Chemical process engineering is the critical link that transforms basic research discoveries into commercial reality. The role of chemical process engineering in marine biotechnology, as the technology of industrial exploitation of biochemical marine systems, is illustrated. The scientific disciplines underlying biotechnology are pointed out. Chemical engineering is described as an established discipline, drawing upon chemical, biological and engineering sciences, and concerned with design, development, implementation and operation of processes and process plant for handling biological materials. The present status of chemical process engineering in marine biotechnology has been described. Key engineering challenges, including design, development, modeling and evaluation of sustainable production systems employing phototrophic organisms, development of metabolic engineering and immobilized cell and enzyme bioreactors, environmental aspects of large-scale photobioreactors, and bioproduct formulation, especially with reference to stability and functionality are presented.

Seas and oceans cover 71% of earth's surface and represent an enormous source of biological and chemical diversity. According to prognostic estimates, about 20 million species of various organisms live in the ocean, although only 160 thousands of them have been reliably described to date by marine biologists (Elyakov and Stonik, 2003). A relatively small number of marine plants, animals, and microbes have already yielded more than 12,000 novel chemicals (Faulkner, 2001). Despite the fact that marine biota is substantially inferior to terrestrial biota in the number of species (0.8-1.4 million species of insects and 270 thousand species of terrestrial green plants have been described), it is considered that 70-80% of earth's inhabitants live in seawater (Adrianov, 2003). The biological and chemical diversity of marine biota also includes their primary and secondary metabolites and naturally attracts the attention of not only biologists and chemists but also chemical process engineers.

Over the last 20-25 years, new uses of the oceans and their resources have emerged. Most of these changes have been driven by technological developments and knowledge acquired as a result of scientific explorations of previously unknown oceanic areas. An example of new use of the oceans is marine biotechnology, i.e., the relevance of scientific and engineering principles to the processing of resources by marine biological agents to provide goods and services. It is an area of significant industrial importance whose effects will reach almost every major industrial sector, including health, environment, energy, food, chemicals and advanced materials (Attaway and Zaborsky, 1993; Zaborsky, 1993; Attaway, 1997; and Tramper et al., 2003). The importance and interest in marine biotechnology has been growing in recent years throughout the world. The global marine biotechnology market is projected to surpass US$3.2 bn by 2007 with the non-US segment comprising bulk of the market (McWilliams, 2003). In part, the diverse nature of areas impacted by marine biotechnology makes it difficult to follow and appreciate its full implications. Marine biotechnology, like general biotechnology, will no doubt have its most immediate impact in the industrial sectors of pharmaceuticals and personal care products, polymers, industrial specialty bioproducts and foods. Each of these classes of marine bioproducts has a potential multi-billion dollar market value (Carte, 1996).

Chemical Engineering Journal, Marine Biotechnology, Bioproduct, Marine Microorganism, Seaweeds, Biological and Chemical Diversity, Chemical Engineering, Conventional Engineering Applications, Molecular Biologists, Environmental Parameters, Phototrophic Organisms, Metabolic Engineering, Enzyme Bioreactors.