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Biotechnology is the use of
microbes, or life processes to produce materials and products
that are useful to mankind. That is to say, any
technique that uses living organisms, or parts of organisms,
to make or modify products, improve plants or animals, or to
develop microorganisms for specific uses can be defined as
biotech.
The
term was coined around 1915 but biotechnology, in one form or
another, has been around since prehistoric times.
Centuries ago people discovered, quite by accident, how to
make use of biological processes that naturally occur within
living cells. While they might not have understood the
processes, they did observed the results. They discovered, for
example, that microbes like bacteria and moulds produced beer,
wine and vinegar when grown in vats. Through trial and error,
they learned to use these processes to solve problems and
produce materials that were useful to mankind.
In
recent years our understanding of biotechnology has
accelerated and as a result, biotechnology has come to
indicate the application of a much more sophisticated set of
techniques and tools. These tools and techniques, taken from
biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, cell biology and
chemistry, are used to address a variety of problems.
The
last four decades have seen lively developments in
Biotechnology and EcoChem believes that the importance of
Biotechnology is comparable to Microelectronics and Computer
technology, and in the next century it will probably play a
similar role to that of Chemistry in the industrial
development of the 20th century.
EcoChem
uses of modern biotechnology to make microbes perform specific
useful tasks in a predictable and controllable manner. For
example, the CBPA waste management strategy is a process
whereby biological decomposition occurs under controlled
conditions. In this process the BM component in CBPA
eliminates harmful microorganisms that cause odor and
increases rapid decomposition of the biodegradable component
in organic matter.
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