Downstream processing in biotechnology

Biotechnology can be defined as the technological application that uses living organisms to make high-value added products. It is an important technology which is intended to improve the quality of human life. Biotechnology has been researched for a long time and has gained more focus in the recent years to achieve sustainable operation. A vital part of biotechnology is the technology that enables bringing the idea developed in the lab into market. For any bio-project downstream processing plays an important role in order to develop a process that is safe, clean and economic. Downstream processing in biotechnology concerns the separation and purification of the bio-product downstream of the fermenter as the name implies and this is the focus of this book. The authors are process engineers with extensive knowledge in biotechnology. They have long years of experience both in industry and academics. They have written this book for undergraduates in process engineering (biotechnological, mechanical or chemical) and graduate biologists doing a minor on the technology. It is important that people working in the lab (biologist and biochemists) know how their experiments will be used in scaling up and process engineers understand the experiments taking place in the lab. The book is structured as 11 lessons describing common steps in the production of a bio-product starting with fermentation and ending with purification. A number of process steps are involved in production. After fermentation which is introduced in lesson 1, intracellular products are released from the cells. Lesson 2 describes different methods for releasing intracellular products. Then, cells or cell debris are removed from the broth and in lesson 3 major techniques used in clarifying the broth are discussed. The clarified broth contains a large amount of water so the next step is concentration and lessons 4 and 5 concentrate on this subject. Further separations then follow to purify the product: liquid/liquid extraction (lesson 6), crystallization (lesson 7) and distillation (lesson 8). To have a product with very high purity extreme purification with sorption processes are required. These purification processes are described in lessons 9 and 10. The final lesson concentrates on designing the optimal process considering the recycling and sequencing of separation steps. Derivations of several equations used in the lessons throughout the book are given at the end of the book. The book is well organized and contains valuable information for all the common separation and purification techniques in biotechnology starting in the lab and ending in the plant. The authors have selected a level suitable to be understood easily by people from both the lab and from the plant side. It bridges the world of laboratory staff who are experimenting in the lab for product development and the world of process engineers who enable large scale production of the product. It is good that at the end of each lesson the authors have a number of exercises to test the information acquired through the chapter. Brief answers are provided at the end of the book and a website link is given where detailed calculations can be found. On this website, it is good to see that authors have also provided PowerPoint slides that contain all the figures in the book. These materials will prove useful to teachers in setting up their lectures. The lessons do not contain comprehensive coverage of each subject but the authors have provided further reading suggestions after each lecture where the reader can access in-depth knowledge on each subject. The book contains some typos but being the first edition, this is expected. All in all, this is an appealing book for undergraduate engineers in the field of biotechnology as well as graduate biologists and biochemists.