Bioprocessing’s Green Shift Gains Momentum

Bioprocessing firms are racing to fulfill ambitious sustainability targets, and the industry is confronting growing environmental obstacles that are becoming more manageable. To learn more about this, GEN interviewed Zach Page-Belknap and Maya DeHart, experts from CRB, a provider of sustainable engineering solutions. According to the experts, cutting carbon emissions and reducing waste remain significant hurdles.

However, they highlighted that advancements in facility design, data management, and energy optimization are enabling manufacturers to make tangible progress without sacrificing production.

Two of the most challenging issues to address at scale are process-heating decarbonization and single-use waste diversion. Traditionally, high-temperature processes have relied on natural-gas boilers, which contribute substantially to operational carbon emissions. Transitioning to electricity can significantly reduce fossil-fuel usage, but it also increases the demand on a facility's electrical infrastructure and backup power systems.

Emerging technologies like high-temperature heat pumps show promise, but their adoption has been hampered by high initial costs, safety concerns, and a relatively immature market.

Facilities that heavily use disposable plastic equipment—especially those engaged in autologous manufacturing—face another challenge. While methods exist to divert cleaned single-use plastics from landfills, economic factors and limited recycling infrastructure continue to impede widespread adoption. Waste diversion can become financially competitive when facilities are situated near processors capable of handling specialized materials.

However, organizations lacking local treatment options typically face disposal costs more than double those of conventional waste management.

One of the industry's most significant sustainability breakthroughs has emerged from an area that is less visible: enhanced data. Instead of depending on isolated data from individual systems, many companies are investing in centralized platforms that monitor energy, water, and waste across entire facilities. This broader perspective enables operators to identify inefficiencies, prioritize upgrades, and increasingly utilize artificial intelligence to optimize performance.

Page-Belknap and DeHart clarified that meters and monitors alone do not directly improve sustainability in bioprocessing; they are merely a means to gain visibility into a facility's operational performance. Installing this monitoring infrastructure is often far less costly than replacing major equipment. Individual meters typically cost around $5,000, although larger projects involving numerous monitoring points and upgraded management systems can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For commercial bioprocessors seeking to enhance sustainability, it is advised not to rush to adopt the latest technology. Instead, facilities should align site-level priorities with broader corporate sustainability goals, benchmark current performance, and identify where the most significant opportunities lie. For newer facilities, existing operational data may already reveal low-cost improvements, such as optimizing cleanroom air change rates or better utilizing building management systems.

Older facilities should adopt a phased approach by establishing utility baselines, identifying major energy and water consumers, evaluating equipment lifecycles, and incorporating sustainability improvements into planned capital replacement schedules.

Ultimately, sustainability enhancement is not about any single technology but rather about building the data infrastructure and decision framework necessary to invest in the right measures at the right time for each specific site.