Maintworld Magazine 4/2023

BIOCATALYSIS
What biocatalysis
has to offer for
green industries
and city planning?
In our world, anything nearly perfect tends to be stamped as fantasy.
Does this kind of statement imply the character of human endeavour,
its very essence? On the contrary, nature represents purity and clarity.
Text and images: ELIAS HAKALEHTO AND TARMO HUMPPI
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
• Elias Hakalehto, PhD, Adjunct
Professor in the Universities of
Helsinki and Eastern Finland,
Microbiologist and Biotechnologist,
CEO of Finnoflag Oy, Vice President
of the International Society of
Environmental Indicators.
• Tarmo Humppi, PhD, Principal
Scientist, Chemist, Retired from the
Finnish Defence Research Agency.
All of us have been staring at
the starry night. The organisation
of the macrocosm can
equally well be seen in the
microscopic world. There,
the microorganisms make the wheels of
the microcosmic universe turn around.
Together with plants and animals, they
comprise the constituents of the biosphere.
Why, then, do human industries get contented
with anything less? Microbes and
their enzymes could make the wheels turn
around in future industries.
Recently, it has become increasingly
evident that heavy and fast industrialization
not only elevated our standard of living but
has also led us to the brink of abysmal ecocatastrophes.
Fortunately, we have the vast
resources of molecular universes in our use
to avoid their aftermath or repair the damages.
Sadly, we have wasted those resources
for a long time.
"There is plenty of room at the bottom".
The saying of physicist Richard
Feynman in 1959 gives us many leads.
It has actualized in the IT revolution of
our times. This has enabled giant steps
in industrial control and maintenance
of machinery, steering and adjustments
of processes, flow of information, and,
last but not least, ecological efficiency.
We have eventually come closer to
the ways of functioning of biological
entities, ecosystems, and the cells and
Fig 2. Food production around and in the cities can happen in a cleaned-up environment of biocatalytically furnished soil, water and air.
Bioprocesses are developed for the removal of recalcitrant substances, pollutants and eutrophication. The past burdens can be converted
into novel products by biocatalysis.
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