Eris Duro of R & D consultancy Sagentia Innovation explores how to scale-up engineering biology techniques for commercial production of speciality chemicals
GREEN CHEMISTRY
Scaling engineering biology to support Green Chemistry goals
Eris Duro of R & D consultancy Sagentia Innovation explores how to scale-up engineering biology techniques for commercial production of speciality chemicals
Although the sustainability challenges involved are complex, engineering biology has the power to significantly reduce resource requirements and
CO 2 emissions associated with chemical production. It is thus seen as a solution that aligns with some of the key principles of Green Chemistry. Downstream consumer industries that use speciality chemicals are showing a high level of interest and governmental organisations around the world are looking at ways to support production.
Figure 1 highlights some of the sustainability benefits engineering biology offers. However, it is not a silver bullet and brings its own difficulties, which demand close attention. Challenges related to the unit economics and efficacy of commercial-scale production are major concerns. currently falls short. Unit economics cannot yet rival traditional chemical synthesis, while limited production capacity is a significant barrier both regionally and globally.
The good news is that change is on the horizon. Technological advances offer new ways to address the unit economics challenges and public bodies in some markets have committed to investing in specialist infrastructure that will help increase capacity.
In the US, $ 2 billion was pledged for a national initiative to expand domestic biomanufacturing. 1 The UK announced investment totalling £ 2 billion($ 2.5 billion) to“ seize the potential of engineering biology”. 2 Japan plans to advance its biotechnology sector and become“ the world’ s most advanced bioeconomy society by 2030” with a value of 100 trillion yen($ 660 billion). 3
Together, these developments could make a significant difference to the viability of commercial production, signalling that the time is right for chemical manufacturers to invest in engineering biology strategies and processes.
Precision fermentation & surfactants
Precision fermentation, a widely used engineering biology technique, can produce certain types of speciality chemicals without petrochemical feedstocks. One example is the use of engineered microbes to produce organic chemicals such as 1,3-propanediol and isobutanol with renewable feedstocks like corn or sugar cane.
Surfactants are another class of chemical where metabolic engineering can deliver sustainability gains.
Engineering biology for chemical manufacture
At present, commercial success stories for engineering biology in the chemicals sector mostly involve the production of low-volume, highvalue ingredients. These include active ingredients, colorants, flavours and fragrances used in cosmetics, food and beverage, and household cleaning products.
Delivering more meaningful sustainability gains requires greater emphasis on higher-volume functional ingredients like surfactants, emollients and preservatives. This is where engineering biology
More sustainable manufacture
Supporting the circular economy
Greener supply chains
Engineering biology processes are less reliant on fossil fuels than conventional chemical synthesis. For instance, replacing 1 tonne of a conventional surfactant with 1 tonne of precisionfermentation-derived sophorolipid would eliminate 1.5 tonnes of
CO 2 emissions. Producing chemicals via metabolic engineering also reduces the need to use petrochemicals as feedstock.
Industrial waste can be valorised as a feedstock for metabolic engineering processes for chemical production. The resultant materials can be designed to be more readily biodegradable too. For example, Mango Materials produces biodegradable, lowtoxicity plastics from methane gas generated from waste streams.
With metabolic engineering, manufacture can happen in closer proximity to raw materials and / or primary products. This reduces the need for extensive shipping and storage. It can also eliminate the use of raw materials derived from rare or endangered plants and animals, as seen in the production of squalene( originally obtained from shark liver oil) via precision fermentation.
Figure 1- Sustainability benefits of engineering biology for chemical production
MAY / JUN 2025 SPECCHEMONLINE. COM
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