic expressions, and real-time process control based on sensor
feedback alone and in combination with model predictions. Biosensors suitable for
monitoring bioconversions in bioreactors have been previously identified as a
