Question

Give four industrial applications of biotechnology.

Answer 1

Four industrial applications of biotechnology are:

1. Biotechnology is used to produce various alcoholic beverages like wine, beer, whisky, brandy and rum. For this purpose, brewer's yeast is used for fermenting malted cereals and fruit juices. Depending on the type of the raw material used for fermentation and the type of processing, different types of alcoholic drinks are obtained.
2. Biotechnology also helps in the commercial production of non-alcoholic beverages like tea and coffee. Here microbes are used in a fermentation process called curing.
3. Vinegar i.e. acetic acid is obtained by the fermentation of fruit juices.
4. A number of organic acids like citric acid, lactic acid, butyric acid etc. are obtained by biotechnological methods by employing several acid producing microbes.
5. Biotechnological techniques help in the production of certain enzymes for industrial use. For example proteases, lipases and amylases are obtained from cultures of yeasts like Saccharomyces and Torula and certain bacteria.