Topic > New Bioengineering Technologies: A Way to Replace Traditional Practices

Prime natural resources are decreasing in quantity and the global climate is warming in part due to greenhouse gas emissions Bioengineering offers ways to limit the need of hard-to-get natural resources, in ways that are also more sustainable and better for the environment. Such practices are also economically sustainable, as being a “green” product or facility has become a strong selling point. GMO bioengineering offers low-cost, low-maintenance methods for environmental remediation, as well as for the production of agricultural and industrial raw materials. Biorefineries, using bioreactors and separators, will replace traditional production methods by becoming cleaner, more efficient and more economical. Medical advances in tissue synthesis and other technologies will provide advanced insights into disease and treatment. The benefits of bioengineering are numerous, and the challenge is whether or not companies and governments are willing to invest in research to make cheap, clean biomanufacturing a reality. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Many consider life manipulation to be a superpower. However, people from different backgrounds have applied this superpower all over the world. Starting in Western Europe and the Middle East, with soil erosion (Andre Evette et al., 2009) and crop cultivation (Zeder, 2008), bioengineering is rooted in human history. Today, bioengineers are wielding this superpower to harness life in ways that benefit the means. production, human health and the environment. Bioengineering involves the use of natural or artificial products and organisms in medical and industrial settings. The applications of such engineering are broad, with socioeconomic and political implications at every corner. Bioengineering technology (biotechnology) is estimated to have the potential to become a multibillion-dollar industry (Dianne Ahmann and John R. Dorgan, 2007a). Today, many things are already the result of bioengineering, from eco-friendly inks, to compostable bags and coffee cups made of paper that are still durable and water-resistant. There is technology that borrows directly from nature. Fabrics that mimic the surface of a lotus leaf to create fabrics that are resistant to water, ice, microbes, and dust (Wu, Zheng, & Wu, 2005). Depending on the field, the ethics involved in bioengineering are variable. In the environment, bioengineering provides means to reduce environmental toxins and natural methods of containing water. In the manufacturing sector, ethical issues are minimal, as almost all applications aim to create more efficient and less polluting means of production (Dianne Ahmann and John R. Dorgan, 2007a). In healthcare, biotechnology offers new methods of diagnosis and research into diseases and disorders and provides materials to safely repair or replace living tissue (Bhat & Kumar, 2013). The disadvantages of bioengineering are the risk of environmental alienation with uncontrolled reactions or that product manipulations could have negative effects on humans and other organisms (Obidimma C. Ezezika and Peter A. Singer, 2010). This article aims to address the immense number of positive implications of bioengineering in the environment, manufacturing, and healthcare. The condition of the Earth is fragile. Centuries of exploitation have left many areas barren of what they once were. Technological advances have been made to better exploit environmental resources, without giving anything back in return. The byproducts of these advancesthey leave destruction and a climate that threatens to destroy the current way of life. Carbon dioxide levels have increased by more than 135% since before the industrial revolution, eclipsing expected normal fluctuation levels (Richard Alley et al., 2007). The level of waste on land and at sea continues to increase. Thermoplastic production exceeds 100 million tons per year, of which approximately 50 million tons are discarded within two years of production (Dianne Ahmann & John R. Dorgan, 2007a). Coal-fired and nuclear power plants produce approximately 400,000 and 405 tons of waste per year for each 1,000 MWe power plant, respectively (World Nuclear Association, 2015). The production of energy and petroleum-based products are major contributors to the emission of greenhouse gases and contaminants that enter the environment during production and at waste disposal sites. Greenhouse gases produced through these processes are also leading to rising water levels that threaten more than 650 million people. and dozens of countries (Thomas Dietz & Deborah Balk, 2007). Bioengineering provides a powerful tool to meet the challenges of cleaning up toxic waste, preventing disastrous floods, and reducing global consumption. Toxic wastes are the food source for some extreme organisms, and if managed properly, these organisms could be used beneficially. Using old and new biotechnology, flood defenses can be built to safeguard some of the world's largest cities and hundreds of millions of people. Finally, bioreactors offer a way to biologically mass-produce plastic, especially biodegradable or reusable plastic. The exploitation and refinement of natural resources in most cases are never 100% efficient. The waste produced often ends up contaminating nearby environments such as lakes, forests (Reece, 2011), oceans (Ingleton, 2015) and homes of local communities (Shilu Tong, Yasmin E. von Schirnding and Tippawan Prapamontol, 2000). Organisms have been found in nature that feed on some of these toxins. These primary candidates serve as the basis for further bioengineering of optimally modified toxin-scavenging organisms. The optimal organism would be one that requires little space or nutrients to reproduce and has a high metabolic