European Biotechnology Guide Vol. 13 - Blick ins Buch

Europea n

Biotechnolog y Science & Industry Guide

Sustainability and the biologisation of industrial production

Sustainability is on everyone’s lips and is driving the transformation of industrial production as well as the hitherto environmentally harmful packaging of industrial and consumer goods. Biotechnological solutions in particular hold great potential that will not unfold without massive economic policy intervention. Driven by enormous consumer interest, global warming, and political initiatives, there are major efforts to make the biotechnology, chemical, pharmaceutical, food, and packaging industries more environmentally friendly. And not without reason. Companies in all sectors will be asked to pay in future for their eco footprint. And not only for emissions, but also for the plastic waste they produce – a crisis srecognised by the pharmaceutical packaging industry players who gathered at Pharmapack in Paris at the beginning of February 2023 and made sustainable packaging the focus of the event. Biologics manufacturers and service providers such as CDMOs are also thinking hard about sustainable alternatives to flexible and cost-effective multilayer disposable bags (made from PET/LDPE - PVA/PVC and PCA/ PP), filter cartridges made of polyamide (PA), polyethylene (PE), and TFPE, as well as water and energy reduction potentials compared to stainless steel equipment. Food packagers are also trying to reduce plastic packaging or make it sustainable. But what is sustainable and what is old wine in new bottles? And above all: how can synthetic biology, microbiology, and biotechnology help firms to actually produce more sustainably? What is certain is that a new mega-market for biotechnological platforms is emerging that promises production in harmony with nature.

Despite the widespread rejection of genetic engineering, which has been demonised in Europe for decades, synthetic biology, microbial production, and genetically opimised or synthetic thermostable enzymes offer a –still limited – technical solution to the sustainability crisis that is based on nature’s blueprint.

Circular economy for plastics

Currently, only 9% of the 391 million tonnes of plastic produced annually worldwide and 14% of the nearly 142 million tonnes of plastic packaging are recycled. Inciden-

tally, the large amounts of plastic waste that the EU and North America export to Asia are also considered recycled. In fact, 40% of non-degradable plastics containing, toxic additives end up in landfills, 14% are incinerated and around 32% end up in the environment. Since packaging is supposed to be light, functional, and durable, the chemical industry mainly produces plastics that need at least 500 years to be ground down to microplastics; plastics that are biodegradable at 37°C in industrial recycling plants currently make up only 2% of global production.

But regulations might change faster than expected, so the industry must be ready to react. Policymakers announced in March 2022 in Nairobi, at the latest UNEP conference, an agreement to draft the very first legally binding global plastic waste treaty by 2024. Two months later, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste and Lombard Odier Investment Managers announced they will act as cornerstone investors of a new US$500 million circular plastic fund. The investment is aimed at providing scalable solutions to remove plastic waste from the environment, increase recycling, and drive the global transition towards a circular economy for the plastic value chain. Globally active life sciences research suppliers and CDMOs are aiming to find solutions to this sustainability challenge. Although the investment is a drop in the bucket, it prepares the ground for a new potentialy biotech-driven market.

Need to scale up production and boost R&D

Nevertheless, investments are needed instead of showcase projects. As of 2022 only 110 verified enzymes were available to degrade polyesters such as polyethylene theraphthalate (PET), polyamides (PA), and polyester polyurethanes (PUR) but not commodity plastics such as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), which mainly consist of C-C-, C-N, and ether bonds (see figure 1, doi: 10.1111/1751-7915.14135). However, single-use plastics are only one (but a very visible) part in the overall sustainability of packaging/production of biologicals and delivery devices. Energy and water use must be added to get a full picture of the life cycle assessment of single-use plastics products. Nevertheless, there are promising biotech approaches to recycling and replacing plastics and even developing new materials.

Biotech products on the horizon

The French firm Carbios SAS is currently demonstrating how quickly biotech solutions can reduce environmental and climate problems in the beverages, textile, and automotive industries if upscaled appropriately. Carbios has launched a commercial closed-loop recycling facility that will be able to break down 50,000 tonnes of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) per year as early as 2025 at the world’s first biological PET-recycling plant, due to start production in 2025 in Longlaville (France) with its partners Indorama Ventures, the world’s largest PET bottle recycler, and Novozymes. The company’s microbial C-Zyme™ process uses a genetically optimised bacterial cutinase that completely hydrolyses PET into its chemical building blocks monoethylene glycol and polyethylene terephthalate, which are subsequently completely resynthesised into PET bottles and fibres.

