Chapter 1 An introduction to biotechnological innovations in the chemical industry 1.1 Introduction Although chemistry as an emperical fundamental dicipline has a long history, its application in industry gained importance after the introduction of the use of fossil nergy sources during the industrial revolution. The chemical industry withdraws non-renewable materials, mainly fossil oil, from the earth's reserves to use as an energy source and as ssi oil a source of raw materials for production processes. The products so produced are rather different from naturally occurring materials and mankind has become heavily dependent on them. However, other energy and raw material sources have to be sought because fossil sources are non-renewable and will eventually become depleated renewable Nowadays, renewable biological materials such as starch, sugar, oils and molasses are biological used on a relatively small scale as energy and raw materials for the chemical industry maunal These biological sources are mainly derived from waste products and overproduction in agriculture. With these materials less drastic conversions are applied, in comparison ith fossil oil, in order to make as much as possible of the chemical structure present in e raw material. Such conversions are therefore generally performed by micro-organisms or parts of them. This means that the production process includes at least one biological conversion step 1.2 Production processes Inproduction processes, raw material are converted into desired produc 8 unit operatons of unit operations. Such unit operations may be few in number and they are gether in a logical Typical unit t operations include such activities transport of solids and liquids, the transfer of heat, crysallisation, collection and drying In a chemical production process at least one of the unit operations(the chemical reactor)is the place in which chemical conversion takes place. Ho owever, the upstream& reactor is proceeded by a series of unit operations in which the new materials are instream prepared (the upstream operations). After conversion has taken place, the products are operations subjected to a further series of unit operations(the downstream operations).These downstream ope tions include product recovery and purification steps. a typical example of a production process is illustrated in Figure 1.1 Which of the unit operations described in Figure 1.1 represents the chemical reactor You should have identified the"conversion step2 Chapter 1 non-renewable fossil oil renewable biibgical material mitoperations upstream& downstream operations An introduction to biotechnological innovations in the chemical industry 1.1 Introduction Although chemistry as an emperical fundamental dicipline has a long history, its application in industry gained importance after the introduction of the use of fossil energy sources during the industrial revolution. The chemical industry withdraws materials, mainly fossil oil, from the earth's reserves to use as an energy source and as a source of raw materials for production processes. The products so produced are rather different from naturally occurring materials and mankind has become heavily dependent on them. However, other energy and raw material sources have to be sought because fossil sources are non-renewable and will eventually become depleated. Nowadays, renewable biological materials such as starch, sugar, oils and molasses are used on a relatively small scale as energy and raw materials for the chemical industry. These biological sources are mainly derived from waste products and overproduction in agriculture. With these materials less drastic conversions are applied, in comparison with fossil oil, in order to make as much as possible of the chemical structure present in the raw material. Such conversions are therefore generally performed by micruorganisms or parts of them. This means that the production process includes at least one biological conversion step. 1.2 Production processes In production processes, raw material are converted into desired products using a series of unit operations. Such unit operations may be few in number and they are linked together in a logical sequence. Typical unit operations include such activities as the transport of solids and liquids, the transfer of heat, crysallisation, collection and drymg. In a chemical production process at least one of the unit operations (the chemical reactor) is the place in which chemical conversion takes place. However, the chemical reactor is proceeded by a series of unit operations in which the new materials are prepared (the upstream operations). After conversion has taken place, the products subjected to a further series of unit operations (the downstream operations). These downstream operations include product recovery and purification steps. A typical example of a production process is illustrated in Figure 1.1. Which of the unit operations described in Figure 1.1 represents the chemical n reactor? You should have identified the "conversion step