What is biotechnology?

White biotechnology: Industry

Whether it be in detergents or in skin cream, biotechnology can be found in a broad range of industrial products. In these cases, expert tell it industrial or white biotechnology. This access to nature’s own toolbox is helping industry to be more resource-efficient and environmentally friendly. In fact, for hundreds of years, the talents of living microorganisms have been used to produce foodstuffs such as bread, cheese, beer and wine. Even in the manufacturing of high quality chemicals, medicines, vitamins, detergents and cleaning products, in the finishing of textiles, leather and paper, and in the manufacturing of many other common household goods, the methods of white biotechnology have become an integral part of the production process.

This utilisation of natural helpers has a long tradition. In many cultures, the techniques of fermenting sugary foods into alcohol using yeast, lactic fermentation using lactobacillus strains, or vinegar production using specific Acetobacterium species were in place long before the discovery of microorganisms or any understanding of the underlying processes had formed. The first applications can be traced as far back as 6,000 BC, when the Sumerians in Mesopotamia brewed an alcoholic, beer-like beverage drink from germinating barley. Also for the production of wine, sourdough bread or cheese, living organisms played a vital role from the very beginning, although nobody knew this at the time.

Microorganisms as a basis for white biotechnology

The discovery of microorganisms and the biochemical principles of fermentative processes only took place during the past three centuries. In 1856, Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) discovered microorganisms in contaminated wine barrels, which he named Bacterion after the Greek word for chopsticks, as a result of their shape. Furthermore, he discovered how the process of fermentation takes place: While lactobacilli produce lactic acid from sugar, yeasts ferment the sugar into alcohol in the wine barrels. With his experiments, Pasteur laid the groundwork for an understanding of fermentation, and thereby founded modern microbiology. His realisation that “the role of the infinitely small in nature is infinitely great” prepared the way for modern biotechnology.

Further momentum for development in this area of research was provided by the needs of medicine. Robert Koch (1843-1910) is recognised as one of the first scientists to understand the significance of microorganisms as pathogens. In 1876, Koch discovered the anthrax bacterium, and in 1882 identified the tuberculosis pathogen. Before microorganisms were discovered to cause diseases, it was thought that miasms polluted the air with poisons.

At the same time, another piece in the puzzle in the broader understanding of microbiology was provided by the chemists. In the 18th Century, researchers observed that the decomposition of a substance could sometimes be speeded up through the addition of another substance, which was apparently nevertheless not consumed in the process. It was not long until substances were being extracted from plants and animal tissues to bring about such reactions – they became known as "ferments". One of the first ferments to be described was given the name "pepsin" in 1835 by the German physiologist Theodor Schwann (1810-1882). He extracted the substance from the gastric juice, thereby taking name from the Greek word "pepsis", meaning “digestion”.

By the 19th Century, scientists came to understand that these substances were natural biocatalysts. The word "enzymes" (from the Greek "in the yeast") also came into use for the first time in the 1800s. From this point onwards it was applied to all ferments.

Biotechnological applications used today in industrial production have a long tradition in the process of leather tanning: In 1909, the former German company Röhm & Haas in Darmstadtproduced the first industrial enzyme product OROPON ®. This consisted of enzymes that break down proteins, the so-called proteases, which greatly improved the tanning process: Until that time, dog and pigeon excrement had been used for the treatment of skins and hides, a process that could be replaced with this far less polluting and cleaner product.

Much as with medical biotechnology, genome research drove forward the dynamic development of modern white biotechnology. This knowledge laid the foundations for enabling the evolutionarily created biosynthetic diversity of nature to be targetedly applied for industrial processes.

Development of bio-based industry

Since the 80s and 90s, the demand for a sustainable economy has placed existing natural resources ever more in the social spotlight. As a result, both politics and business have come to the realisation that safeguarding the natural resources for future generations with current industrial processes is not possible in the long term: Above all, the finite nature of fossil fuels has contributed to a rethinking, and has pushed forward the search for alternatives.

In comparison to chemical approaches, the advantages offered by biotechnology are that the processes can often take place in mild, environmentally friendly conditions: Microorganisms carry out complex chemical transformations with high yields at room temperature and under normal pressure, whereas chemical processes would require high temperatures and pressures. For this reason, industrial biotechnology is often associated with modern ecological expectations. In many areas - such as detergent or textile manufacturing – these expectations have already been met. Biocatalysts in detergents allow the washing to be completed at a lower temperature. And in the textile industry, biotechnologists have developed enzyme-based procedures to help give jeans the popular stonewashed look. This was previously achieved in a laborious process using pumice stone. Also well established are food additives such as citric acid, and drugs such as antibiotics, which are produced using genetically modified microorganisms. These can now be counted among the most economically important products in industrial biotechnology.

A range of studies and analyses on the potential of industrial biotechnology foresees the proportion of biotechnological methods in the manufacturing of chemical products to grow from around 5% today to around 15% to 20% by 2010. Based on these projections, this could enable the chemical industry to reach a turnover of 300 billion euros in 2010 through the use of biotechnological methods and processes alone, as well as through new biotechnological products.

However, in many other application areas, developments have only just begun, in particular in the manufacturing of bioplastics, or in the extraction of energy from renewable resources. Here, future research work must lay the foundations for a truly efficient means of production, to which biotechnology can make a decisive contribution.