TERM PAPER

OF

ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

TOPIC:APPLICATIONS IN ENVIRONMENTAL
BIOTECH
SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Miss Nisha Neha Bhatia

Btech Mtech biotech

G77M2

ROLL NO: 3
 3040070014

ABSTRACT

Environmental biotechnology is when biotechnology is applied to and used to study the natural
environment. Environmental biotechnology could also imply that one try to harness biological
process for commercial uses and exploitation. The International Society for Environmental
Biotechnology defines environmental biotechnology as "the development, use and regulation of
biological systems for remediation of contaminated environments (land, air, water), and
for environment-friendly processes (green manufacturing technologies and sustainable
development)".

Environmental biotechnology can simply be described as "the optimal use of nature, in the form
of plants, animals, bacteria, fungi and algae, to produce renewable energy, food andnutrients in
a synergistic integrated cycle of profit making processes where the waste of each process
becomes the feedstock for another process".

INTRODUCTION

Environmental biotechnology is the use of living organisms for a wide variety of applications in
hazardous waste treatment and pollution control. For example, a fungus is being used to clean up
a noxious substance discharged by the paper-making industry.

Other naturally occurring microbes that live on toxic waste dumps are degrading wastes, such as
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), to harmless compounds. Marine biotechnologists are studying
ways that estuarine bacteria can detoxify materials such as chemical sea brines that cause
environmental problems in many industries. Environmental biotechnology can more efficiently
clean up many hazardous wastes than conventional methods and greatly reduce our dependence
for waste cleanup on methods such as incineration or hazardous waste dump sites.

Environmental engineers use bioremediation in two basic ways. They introduce nutrients to
stimulate the activity of bacteria already present in the soil at a hazardous waste site, or they add
new bacteria to the soil. The bacteria then "eat" the hazardous waste at the site and turn it into
harmless byproducts. After the bacteria consume the waste materials, they die off or return to
their normal population levels in the environment.

The vast majority of bioremediation applications use naturally occurring microorganisms to

identify and filter manufacturing waste before it is introduced into the environment or to clean up
existing pollution problems. Some more advanced systems using genetically modified
microorganisms are being tested in waste treatment and pollution control to remove difficult-to-
degrade materials.

In some cases, the byproducts of the pollution-fighting microorganisms are themselves useful.
Methane, for example, can be derived from a form of bacteria that degrades sulfur liquor, a waste
product of paper manufacturing.

APPLICATIONS IN ENVIRONTAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

1.Significance towards agriculture, food security, climate change mitigation and adaptation and
the MDGs

Science through the IAASTD has called for the advancement of small-scale agro-ecological
farming systmes and technology in order to achieve food security, climate change
mitigation,climate change adaptation and the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals.
Environmental biotechnology has been shown to play a significant roll in agroecology in the
form ofzero waste agriculture and most significantly through the operation of over 15
million biogas digesters worldwide.

2.Significance towards industrial biotechnology

Consider an environment in which pollution of a particular type is maximum. Let us consider the
effluents of a starch industry (aka Sago industry) which has mixed up with a local water body
like a lake or pond. We find huge deposits of starch which are not so easily taken up for
degradation by micro-organisms except for a few exemptions. We isolate a few micro-organisms
from the polluted site and scan for any significant changes in their genome like mutations or
evolutions.

The modified genes are then identified. This is done because, the isolate would have adapted
itself to degrade/utilize the starch better than other microbes of the same genus. Thus, the
resultant genes are cloned onto industrially significant micro-organisms and are used for more
economically significant processess like in pharmaceutical industry, fermentations...etc. Similar
situations can be elucitated like in the case of oil spills in the oceans which require cleanup,
microbes isolated from oil rich environments like oil wells, oil transfer pipelines...etc have been
found having the potential to degrade oil or use it as an energy source. Thus they serve as a
remedy to oil spills. Still another elucidation would be in the case of microbes isolated from
pesticide rich soils These would be capable of utilizing the pesticides as energy source and hence
when mixed along with bio-fertilizers, would serve as excellent insurance against increased
pesticide-toxicity levels in agricultural platform.

3. Bioremediation and Genetic engineering:

Bioremediation is a key area of ‘white’ biotechnology, because the elimination of a wide range
of pollutants from water and soils is an absolute requirement for sustainable development. There
are numerous processes of cleaning water, industrial effluents and solid wastes, using
microorganisms aerobically and anaerobically. Some of them are quite sophisticated, while
others are simple and adapted to the conditions of developing countries.

