Biochemical Engineering is one of the pillar industries of the 21st century and is the interdiscipline of biology, chemistry and engineering, being the general term of biochemical engineering and bio-processing engineering as well as being a branch of biotechnology. It is also one of the frontiers of chemical engineering disciplines and is the means for the conversion of biological technology into productivity, industrialization and commercialization.
Biochemical Engineering products are products with animals, plants, microorganisms as raw materials and processing through approaches of biochemical engineering, physics and chemistry. It is widely applied to various kinds of fields including medicine, food, feed, basic organic chemicals, organic acids and bio-pesticides.
Biochemical Engineering disciplines start from World War II with to the submerged fermentation of antibiotics and mass-production technology being the flag. In the late 1960s to mid-1980s, the successful development and research in transgenic technology, bio-catalysis and biotransformation technology, animal and plant cell culture technology, novel type of bioreactor, and novel bio-separation, this discipline has entered a new development period with the disciplinary system being gradually improved. In the late 20th century, the rapid rise of high-tech with genetic engineering as representative had opened up new areas for the further development of this discipline.
Currently bio-chemical products related to a wide range of fields including medicine and health, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, light food, chemical energy and the environment. It plays an important role on promoting the transformation of traditional industries and the emergence of new industries and has a profound and revolutionary impact on human society. To 2011, the sale of the world's biological high-tech products has reached 112.93 billion US dollars, thereby having great economic potential. Meanwhile, with the more and more strict requirement of human on the environment, biochemical products have draw more and more attention from people of all ages. Thus, bio-chemical industry also draws great interest from Governments and scientists and has become a hot topic in today's world of high-tech competition. Its level of development has become the symbol of the strength of national science and technology of a country. Especially with the rapid development of life science, people need more and more high-tech biological products. It is predicted that over the next decade, the United States and Europe and other developed countries will have their biological high-tech industry grow by 10 to 20 times and the corresponding biological chemical products also increased rapidly.