The application of science and engineering in the direct or indirect use of living organisms, or plants or products of living organism, in their natural or modified form. European Federation of Biotechnology defined biotechnology as “The integrated use of biochemistry, microbiology and engineering sciences in order to achieve technological (industrial) application of capabilities of the microorganisms, cultured tissue cells and parts thereof”.US National Science Foundation defined biotechnology as “The controlled use of biological agents such as microorganisms or cellular components for beneficial use.” UN Convention on Biological Diversity defined biotechnology: "Biotechnology means any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use.

ENVIRONMENT BIOTECHNOLOGY

Environmental biotechnology is the use of living organisms for a wide variety of applications in hazardous waste treatment and pollution control. For example, a fungus is being used to clean up a noxious substance discharged by the paper-making industry. Naturally occurring microbes that live on toxic waste dumps are degrading wastes, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), to harmless compounds. Environmental biotechnology can more efficiently clean up many hazardous wastes than conventional methods and greatly reduce our dependence for waste cleanup on methods such as incineration or hazardous waste dump sites.

USE OF ENVIRONMENT BIOOTECHNOLOGY

Using biotechnology to treat pollution problems is not a new idea. Communities have depended on complex populations of naturally occurring microbes for sewage treatment for over a century. Every living organism—animals, plants, bacteria and so forth—ingests nutrients to live and produces a waste byproduct as a result. Different organisms need different types of nutrients. Certain bacteria thrive on the chemical components of waste products. Some microorganisms, for example, feed on toxic materials such as methylene chloride, detergents and creosote. Bioremediation in done in two basic ways. They introduce nutrients to stimulate the activity of bacteria already present in the soil at a hazardous waste site, or they add new bacteria to the soil. The bacteria then “eat” the hazardous waste at the site and turn it into harmless byproducts. After the bacteria consume the waste materials, they die off or return to their normal population levels in the environment. The vast majority of bioremediation applications use naturally occurring microorganisms to identify and filter manufacturing waste before it is introduced into the environment or to clean up existing pollution problems. Some more advanced systems using genetically modified microorganisms are being tested in waste treatment and pollution control to remove difficult-to-degrade materials. In some cases, the byproducts of the pollution-fighting microorganisms are themselves useful. Methane, for example, can be derived from a form of bacteria that degrades sulfur liquor, a waste product of paper manufacturing. The techniques of biotechnology are providing us with novel methods for diagnosing environmental problems and assessing normal environmental conditions. Different methods for detecting harmful organic pollutants in the soil using mono-clonal antibodies and the polymerase chain reaction have been developed Scientists have produced antibody-based biosensors that detect explosives at old munitions sites.