Applications of Microorganisms in Industrial Biotechnology

The field of microbiology and biotechnology are intertwined since time immemorial however the ties between the two areas became prominent in the last century. The areas provided various products which enriched mankind in various ways mainly in the form of food and succeeded in producing medicines. There was no technology which provoked the humans to understand the mechanisms involved whilst using microbes. In previous millennia, microbes were utilized by humans for several needs; however there was no scope of understanding the machinery to the complete detail. The nineteenth century bore an outstanding scientist named Louis Pasteur who pioneered in industrial microbiology. His understanding of microbes laid a path to the other discoveries which made human life more comfortable and also increment in life span is clearly noticed. The fight against infectious diseases has progressed with the advancements in microbiology. The era of mass production of the microbial products initiated mainly with citric acid production. The Second World War provided an essentiality to understand the process of preservation of products in aseptic conditions. The economically viable products such as vaccines, cytokines, pharmaceuticals and foods were produced in a large scale due to advancements in genetic engineering in the seventies. The applied microbiology and biotechnology are playing a crucial role in dictating national economy, medicine, agriculture, environmental protection and pharmaceuticals. The main reason to devise this part of literature is to introduce and summarize the current state of knowledge which concerns microbial application in large scale production lines. This book is built on my experiences with several research fronts during these two decades. The field of industrial microbiology and biotechnology deals with exploitation of microbes is a systematic manner in order to obtain goods and services for human welfare. The two immediate aspect of industrial microbiology are fermentation processes and service delivery especially in pollution control. It is assumed that the reader may have got some learned experience in microbiology to understand this book. The students of any life sciences and chemistry can understand the concept delivered in this book without any hassles. The application of microbiology in industrial biotechnology is broadly emphasized in this book. The chapters were designed to let the reader take a systematic study without getting struck at any concept and never feel confused.