{"id":25929,"date":"2015-05-12T03:24:39","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T01:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=25929"},"modified":"2015-05-11T12:01:13","modified_gmt":"2015-05-11T10:01:13","slug":"can-biotech-provide-the-magic-formula-for-the-green-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/can-biotech-provide-the-magic-formula-for-the-green-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Can biotech provide the magic formula for the green economy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A major global biotechnology company says it holds the answers to businesses\u2019 most pressing sustainability issues, but political inaction and a powerful fossil fuel lobby is holding back their widespread adoption.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Novozymes, which specialises in the manufacture of microorganisms and enzymes for a range of industrial uses, claims it is managing to decouple growing production from increasing demand on resources \u2013 the magic formula behind the notion of a green economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith flat input we can continue to increase output, and we\u2019re achieving that across the board,\u201d says CEO Dr Peder Holk Nielsen, arguing that as well as improving the energy efficiency of everything from washing powders to textile manufacturing, Novozymes\u2019 enzymes are creating renewable fuels in biomass refineries that could dramatically challenge gasoline consumption within two decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we need to move a lot faster,\u201d he says. \u201cPoliticians need to step up and put a price on carbon to incentivise a faster deployment of these technologies. I worry that the world is not moving fast enough and in the meantime we\u2019re going to get caught up in yet more carbon emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n

But are the Danish-born company\u2019s claims more than just corporate self-interest? And what are the potential risks of expanding the use of such biology on an industrial scale?
\nGenetic modification<\/p>\n

The use of micro-organisms in manufacturing is nothing new: yeast and the enzymes they produce have been used to make bread, cheese and alcoholic drinks for centuries, and Penicillium cultured in laboratories is essential for the production of medicinal antibiotics. But now these single-cell fungi can be genetically modified to over-express a particular enzyme or substance, effectively turning them into microbial chemical factories.<\/p>\n

\u201cMicroorganisms are much better chemists than we are,\u201d says Professor Wim Soetaert, head of the Industrial Biotechnology Centre, University of Ghent. \u201cThey can make extremely complicated molecules, which humans are simply unable to make, and do it in a very sustainable way. Dangerous reaction conditions, such as high temperatures, toxic chemicals or high pressure, aren\u2019t used because they\u2019re not compatible with life, so it\u2019s inherently more friendly to the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

But apart from making the manufacture of chemicals safer than non-biological methods, it\u2019s the impact on industrial greenhouse gas emissions that appears most impressive. \u201cIt\u2019s very clear that microbial biotechnology is going to save the world a lot of CO2 pollution and money,\u201d says Soetaert. Depending on the industry, he estimates reductions of between 10 and 99% thanks to energy efficiencies and reduced resource requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn laundry, our enzymes have taken down wash temperatures from 60 to 40 to 30, and are now heading down to 15 degrees,\u201d says Nielsen, who sees cleaning applications as a major part of Novozymes\u2019 European business. \u201cOur goal is to save 100m tonnes of CO2 emissions with our customers by 2020. Last year, we saved around 60m \u2013 equivalent to taking about 25m cars off the road. It\u2019s not saving the world, but it\u2019s a significant contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sustainability quandary<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s these sort of figures that have environmentalists in something of a quandary. Traditionally hostile to genetic engineering, many now recognise the role biotechnology can play in a sustainable future.<\/p>\n

As early as 2009, WWF co-authored a report with Novozymes heralding its potential to save 204m tonnes of CO2 across the food and industry sector by 2030, or as much as 2.5bn tonnes in the same period if bio-based fuels, materials and waste recycling were also adopted en masse. Friends of the Earth is currently running a project with Forum for the Future to discuss with businesses, NGOs and government how to responsibly harness biotechnology to tackle sustainability.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are very valid concerns about bio-security, the possible impact on people\u2019s livelihoods from companies developing alternative sources for key agricultural products, and the concentration of power within just a few companies, amongst others,\u201d says Anna Warrington, principal sustainable adviser at Forum for the Future.
\nHow companies make us forget we need to consume less to stop climate change
\nRead more<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, synthetic biology may facilitate solutions to some of our biggest energy, food and land use related challenges, which we\u2019re committed to help address.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cautious optimism<\/h3>\n

Even the anti-GM group Genewatch UK cautiously welcomes the technology if the organisms are carefully contained, but worries that the risk of escape could increase with industrial-scale production.<\/p>\n

Genewatch UK\u2019s executive director, Dr Helen Wallace, says: \u201cIt\u2019s a question of whether there\u2019s adequate oversight. There are some concerns about whether the EU\u2019s Contained Use Directive is adequate when we move to synthetic technology and larger-scale production beyond the laboratory. Synthetic biology to create new DNA from scratch means organisms that have properties that no organism has had before, so there are greater uncertainties as to their impact on the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Soetaert, entirely synthetic microorganisms don\u2019t exist in industry and are unlikely to any time soon owing to cost and non-necessity. But he\u2019s adamant that the genetically modified organisms used today are harmless even if they do escape.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese mircoorganisms have been selected to pose no threat to humans, plants, animals or the environment, and then they\u2019ve been genetically-modified to such an extent that they cannot survive in the natural environment,\u201d he says. \u201cThey would be outcompeted by wild microorganisms within days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multinational investment<\/h3>\n

Whatever the ethical or legal constraints, the rapid growth of industrial biotechnology looks assured. Big multinationals like DuPont and DSM have splashed out billions on biotech companies like Genencor and Martek in recent years, pinning their corporate strategies and image on a bio-based future.<\/p>\n

In the UK alone, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council estimates there are more than 300 companies working in the field, with new multimillion-pound biotech centres opening last year in Glasgow and Liverpool to meet surging global demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe driver is a quest for a more sustainable business, and companies like Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Nestl\u00e9 are driving behaviour in the supply chain,\u201d says Nielsen. Novozymes is working with M&G Chemicals on a new biorefinery that opens in China this year, which will produce bio-based plastics for the likes of Coca-Cola and Pepsi.<\/p>\n

Despite the momentum, Nielsen believes that the emergence of a green economy based on plants rather than fossil fuels is being held back by political intransigence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese technologies are waiting for the world to take advantage of them,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat the industry is asking [politicians] in this startup phase is protection against a very well vested fossil fuel industry. They will do whatever they can to make sure this doesn\u2019t happen and have much deeper pockets than any of the customers we have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A major global biotechnology company says it holds the answers to businesses\u2019 most pressing sustainability issues, but political inaction and a powerful fossil fuel lobby is holding back their widespread adoption. Novozymes, which specialises in the manufacture of microorganisms and enzymes for a range of industrial uses, claims it is managing to decouple growing production […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[],"supplier":[7293,1245,12205,337,593,9846,10192,6031,1418,21310,1067,1775,600,455,330],"class_list":["post-25929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","supplier-bbsrc","supplier-coca-cola-co","supplier-dsm","supplier-dupont","supplier-genencor","supplier-genewatch-uk","supplier-ghent-university","supplier-mg-chemicals","supplier-martek-biosciences-corporation","supplier-nestle","supplier-novozymes","supplier-pepsico","supplier-procter-gamble","supplier-unilever","supplier-world-wide-fund-for-nature-wwf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25929"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=25929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}