Industrial Biotechnology: A Unique Potential for Pollution Prevention
A decade ago, in 2007, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report, “Bioengineering for Pollution Prevention,” found that industrial biotechnology and biobased manufacturing are more energy efficient, cleaner and make use of sustainable renewable resources. The report reviewed the state of the science and recommended future research priorities.
Since 2007, companies have commercialized products that demonstrate industrial biotechnology’s unique ability to reduce pollution, achieving measurable improvements in biomass sustainability, energy efficiency and carbon re-utilization.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has analyzed the technical feasibility and costs of developing a biomass supply sufficient to displace 30 percent of the nation’s fossil fuel use. Concurrently, biotech companies have developed technology to improve crop management, first-of-a-kind sustainability inititatives, and new crops with environmental performance benefits.
Industrial biotech companies have begun commercializing processes that use methanotrophs and algae to capture CO2 and convert it to renewable chemicals, averting carbon and other pollutant emissions as well as displacing fossil fuels.
Manufacturers are using enzymes commercially to produce pharmaceuticals and other chemical compounds, food ingredients, detergents, textiles, paper products and biofuels, avoiding use of toxic feedstocks and process reagents, which in turn minimizes toxic waste and byproducts.
At the same time, companies have made substantial progress in improving cellulosic biomass conversion, microbial genetic engineering techniques, biorefinery operations, and life-cycle sustainability, addressing the challenges identified by the EPA report.
Companies have commercialized enzymes for producing cellulosic ethanol from agricultural waste and are operating cellulosic sugar production biorefineries at demonstration-scale. DOE’s bioenergy research centers are researching and developing biomass pretreatment technologies.
Over the past decade, researchers and companies have made significant progress in engineering microbes, using synthetic-biology to optimize microbial metabolic pathways to produce new renewable chemicals and biofuels.
Companies that have built and operated commercial-scale biorefineries during the past decade have gained experience and provided insight on the challenges of large-scale biorefinery engineering in addition to bioprocesses.
And the biotech industry continues to utilize life cycle analysis to establish both the sustainability and cost-effectiveness of new biobased products, renewable chemicals and biofuels.
This progress illustrates industrial biotechnology’s unique potential to reduce carbon, waste and energy use, while displacing fossil fuels. A new state of the science assessment could document the potential of emerging applications and set a roadmap to support continued commercialization. It could additionally examine the cost savings associated with energy efficiency and reductions in pollution.