rate. These organisms would also have to be engineered in some way to avoid their permanent entry into the local environment. The basis for this method of toxin cleanup is finding organisms that have already adapted to using oils, radioactive isotopes, and plastics as food sources and then genetically modifying them to perform this function at a faster and more efficient rate (Obidimma C. Ezezika & Peter A. Singer, 2010). These GMOs can then be distributed in a timely and cost-effective manner that also requires minimal oversight and operational costs. As for oil spills, it has been discovered that organisms living in the oceans naturally feed on the oil that seeps into the ocean from the seabed every day. However, these organisms do not eat oil as quickly as governments and environmentalists would like, and sometimes produce unfavorable byproducts (Obidimma C. Ezezika and Peter A. Singer, 2010). Genetic modification of these organisms would ensure that metabolism is restored and that any waste product is environmentally friendly (Brooijmans, Pastink, & Siezen, 2009). All non-renewable energy sources produce some sort of waste. Coal-fired power plants are the largest producers of waste, producing on average 125,000 tons of ash and 193,000 tons per plant.tons of sludge from the chimney scrubber every year. To make matters worse, at least 42% of coal burning, waste ponds, and landfills in the United States are unlined, contaminating local aquifers and water sources (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2012). Nuclear power plants produce, worldwide, approximately 200,000 m3 of low- and medium-level radioactive waste and approximately 10,000 m3 of high-level waste including used fuel designated as waste. Unlike waste from coal-fired power plants, nuclear waste is stored and regulated in a highly controlled manner and is incorporated into the cost of service, however over time these storage sites and the mine site can become contaminated or leaky. The organisms could be engineered to reduce the amount of waste produced by coal-fired power plants, or the carbon dioxide produced could be diverted to a bioreactor where it can be used as a feedstock in the production of organic molecules. As for nuclear waste, organisms have been found to use the decay process to live deep underground. If these organisms could also produce a less radioactive isotope, this could be a long-term solution for most storage sites (Nicolle Rager Fuller, 2015). Finally, the waste produced by daily life will end up in landfill if not completely recycled. Most of these wastes are not easily biodegradable, and those that do degrade do not always degrade into environmentally friendly substances. Most of this waste is plastic, now ubiquitous in modern life, the material is very solid and does not break easily. When it does, gases can be released, organisms can eat it, or become trapped in its rigid confines. One solution, beyond producing PLA and PHA plastic as mentioned in the paper, is to use organisms to degrade and eat this plastic. If properly engineered, these organisms would pose no threat to the environment and could be easily controlled (Yang, Yang, Wu, Zhao, & Jiang, 2014). Aside from plastic, human organic waste is also a major problem and an energy-intensive process. Bioengineering of specific systems usingThe oldest of all fields of bioengineering, erosion control using plants and natural barriers has been around for centuries. Remnants of the early designs can still be found in Western Europe and the Middle East. Traditional methods of erosion control, or water containment, involve the strategic planting of trees and other forms of growth to promote soil stability, while more modern methods incorporate vegetal, chemical, and mechanical methods (A. Evette et al ., 2009). These modern methods improve growth and allow for a greater diversity of plants used, which improves the ecosystem. In wastewater treatment, the use of local ecosystems or favorable organisms such as algae offer means to reduce the overall energy input to wastewater treatment. This is the case with algae, the populations are very easy to grow and the cycle provides a raw material for algae and the beginning, and biofuel production and then the end. This is the case of an Alabama water treatment plant, which conducted a demonstration program using local algae strains to clean wastewater. The result was a carbon-negative cycle, requiring little energy input and producing clean drinking water and algae with which to make products (Tina Casey, 2014). The previous generation's plastic bags were the byproduct ofoil refining. Offering a lightweight, durable, and economical means of transporting goods, the product became a staple of any business in the 1960s (SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade Association, 2015). Like plastic bags, thermoplastics, foams, adhesives, and many coatings all come from petroleum. Petroleum-based products account for 5-10% of global oil consumption and are a $310 billion industry in the United States alone. There are numerous problems associated with petroleum-based plastic. Oil is becoming a limited resource, end products are not degradable, there are potential links to disease, and waste entering the environment harms wildlife, creating both economically and environmentally attractive alternatives (Dianne Ahmann & John R. Dorgan, 2007a). For example, only 7% of plastic bags made it to recycling facilities in the early 2000s, leaving the rest to take up space in landfills and be mistakenly eaten by organisms that are ultimately eaten by humans (Ed Weisberg , 2006). Solutions for replacing single-use plastic bags and other petroleum-based thermoplastics come from bioengineering natural, renewable pathways in biorefineries, offering conventional supply chain-compatible