Biochemical engineering is a branch of chemical engineering or biological engineering that mainly deals with the design and construction of unit processes that involve biological organisms or molecules, such as bioreactors. Biochemical Engineering is often taught as a supplementary option to chemical engineering or biological engineering due to the similarities in both the background subject curriculum and problem-solving techniques used by both professions.
Source: http://biotechspectrum.blogspot.com/
The role of Biochemical Engineering in Biotechnology, as the technology of industrial exploitation of biochemical systems, is important. The scientific disciplines underlying biotechnology are pointed out. Biochemical 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 and biocatalysts. The principal aspects of bioprocessing includes processing steps, biocatalysts, bioreactors and downstream processing considerations, to impart a flavour of the biochemical engineering activities and their interaction with chemical sciences.
Source: http://biotechspectrum.blogspot.com/
Applications of bioprocessing and biochemical engineering are wide ranging, covering such major facets of civilization as healthcare, agriculture and food, resource recovery, bulk and fine chemicals, energy and environmental pollution abatement.