Last year, about 75% of PET bottles of fossil origin were downcycled or incinerated – processes that are neither closed-cycle nor GHG-neutral. By 2050, global plastic production is expected by experts to account for 15% of

global GHG emissions, with PET the fourth most common plastic in the world. “The process is low temperature and operates at atmospheric pressure with no solvents. The PET is extracted and separated and the recovered monomers are virgin quality,” explains Carbios CEO Emmanuel Ladent, “meaning that virtually all PET that goes onto the market now has the potential to be recycled.”

Finding enzymes acting on PE, PP, PS, PA, PVC, or etherbased PUR is a very challenging task. However, 7,400 publications identified via PubMed described plasticactive microorganisms/enzymes that were identified in landfill and garbage sites but also in soils and compost, by metagenome mining, or by gene and structural motif mining in databases. Synthetic approaches combining directed evolution, rational design, and machine learningbased engineering are another new strategy to obtain biocatalysts with novel functions, such as engineered proteins with two active sites that are able to perform a non-natural conversion. This technology could potentially be used to produce completely novel enzymes to act on polymers for which there are no biocatalysts available yet.

Fig. 1: Number of enzymes available to depolymerise commodity plastics (orange). Annual production of commodity plastics in million tonnes (blue: fossil-based, green: bio-based)

Eurasanté, one of the best innovative hubs for biotech in Europe

Eurasanté is a technology transfer tool, an incubator, an accelerator, and a cluster manager in the Life Sciences sector in Northern France. Eurasanté assists French and foreign companies, entrepreneurs, scientists, and clinicians in their innovation and development projects in the Northern France region.

The region includes over 1,100 healthcare companies with 32,000 employees in this sector. Their strengths are in neurodegenerative diseases, medical chemistry, and nutrition. Eurasanté also promotes and develops the Eurasanté Bio-business Park, which hosts 8 hospitals, 4 universities, 7 specialised schools, 200 companies, and 50 laboratories within a European-wide scientific and medical site.

Eurasanté fosters technology transfer and collaborative projects and supports the emergence of start-ups and spin-offs. Two programmes have been created to stimulate the creation of start-ups in the biotechnology sector: the Eurasanté Bio Incubator and Bio-Accelerator They provide a range of services and expertise to help international start-ups wishing to penetrate the European healthcare market and to join an ecosystem among the most fertile in Europe. The Eurasanté Bio Incubator is ranked among the top 25 best European incubators fostering biotech start-up development (Labiotech.eu 2021). Since its creation in 2000, it has accompanied 300 projects, helped the creation of 170 start-ups that generated 1,300 jobs, and raised €670 million in equity.

Eurasanté facilitates the relocation of companies, whether they plan to expand or begin new activities in France, and gives access to investment funds dedicated to innovative start-ups: CAPTECH SANTE NUTRITION and French Tech Seed. These investment funds strengthen co-investment. For biotech start-ups wishing to start clinical trials, the funding needs can be supported through new fundraising, closed thanks to the public and private investors involved in the investment funds.

BioFIT: Europe’s leading innovation event on Life Sciences

Eurasante organises four professional conventions in key health sectors: Healthy Ageing (AgeingFit), Food, Feed, and Nutrition (NutrEvent), MedTech, Diagnostic and E-health (MedFIT), and Life Sciences (BioFIT). Each event aims at giving an impulse to these fields by fostering partnerships. They are also an opportunity to reflect on the dynamics of the sector, thanks to their conference programmes.

Over the years, BioFIT has become the leading partnering event for technology transfer and academia-industry collaborations in Life Sciences . It is also known as a significant investment scene for pre-seed, seed, and series A deals.

The diversity of actors attending the event guarantees partnership opportunities for all participants. You will have a chance to meet TTOs, research institutes and academia, pharma, diagnostic and biotech companies, preclinical CROs and CDMOs, as well as investors. An online platform will allow you to browse through the participants and send them meeting requests.

BioFIT is a must-attend event for several reasons. While promising companies are pitching their innovative projects before a jury of professionals, highly qualified speakers are discussing issues consistent with the problematics of this evolving sector. You can also walk through the exhibition area between meetings. At the end of the day, you’ll be able to meet during, an informal gathering, the key actors you might have missed.

The last edition of BioFIT was a success, with 900 participants from 35 countries and 40 innovative projects presented. We were proud to count 65 international speakers and 80 exhibitors. Most importantly, more than 3,200 meetings were organised.

BioFIT’s 12th edition will take place in Marseille on 12–13 December 2023, and online on 15 December. You can find more information on BioFIT’s website.