For instance, using microalgae (and in particular blue-green algae or cyanobacteria) in ponds to
eliminate nitrogen and phosphorous, after organic matter has been degraded by bacteria, leads to
water that can be recycled for irrigating non-food crops (e.g. cotton) or for industrial purposes; in
addition, microalgal biomass can be used as feed.

The molecular basis of heavy metal accumulation is being studied with a view to transferring the
relevant genes to plant species having a wider geographic and ecological distribution.
Transgenesis applied to phytoremediation is certainly incipient. Its application on a large scale is
confronted with the evaluation of risks relating to the transfer of the bacterial transgenes to plants
consumed by herbivorous animals that might acquire the property of hyper-accumulating toxic
metals or compounds. Genetic transformation of the microorganisms involved in bioremediation
could enhance the process through the introduction of genes controlling specific degradation
pathways; it also aims at degrading recalcitrant compounds such as pesticides and other
xenosubstances.

4.Removal of toxic metals:

Mercury is a highly toxic metal which, once released into water, accumulates in the food chain,
damaging fish, shrimps and poisoning people who eat them. The infamous Minamata accident
(called after a town on the Japanese island of Kyushu where the inhabitants suffered the toxic
effects of fish poisoned by mercury-rich industrial effluents) is an example of the devastating
effects of mercury on the central nervous system. Existing techniques of mercury removal, such
as precipitation or ion exchange, are expensive and not sufficiently efficient, as small but
significant amounts of mercury still remain in the water. Researchers discovered that many
bacteria had developed high tolerance to heavy metals, which related to the binding of these
metals to proteins, e.g. metallo-thionein that binds mercury.
As naturally thriving mercury-tolerant bacteria are rare and cannot be grown easily in culture,
researchers at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, inserted the metallo-thionein gene into
Escherichia coli. A sufficiently large number of genetically engineered bacteria could thus treat
mercury-polluted water inside a bioreactor. The efficiency of the procedure was high, as mercury
was removed from polluted water down to a few nanograms per litre. Once the bacteria died,
they were incinerated to recuperate the accumulated pure mercury (European Commission,
2002).

Mercury emissions were predicted to increase by 30 per cent throughout Europe between 1990
and 2010. The European Commission funded a demonstration project to show the feasibility and
profitability of the microbial remediation technology under real time conditions. A plant was set
up at Usti-nad-Labem in the Czech Republic, and has been operating since July 2000 (European
Commission, 2002).

While phycoremediation is bioremediation based on the use of micro- and macro-algae,

phytoremediation, relies on higher plants to clean water and soils from heavy metals and other
pollutants, or to recolonize former mining areas (e.g. in South Africa, Australia, USA, Canada,
France, etc.). For instance, heavy metals in industrial effluents can be concentrated in aquatic
plants (e.g. the Azolla fern and water lentils – Lemna spp.) and thereafter recovered.

5.Application in environmental genomics:-

• Applies knowledge gained on gene identification, structure and expression to

environmental protection & management:

• Can rapidly identify species in complex environments

• Can indicate how environmental stressors affect gene expression in humans, animals &
plants

• Can demonstrate deleterious effects at molecular level before organism-level effects are
shown.

• Genomics builds upon and enhances traditional approaches to environmental toxicology

determination

• Genomics provides an understanding of organisms and biological systems that is a

prerequisite for understanding environmental change

• A key objective for environmental science is improved understanding, identification, and

prevention of environmental problems

• The behaviour and response of an organism / groups of organisms to environmental

stressors is ultimately controlled by genes and the products they encode.

• Genomics can provide the next generation tools to help protect and manage the
environment:

• Environmental remediation & restoration (e.g. plants that can clean up contaminated
sites)

• Pollution abatement, prevention & detection (e.g. identification of soil / water pathogens,
toxicants)

• Wildlife management & conservation biology techniques (e.g. genetic ‘barcoding’ for
species identification)

• High throughput analysis and identification of soil / freshwater / marine microbial

community
 • Genomics could be critical to examining biotechnology’s potential impacts on the
environment, such as:

• Unintended properties of genetically modified organisms (toxicity, allergenicity)

• Emergence of invasive species

• Displacement of native species

• Spread of new ‘pest’ species

• Gene transfer occurrence and mechanisms from genetically modified organisms to other
organisms

6.Biotechnology in Pollution Control-

Environmental biotechnology is concerned, both with the implications and

applications of biotechnology in the wider context of environment. Due to rapid
industrialization, urbanization and other developments, there is a constant threat to the
clean environment and to the depleting natural resources. Among implications, there is
also att alarm due to release of genetically engineered organisms in the atmosphere
and also due to the release of effluents from biotechnological companies, so that the
environmentalists are having a debate on the effects of developments in biotechnology
on the environment.

