[EBOOK] Environmental Biotechnology - Theory and Application, Gareth M. Evans and Judith C. Furlong, Published by JOHN WILEY and SONS, LTD

This work inevitably sprang out of our environmental biotechnology modules at the University of Durham, but it is not intended to be just another ‘book of the course’. Though it is clearly rooted in these origins, it reflects our wider, and rather varied, experiences of the field. In many respects, we have been fortunate; teaching has undoubtedly drawn on the ‘theory’, while our own consultancy has tended to focus us on the ‘application’. Indeed, our own particular backgrounds mean that our partnership is based in both the academic and the practical. Like many before us, we came to the subject largely by accident and via other original disciplines, in the days before educational institutions offered anything other than traditional programmes of study and, please remember, this was not so long ago. The rise of environmental studies, which must surely be amongst the most inherently applicable of applied sciences, and the growing importance of biotechnology usage in this respect, remain two of the most encouraging developments for the future of our planet.

Within a very short time, biotechnology has come to play an increasingly important role in many aspects of everyday life. The upsurge of the ‘polluter pays’ principle, increasing pressure to revitalise the likes of former industrial sites and recent developments within the waste industry itself have combined to alter the viability of environmental biotechnology radically in the last five years. Once an expensive and largely unfamiliar option, it has now become a realistic alternative to many established approaches for manufacturing, land remediation, pollution control and waste management. Against a background of burgeoning disposal costs and ever more stringent legislation and liabilities, the application of biologically engineered solutions seems certain to continue its growth.

The purpose of this book is a straightforward one: to present a fair reflection of the practical biological approaches currently employed to address environmental problems, and to provide the reader with a working knowledge of the science that underpins them. In this respect, it differs very little from the ethos of our course at Durham and we are grateful to each successive wave of students for constantly reminding us of the importance of these two goals. In other ways, this work represents a major departure. Freed from the constraints of time and the inevitable demands of exams, we have been afforded the luxury in this book of being able to include far more in each section than could reasonably be covered in a traditional series of lectures on the topic. In some places, this has allowed us to delve in deeper detail, while in others it has permitted some of the lesser well-known aspects of this fascinating discipline to be aired anew.

We have adopted what we feel is a logical structure, addressing technologies in as cohesive a manner as possible, given the intrinsic interrelatedness of so much of our subject matter. While the fundamental structure is, of course, intended to unify the whole work, we have tried to make each chapter as much of a ‘standalone’ as possible, in an attempt to make this a book which also encourages ‘dipping in’. Ultimately, of course, the reader will decide how successful we have been.

The text falls into three main parts. The early chapters examine issues of the role and market for biotechnology in an environmental context, the essential biochemistry and microbiology which enables them to be met, and the fundamental themes of biological intervention. The technologies and applications themselves make up the central core of the book, both literally and figuratively and, fittingly, this is the largest part. Finally, aspects of integration and the future development of environmental biotechnology are addressed.

This subject is inherently context-dependent - a point which recurs throughout the discussion - and local modalities can conspire to shape individual best practice in a way unknown in other branches of biotechnology. What works in one country may not in another, not because the technology is flawed, but often simply because economic, legislative or societal barriers so dictate. The environmental biotechnologist must sometimes perform the mental equivalent of a circus act in balancing these many and different considerations. It is only to be expected, then, that the choices we have made as to what to include, and the relative importance afforded them, reflect these experiences. It is equally inevitable that some readers will take issue with these decisions, but that has always been the lot of writers. As an editor of our acquaintance once confided, the most powerful drive known to our species is not for survival, nor to procreate, but to alter someone else’s copy.

It has been said that the greatest thing that anyone can achieve is to make a difference. We hope that, in writing this book, we will, in some small way, do just that.

[EBOOK] Environmental  Biotechnology - Theory and Application, Gareth M. Evans and Judith C. Furlong, Published by JOHN WILEY and SONS, LTD

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