How to develop a CO2-neutral bioprocess

THE BIO-INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The fossil-based economy is transitioning into a sustainable bioeconomy. Start-ups play a vital role in this game-changing transformation: they foster the industry by closing the gap between research and application and transfer scientific innovation and new technologies into next-level products, processes and services. Accordingly, bioprocesses that use living cells or enzymes might play a crucial role in future manufacturing systems. In the past, bioprocesses were economically viable when they fulfilled one of the following primary two criteria: first, the product, which might be chemically highly complex, could not be produced effectively by purely chemical synthesis and was not broadly available in the desired quality or quantity from natural resources. Second, the bioprocess enabled manufacturing at lower costs or with higher product purity than conventional methods. Good examples for fulfilling these criteria can mainly be found in the red biotechnology sector. For instance, the human proteohormone insulin can be isolated from the human pancreas, but the obtainable amount is insufficient to meet the global market demand. Also, human insulin can be obtained by isolating pork insulin and subsequent chemical conversion or by direct chemical synthesis. However, while these two approaches are technically feasible, they are not economically viable due to low reaction yields, resulting in tremendous production costs, and additionally limited by the availability of porcine pancreases. Hence, the biotechnological production of human insulin by recombinant bacteria or yeasts is a classic and “golden” example of the successful commercialisation of a bioproduct. Examples from the field of white biotech are few but still numerous. Here, one good example is the industrial production of the essential amino acid L-lysine that cannot be obtained from chemical synthesis or natural resources as the required L-isomer. The amino acid is mainly used as an additive in the feed industry and utilises highly optimised and engineered production hosts and processes.

The two named criteria will remain primary drivers for future bioprocess commercialisation. Still, another dimension will complement them: sustainability and environmental impact will add to the valuation of future processes in the chemical industry. The main reason behind this is that chemical industry customers raise increased demands for more sustainable products to meet their environmental, social, and governance (for example ESG) ambitions (1). Since chemical companies are mainly located upstream in the value chain, the sustainability of their products has an immense effect on all downstream customers and heavily impacts buying decisions. Furthermore, additional direct measures, such as taxation of carbon emissions, also drive the chemical industry’s transition towards improved sustainability. The critical importance of a sustainable product portfolio to remain a successful and leading chemical company has been recognised by all major players in the field, advertising improved sustainability, circularity and reduced carbon footprints as their primary goals for the coming decades.

Hence, early process development for novel industrial processes should address environmental and economic dimensions accordingly.