Introduction to Biochemical

Engineering

Biochemical Engineering is concerned with

the conducting biological processes on an
industrial scale. This area links biological
science with chemical engineering
 Biotechnology
• Biotechnology can be broadly defined as
“Commercial techniques that use living
organisms, or substances from those organisms, to
make or modify a product, including techniques
used for the improvement of the characteristics of
economically important plants and animals and for
the development of microorganisms to act on the
environment
It is the application of science and
engineering principles to the processing of
materials by biological agents or direct
treatment of biological materials for the
production of goods and services
• Recombinant DNA and Cell fusion are the best
examples of biotechnology.
 Recombinant DNA: allows the direct manipulation of
genetic material of individual cells, which may be used to
develop microorganisms that produce new products as well as
useful organisms.
Cell fusion: is a process to form a single hybrid cell with
nuclei and cytoplasm from two different types of cells in order
to combine the desirable characteristics of the two.
 Applications of biotechnology
• Pharmaceuticals: To produce antibiotics, antigens, human growth
hormone, insulin, vaccines…….
• Animal agriculture: For the developments of disease free seed
stocks and Healthier, higher yielding food animals.
• Plant agriculture : For transfer of stress, Herbicide, development
of plants with the increased abilities of photosynthesis or nitrogen
fixation, for the developments of biological insecticides…….
• Environmental applications: For mineral leaching, metal
concentration, pollution control, toxic was degradation, and enhanced oil
recovery.
Typical biological process
  Preparation of inoculums and medium,
 Inoculum scale up,
 Inoculating the inoculums in the culture
Upstream media/bioreactor,
process  Controlling of pH and temperature

Production of:
Bioprocess Microbial cells (biomass) e.g bakery yeast, SCP
(Fermentation) Microbial metabolites e.g alcohols, organic acids
Microbial enzymes e.g invertase, lipase
 Recombinant products

 Removal of insolubles
Downstream
 Product isolation, purification and polishing
process
 Effluent treatment