Table 2 Problems to be solved for making industrial biotechnology competitive to chemical technology
From: New challenges and opportunities for industrial biotechnology
Problems | Weakness of Industrial biotechnology | Possible solutions |
|---|---|---|
Microorganisms grow too slow | Slow: production takes days | Minimizing the microbial cells |
Microbes can not use mixed substrates | Agricultural products are mostly mixed substrates | Assembling pathways that can metabolize mixed substrates |
Low conversion of substrates to products | Cell metabolism turn substrates into CO2, H2O & byproducts | Removing unnecessary pathways consuming substrates |
High Consumption on fresh H2O | Fresh H2O as medium et al. | Utilization of sea water for cell growth |
Microbial cells grow to very low density | Product concentration low: Several mg to 100 g/L | Minimizing oxygen demand for aerobic cells & reducing Quorum sensing effects |
Discontinuous processing | Contamination concerns | Developing continuous process |
Sterilization costs high | High pressed steam | Contamination resisting strains grown in open systems |
High energy demand for intensive aeration | Aerobic microorganisms need a lot of oxygen for growth | Developing anaerobic bioprocesses |
Difficulty to control the bio-processes | Complicated cellular metabolisms | Artificial cells that contain only necessary metabolic pathways |
One product by one microbial organism | Different organism has different strength. | Development of a platform organism for many products |
Organisms consume food related products | Food for Fuels (Chemicals) | Kitchen wastes or activated sludge as substrates |
Production facility costly | Costly materials and sensors | The use of carbon steel facilities et al. |