Biological treatment of effluents is a long established practice in many countries, but

Microbial degradation of chloro-, dichloro- and trichloromethanes and carbontftra
chloride is also used to dea1 with the problem.

Some constituents of these effluents are calcitrants and are thus not amenable to
conventional treatments. Biotechnology helps in overcoming this problem.

• Still another elucidation would be in the case of microbes isolated from

pesticide rich soils These would be capable of utilizing the pesticides as energy
source and hence when mixed along with bio-fertilizers, would serve as
excellent insurance against increased pesticide-toxicity levels in agricultural
platform. Pollution abatement, prevention & detection (e.g. identification of
soil / water pathogens, toxicants)

7.Fermentation Technology

In several fermentation technologies used currently, there are serious environmental

implications, so that cleaner technologies for fermentation have been devised using
biotechnological approaches, thus reducing the risk of environmental damage. This
will be illustrated using the example of Provesteem, a single seed protein (SCP).

This was initially produced by yeast fermentation and patented in 1972 by Provesta
Corporation, a subsidiary of Phillips Petroleum in USA. Provesteem is 60 per cent
protein and also contains essential vitamins and minerals. It can be fed directly to
farm animals or used as a dietary supplement for human consumption by mixing it
with flour, meal or locally packaged food.

This SCP is derived from feedstocks like methanol or ethanol, which in their turn are
obtained from petroleum or natural gas.

However, in countries with little or no hydrocarban reserves, biomass in the form of

agricultural or foresty wastes can be converted into alcohol feedstock to be used for
production of SCP. Sugars like glucose or sucrose can also be used.
Biotechnological processes have beef devised, in which all nutrients introduced for
fermentation are retained in the final product, ensuring high conversion efficiency
and low environmental impact.

Purification of the Waste Bleach Waters -

(a) Biological methods. In paper industry, waste bleach waters are currently treated
using aerated lagoons (having bacteria) and activated sludge plants. These methods,
however, can not remove high molecular mass chlorinated materials. In view of this,
the use of white rot fungi is recommended, since they can degrade polymeric lignins.

However, white rot fungi have not been used on a commercial scale, due to their
complicated physiological demands (energy source), which are difficult to satisfy
on a large scale.

(b) Ultrafiltration combined with biological treatment. Ultrafiltration of the

effluents of paper industry reduces TOCI from 50% to 35-45% (3 kg/tonne pulp),
which can be further reduced to 2 kg/tonne pulp, by combining ultrafiltration with
oxygen bleaching. The effluent, however, is still acutely toxic, so that further
biological treatment is needed. Following biological methods are available:

(i) use of aerated lagoons, which are expensive:

(ii) fungal treatment, particularly filamentous fungi (e.g. white-rot fungus =
Phanerochaete chrysosporum), which can be filtered off and recirculated to the
process.

ENVIRONMENTALMONITORING

The techniques of biotechnology are providing us with novel methods for diagnosing
environmental problems and assessing normal environmental conditions so that we
can be better-informed environmental stewards. Companies have developed methods
for detecting harmful organic pollutants in the soil using monoclonal antibodies and
the polymerase chain reaction, while scientists in government labs have produced
antibody-based biosensors that detect explosives at old munitions sites. Not only are
these methods cheaper and faster than laboratory methods that require large and
expensive instruments, but they are also portable. Rather than gathering soil samples
and sending them to a laboratory for analysis, scientists can measure the level of
contamination on site and know the results immediately.

Industries That Benefit

The chemical industry: using biocatalysts to produce novel compounds, reduce waste
byproducts and improve chemical purity.

The plastics industry: decreasing the use of petroleum for plastic production by
making "green plastics" from renewable crops such as corn or soybeans.

The paper industry: improving manufacturing processes, including the use of enzymes
to lower toxic byproducts from pulp processes.The textiles industry: lessening toxic
byproducts of fabric dying and finishing processes. Fabric detergents are becoming
more effective with the addition of enzymes to their active ingredients.

The food industry: improving baking processes, fermentation-derived preservatives

and analysis techniques for food safety.

The livestock industry: adding enzymes to increase nutrient uptake and decrease
phosphate byproducts.
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