SEMESTER 3 SDV CLASS 5

BIOTECHNOLOGY
THIRD TIME LUCKY
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1. Biotechnology – a good idea or a bad idea?
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Here is a list of biotechnology applications.
What do you know about each application? Is it a good idea or a bad idea?
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Genetically modified soya
Pest-resistant crops
Using microbes to make medicines
Genetically modified cats (allergy free)
Bio-refineries
Using enzymes to make chemicals
Transgenic tomatoes
Growing GM Maize for biofuel
GM rice with extra vitamin D
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Then compare your ideas with a partner.
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1. Scan the article quickly, which of the above applications are mentioned?
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2. Find the information: What is white biotechnology? Note down the essentials.

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3. More detail: The companies and their products.

Take notes on one of the companies discussed in the article. Your partner will take notes on the other
company. When you are ready, interview each other to complete the information.

4. Differences of opinion…. True or false? Or is there no information?

! a) People are suspicious of GM foods because they give power to large agricultural companies.
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b) Consumers are not aware that industrial-biotech products exist.
! c) People are suspicious when something natural is replaced using bioengineering.
! d) People are keen to find ecological applications which eliminate chemical processes.
! e) Growing non- food crops for oil is more efficient than converting agricultural waste into energy.
! f) White biotechnology will have a positive impact on remote rural areas.
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Third time lucky
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Jun 4th 2009

From The Economist print edition
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Industrial biotech: A “third wave” of biotechnology is arriving. Will it be able to avoid a poor
reception from the general public this time around?
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1. FOR a long time the public has perceived biotechnology to mean dangerous meddling with
the genes in food crops. But biotechnology is of course about much more than transgenic food: it
also encompasses the use of microbes to make pharmaceuticals, for example. The many benefits of
the first wave of biotech products, in medicine, have unfortunately been overshadowed by the
supposed risks of biotech’s second wave, in agriculture. Might its third wave—so-called industrial
biotech, also known as “white biotech” or “green chemistry”—resolve biotech’s image problem?
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2. As with other forms of biotechnology, industrial biotech involves engineering biological
molecules and microbes with desirable new properties. What is different is how they are then used: to
replace chemical processes with biological ones. Whether this is to produce chemicals for other
processes or to create products such as biopolymers with new properties, there is huge scope to
harness biology to accomplish what previously needed big, dirty chemical factories, but in cleaner
and greener ways.
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3. Sales of industrial-biotechnology products were about $140 billion in 2007, and 6% of all
chemicals sales were generated with the help of biotechnology, says Jens Riese of McKinsey, a
consulting firm. Steen Riisgaard, chief executive of Novozymes, a biotechnology company, says he
imagines a future in which bio-refineries are dotted around the countryside producing fuels and
other chemicals from biomass such as agricultural waste.
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4. One company which has been working in industrial biotechnology for years is DSM, based in
Heerlen in the Netherlands. In the 1990s it started making enzymes for cheese and omega-6 fatty
acids for infant formulas, and went on to develop a biological process to produce cephalosporin, an
antibiotic, in a much cleaner way than the chemical processes used to make the drug. Its most
recent effort has been to find a biological way to produce a chemical called succinic acid
(C4H6O4), which is used to make a wide range of products including spandex, biopolymers for
agriculture, de-icing salts, esters, resins and acidity regulators in foods.
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5. The usual chemical process involves making succinic acid from crude oil or natural gas. DSM’s
biological approach is based on fermentation using enzymes and genetically engineered microbes.
After a successful pilot-production phase, the next step is a demonstration factory in Lestrem, France,
which will be running by the end of the year. If that goes well, a much bigger commercial operation
will follow. The company says that as well as making succinic acid from biologically derived starch,
rather than fossil fuels, its process also uses 40% less energy and produces fewer carbon-dioxide
emissions.
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6. Novozymes, as its name suggests, has focused its attention on supplying optimised enzymes—
biological molecules that help make reactions happen faster, or at lower temperatures. This sounds
trivial but it can make the difference between a commercial and a non-commercial process. The
company says it has 47% of the market for industrial enzymes, which are used in areas such as
detergents, brewing, baking or to produce animal feeds.
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8. Enzymes are the first tool of choice in white biotechnology if the chemical conversion process
is a fairly simple one. But if a more complicated series of reactions is required, or the enzyme in the
process is used up during conversion and needs to be regenerated, it is time to reach for a microbe.
Microbes can accomplish hundreds of chemical tasks at the same time and are able to recreate the
enzymes they need. Novozymes is working on a biological process to make acrylic acid
(C3H4O2) from starch or biomass rather than fossil fuels. One stage uses optimised
enzymes, and another is carried out by engineered microbes.
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9. Creating a suitable microbe involves starting off with one that does part of the job in
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question, and then convincing the microbe to specialise in that activity. (DSM found its microbe, a
yeast, living in elephant dung, where it broke down cellulose in starch; Novozymes started out with a
bacterium from its large library of microbes.) The next stage is to eliminate the things the microbe
does that are not related to the task in hand by inactivating non-essential genes. The modified
microbes are then produced in large numbers and those that are best at the job are selected. The
result is a bug that is specially adapted for a particular task.
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10. Novozymes says it is close to completing its acrylic-acid process. Around 40% of acrylic acid
produced is used to make super-absorbent material like that found in nappies (diapers); most of the
rest goes into paints and coatings. Novozymes says its process will be competitive with chemical
methods at an oil price of $60 a barrel or higher. Given the large size of the acrylic-acid market and
its steady growth (4% a year), Novozymes is confident that its process will grab a decent share.
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11. Proponents of industrial biotechnology are optimistic that they can avoid the pitfalls that
hindered the adoption of biotech crops, which have been criticised by their opponents as unnatural
“Frankenfoods” that extend corporate control of agriculture. For one thing, unlike transgenic
tomatoes, say, industrial-biotech products are not sold directly to consumers. And instead of
displacing “natural” products with bioengineered alternatives, as in agriculture, industrial
biotechnology generally displaces fossil fuels and their associated chemical processes with greener
biological alternatives. Surely that should make it easier to convince people of its benefits, and
hence to rehabilitate the notion of biotechnology more widely?
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12. One problem is that even though the raw materials used in industrial biotechnology may not
be derived from fossil fuels, they are still capable of stirring up some difficult ethical questions. In
particular, using food crops like maize as raw materials to make biofuel is already hugely
controversial because of its impact on food prices. And even growing non-food crops for industrial
use is problematic, because it can reduce the land available for food production.
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13. The use of agricultural waste is less controversial. Mr Riisgaard reckons that converting
agricultural waste into other chemicals (including fuels) using industrial biotechnology could replace
20-25% of global oil consumption. And there is plenty of waste about. He also suggests that raw
materials could be grown on marginal land which is unsuitable for food production. That is true, but it
could have knock-on effects on biodiversity. Perhaps the most promising approach for advocates of
biotechnology’s third wave is to emphasise the potential for a new, greener chemicals industry to
create jobs in remote rural areas.
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