Industrial & Environmental Biotech

Catalog description

This course examines the technologies, applications, economic potential, and societal implications of biotechnology in industrial and environmental contexts. Topics include the scope and historical development of industrial biotechnology; systems biology and fermentation processes; directed evolution of biocatalysts; industrial enzyme production and applied biocatalysis; and downstream processing. Additional focus is given to applications in the chemical, pharmaceutical, food, feed, paper, and biofuel industries. Environmental biotechnology topics include wastewater and drinking water treatment, phosphorus removal, anaerobic digestion and methanogenesis, bioremediation and detoxification of hazardous compounds, and the production of value-added products from organic waste. The course also introduces emerging areas such as nanobiotechnology.