Environmental biotechnology: Its relevance, challenges and prospects for developing countries

摘要

This paper describes the relevance, challenges and prospects of environmental biotechnology for developing countries, with special emphasis on Malaysia. The subject has been introduced at graduate level in many universities to foster a multidisciplinary approach for training a new generation of environmental scientists and engineers. Environmental biotechnology has been widely utilized to improve our understanding of microbial population, its character, prominent species and genetic codes, and the techniques are also applied in process control and optimization of waste treatment plants, polluted site remediation and resource recovery. Once an expensive and largely unfamiliar option, it has now become a realistic alternative to many established approaches in manufacturing, remediation, pollution control and waste management. Recent developments in biotechnology has opened up numerous challenges and opportunities to the research community and the practitioners. These include development of simple molecular procedures, more reliable usage as biosensors and bioinformatics for environmental control and management. These challenges, coupled with recent developments in information technology, materials science, nanotechnology and microelectronics will surely enhance the state-of-the-art technologies in water and waste management problems.