processes that can benefit all aspects of the supply chain. supply. In a biorefinery, large quantities of raw materials are added and the process produces the bioplastic, polylactic acid (PLA), through fermentation and refining. Bioreactors are most efficient when placed close to the source of the raw material and do not interrupt the plastic supply chain to consumers until the item has reached the end of its production life. PLA can be left to compost or possibly burn these bioplastics to recover some of the energy used to produce them. The United States, according to the Department of Energy (DOE) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), could produce 1 billion dry tons of biomass, offsetting 30% of oil consumption by 2030 (Dianne Ahmann & John R. Dorgan, 2007b). Currently, production and processing require numerous physical and mechanical phases. These methods are inherently inefficient and incur high costs for containment and cleanup (Michael E Porter & Claas Van der Linde, 1995). If these processes were to be redesigned using renewable raw materials, efficient routes and functional products, the idea of ​​production would be rethought. This is the idea of ​​bioproduction. Biomanufacturing is a subset of bioengineering and incorporates both living and nonliving methods of using organic compounds and substrates to produce functional, everyday products such as plastics or drugs (Dianne Ahmann and John R. Dorgan, 2007a). Although energy production is outside the scope of enzyme production, it is possible to utilize the byproducts of energy production. Three bioproduction methods include genetically modified organisms (GMOs), bioreactors, and bioseparators. Each serves a different purpose, but can also work together in a larger system known as a biorefinery. GMOs, such as silkworms engineered to produce spider silk (Elizabeth Howell, 2014), are capable of producing raw materials, and in a bioreactor enzymes take the substrate and refine it into a usable product. After the bioreactor produces the product, bioseparators eliminate unwanted byproducts leaving only the product. This system can be modified to accommodate different sources ofsubstrate and bioreactors and does not always require enzymes. The most common and most promising of these refining routes is that for the replacement of thermoplastic materials and is described below. In the production of PLA, the raw material is added and reactor conditions and processes form the product. In other bioreactors, the process is truly alive. The current process uses natural enzymes to take the raw material or substrate and produce polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). PHA is a naturally occurring molecule that bacteria use to store energy, however PHA polymers have thermoplastic properties, making them very attractive for commercial purposes (Hansson et al., 2015). Currently, PHA and PLA reactors are limited to low-volume, high-value (LVHV) products, such as pharmaceuticals. Further engineering of the organisms and the process will enable the production of high-volume, low-value (HVLV) products, and photosynthesis-based reactors will eventually require no substrate. These developments, along with methods to reduce biological waste and dependence on intensively grown food crops, will dramatically reduce the environmental impact of these processes (Dianne Ahmann and John R. Dorgan, 2007a). With these improvements, biomanufacturing will become a more efficient and cost-effective mode of production, benefiting the environment and businesses. Today, biomanufacturing is a small but rapidly growing field as multinational corporations begin to invest in the technology. Currently, pharmaceutical companies are using biomanufacturing more to produce LVHV products. With the development of technology and the improvement of genetic engineering techniques, the production of HVLV products such as plastics and fuels will become a reality (Guochen Du, Lilian XL Chen, & Jian Yu, 2004). The limiting factors are only investments and time. The applications of bioengineering are vast; plastics, cosmetics, fuels, fine chemicals, blood, hormones, food, and more are all possible (Octave & Thomas, 2009). As stated previously, the possibilities and feasibility of such production depend on investment and invention in the field of bioengineering to optimize and quantify biorefining. It is conceivable that organic products will fuel entire supply chains and be carbon neutral or free. Technology is now incorporated into almost all aspects of medicine, however the new frontier is making the technology more analogous and compatible with living tissue. Bioengineering in the healthcare sector is Biomedical Engineering and takes on a new definition. To summarize Bhat&Kumar's words, biomedical engineering can be defined as any tool or material intended for introduction into or interaction with living tissue, particularly as part of a medical device or implant, which does not require activation chemistry or metabolism to be effective. , nor does it cause unwanted interactions with host tissue (Bhat & Kumar, 2013). This definition excludes pharmaceuticals, but includes imaging and diagnostic technologies that are crucial to the modern understanding of medicine. It is also worth noting that outside of procedural uses of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals are indeed beneficiaries of bioengineering. While incorporating this definition, bioengineering relies heavily on the ability to manipulate and process what nature already presents, resulting in inventions that work with and like our bodies. Medical professionals have many new tools at their disposal in diagnosing and treating diseases. When admitting a patient, the hospital bedroom is equipped with monitors connected to every part of the body considered..