INDUSTRIAL MICROBIOLOGY

Industrial Microbiology, is concerned with all aspects of business that relate to microbiology. In a more restricted sense, industrial microbiology is concerned with

(i) Employing microorganisms to produce a desired product, and with

(ii) Preventing microbes from diminishing the economic value of various products.

It is an important area of applied microbiology. It refers to the use of microorganisms in commercial enterprise and Cheap raw materials are converted to valuable products through the metabolism of microbes.

Various commercial products of economic value made by microbes are :
(i) Medicines i.e. pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics, steroids, human protein, vaccines,and vitamins,

(ii)Organicacids,

(iii)Aminoacids,
(vi)Enzymes,
(v)Alcohols,
(vi)Organic solvents and
(vii) Synthetic fuels.

  In addition to these, quite recently potential of microbes could also be realised in

(viii)Recovery of metals from ores through bioleaching,

(ix)Recovery of petrol, and
(x) Single cell protein production - the use of microbes themselves as food.

Use of microbes to obtain a product or service of economic value constitutes industrial microbiology. Any process mediated by or involving microorganisms in which a product of economic value is obtained is called fermentation.

The activities in industrial microbiology begin with the isolation of microorganisms from nature, their screening for product formation, improvement of product yields, maintenance of cultures, mass culture using bioreactors, and usually end with the recovery of products and their purification.

The microorganisms used in industrial processes may be natural isolates, laboratory selected mutants or genetically engineered organisms.

 Industrial microbiology or microbial biotechnology encompasses the use of microorganisms in the manufacture of food or industrial products.

The microbial product may be microbial cells (living or dead), microbial biomass, and components of microbial cells, intracellular or extracellular enzymes or chemicals produced by the microbes utilizing the medium constituents or the provided substrate.

The use of microorganisms for the production of food, either human or animal, is often considered a branch of food microbiology.

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