Bioprocessing and Biotechnology Option
The Toyota Raum implements the use of bio-plastics. Bioprocessing and biotechnology engineers are developing methods for making many of the petroleum based products that we use every day out of renewable biological materials. For example, OSU's BAE department is developing Grass-a-hol, a new liquid fuel made from switchgrass. Other bio-based products include, solvents, paints, adhesives, and medicine. An additional benefit to bio-based products is that they are more biodegradable than petroleum based products.
Companies today face major pressure to protect the environment from environmental disasters such as oil spills. In this era of environmental consciousness, bioremediation, the use of microbes to treat toxic effluents, is gaining prominence thanks to work by bioprocessing and biotechnology engineers.
In the Back to the Future trilogy, when Doc Brown visited the future (2015) he found the solution to the problem of needing plutonium or a lightning bolt to power the Delorean: a Mr. Fusion Home Energy Converter, which converted garbage into energy. Although garbage powered time travel is not a reality, using waste products to produce energy is a growing field that uses the expertise of a bioprocessing and biotechnology engineer.