BIO Advocacy Begins with Grassroots >
Industrial and environmental biotechnology—biotech’s “third wave”—uses biological processes to make industrially useful products in a more efficient, environmentally friendly way. Biotechnology applications in manufacturing have already cut waste byproducts, air emissions, energy consumption and toxic chemicals in industries such as textiles and paper.
The mission of BIO’s Industrial & Environmental Section (IES) is to educate other industries and the public about this technology and to advocate for government support to help companies reach the economies of scale it will take to compete with conventional manufacturing methods.
In April 2004, industrial biotechnology achieved a major milestone when Iogen Corp. made the first commercial shipment of bioethanol. Unlike conventional ethanol made from grain, bioethanol is made from cellulosic biomass, such as wheat straw, sugar-cane bagasse, and corn stovers and stalks left over after harvest. Iogen’s breakthrough uses recombinant DNA–produced enzymes to break apart wheat-straw cellulose to produce sugars that can be made into ethanol. Several other BIO member companies are developing similar technologies.
INDUSTRY AND CORPORATE AWARENESS
The governing body and staff of BIO’s IES have worked over the last two years to foster a better understanding of the benefits of industrial biotechnology among several key audiences: the financial community, corporations, government policymakers, and the news media.
New Biotech Tools for a Cleaner Environment
In June 2004, BIO and the environmental consulting firm AJW Inc. released a report on the use of industrial biotech to reduce or eliminate pollution in several industrial sectors. The report, New Biotech Tools for a Cleaner Environment, suggests that wider application of industrial biotechnology could allow businesses to cut costs while lessening the environmental footprint of manufacturing.
The report measures the potential impact of employing industrial biotechnology across entire industries by extrapolating the findings of several previously published case studies. The findings of the report include the following:
- New biotech enzymes enable the production of ethanol from corn and cellulosic biomass. Bioethanol from cellulose generates eight to ten times more net energy than that required for its production. One gallon of cellulosic ethanol can replace 30 gallons of imported oil.
- Textile mills may potentially reduce water consumption by as much as 30 to 50 percent through the use of biotechnology.
- If widely used, biodegradable bioplastics could reduce plastics in the waste stream by up to 80 percent. If all plastics were made from biobased polylactic acid, oil consumption used in the manufacturing process would fall by 90 to 145 million barrels per year.
- Biotechnology process changes in the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical sector during production of riboflavin (vitamin B2) can reduce associated carbon dioxide emissions by 80 percent and water pollution by 67 percent. Changes in the production of the antibiotic cephalexin reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent, energy demand by 20 percent, and water usage by 75 percent.
- Biotech processes in paper manufacturing could cut toxic sludge waste volumes and paper-bleaching energy requirements by 40 percent.
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
Energy Legislation
In one of the most important legislative debates of 2003 and 2004, the IES secured several bioenergy provisions in comprehensive energy legislation considered by Congress. The provisions would have authorized funding of advanced research and development for biotech enzymes and programs to build biorefineries based on conversion of cellulosic biomass to energy.
The Senate failed to pass the measure, but energy legislation is expected to resurface in the 109th Congress.
Federal Procurement
The IES was deeply involved in the development of federal procurement guidelines that promote the use of biobased products by federal government agencies. Subsequently, members of the IES were interviewed at length for a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on these guidelines, titled Biobased Products: Improved USDA Management Would Help Agencies Comply with Farm Bill Purchasing Requirements.
Released in April 2004, the report concluded that the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies were not implementing the guidelines at the necessary pace. The GAO recommended that the Secretary of Agriculture direct the Office of Energy Policy and New Uses to develop a comprehensive plan for completing implementation of the purchasing requirements.
Department of Energy
The IES has developed a solid working relationship with several program offices within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and in 2004 organized a workshop to help industrial biotech executives learn more about the department’s activities. Those activities include the ambitious Genomes to Life Project, an effort to study the proteins encoded by microbial genomes and determine how they can be manipulated to aid in energy production, climate protection and environmental stewardship. The IES also worked closely with the DOE sections responsible for biorefinery funding.
Environmental Protection Agency
In 2004, the IES briefed a top research and development executive at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the New Biotech Tools for a Cleaner Environment report (see page 23). As a direct result, BIO and the EPA are drafting a memorandum of understanding to further study the pollution prevention potential of industrial biotechnology.
INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH
Because the benefits of industrial biotechnology hold promise for people on every continent, the IES has endeavored to build awareness on a global scale.
International Energy Agency
Through its ongoing relationship with the DOE, the IES succeeded in adding industrial biotechnology to the policy agenda of the International Energy Agency (IEA), a United Nations–affiliated intergovernmental body committed to energy security, economic growth and environmental sustainability through international energy policy cooperation. As a result of increased awareness of industrial biotechnology at IEA, the agency issued a proposal for a project called Bio X, which will focus on the application of industrial biotechnology to climate change and energy issues. The IES is assisting IEA with this endeavor.
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
The IES has accepted an invitation to take a leading role in the OECD Task Force on Biotechnology and Sustainable Industrial Development. The IES helped develop and implement a work plan for 2004, including the development of a vision statement that will guide national governments in their efforts to achieve biobased economies. The work plan also includes direction on developing metrics and indicators to measure progress in moving toward a biobased economy.
CONFERENCES
World Congress
In April 2005, BIO’s IES returns to Orlando, Fla., for the second annual World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing. The inaugural event in 2004, co-sponsored by the American Chemical Society and the National Agriculture Biotechnology Council, addressed the many policy, funding, research and ethical questions that surround the “third wave” of biotechnology. More than 425 international representatives of business, government and academia attended the three-day event.
Panel discussions were held on a wide array of topics, organized into four thematic tracks. These discussions facilitated inter-disciplinary interaction and examined some of the key issues facing industrial biotechnology, such as:
- overcoming barriers to production, harvest and utilization of biomass feedstocks for production of bioethanol and biobased products;
- biotechnology as a key to sustainability in the chemical industry;
- environmental and social impacts of large-scale biorefining and bioprocessing;
- industrial biotechnology for national defense applications; and
- ethical issues related to industrial biotechnology.
CTO Summit
BIO’s Chief Technology Officers Summit brings together executives from the biotechnology and chemical sectors to share information and discuss potential collaborations.
The 2004 summit, co-hosted by the American Chemical Society, focused on advances and potential in four key areas: nanobiotechnology, bioethanol, development of renewable feedstocks for various chemical platforms, and use of industrial biotech for fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals production.
In a facilitated conference workshop, BIO found that barriers remain for incorporating biotechnology processes into chemical manufacture. A primary barrier is consumer demand for lower cost rather than innovation from chemical products. Regulatory constraints also are a barrier, particularly in Europe. The net result: no major chemical company wants to be the first to invest in converting to biobased processes, but most want to be “in the front seat.”
The group also concluded that a federal renewable fuels mandate would be essential to scaling up production of starch- and cellulosebased ethanol.
Analysts and Investors Meeting
Currently, 5 percent of chemical production incorporates biotech processes, but the percentage could grow to 10 to 20 percent by 2010, according to a report from the consulting firm McKinsey & Co.
BIO’s IES presents such projections, along with other data on the financial potential of industrial biotech, at the Third Wave in Biotech briefing, held each February in New York City.
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