Bettering Bioprocessing Marketing products as “green” has gone from revolutionary to redundant

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By Cameron Zimmer, Saskatchewan Research Council

According to a study by Terra Choice Environmental Marketing, green advertising in North America almost tripled from 2006 to 2008 with more than 4,000 green marketing claims about 2,000-plus products.

But some of that marketing buzz is wearing off and the bioprocessing industry behind many of these claims faces some tough questions. Are bio-based manufacturing systems cost effective? Can they keep up with demand? Is bioprocessing as environmentally friendly as it’s billed?

Through the initial buildup and current questions, the search for new biological manufacturing processes and bio-based materials continues to ramp up.

Fermenting Bioprocessing Business
A cluster of innovative companies in Saskatoon, SK, is a microcosm for how Canadian organizations are responding to these challenges. With the University of Saskatchewan’s (U of S) bioresources program, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Saskatoon Research Centre and the National Research Council’s Plant Biotechnology Institute, it comes as no surprise that the city’s Innovation Place research park nurtures many bioprocessing businesses.

Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC), in many ways, represents the diversity in this growing cluster. SRC’s many bioprocessing services could easily serve as a rundown of what is happening in the industry.

The company operates a Biosafety Level 2 Fermentation Pilot Plant that develops vaccines and other products. SRC also has a new $1.2 million non-regulated fermentation lab that produces biopesticides, enzymes, biofertilizers and algae. In addition, it leads applied biomass conversion, ethanol, gasification, biogas and biodiesel research. It continues to offer a biofuel testing service to evaluate alternative fuels.
SRC’s broad scope of bioprocessing services reflects an industry that is difficult to narrowly define. At its core, bioprocessing describes everything that uses a biological source or process to make a product.

“This could mean using a biological source like hay to make biofuels, or it could mean using a biological process like fermentation to make a vaccine or enzyme,” says Kari Doerksen, a research scientist in SRC’s Health and Food laboratories.

Building Better Bioproducts      
Many eco-friendly products made from biological organisms and materials—think renewable plastics— have been around for a long time and are so top-of-mind that consumers don’t need to give a second thought to purchasing them.

That bodes well for the industry and it would be easy to revel in this success, but it cannot afford to stop innovating.
“Bioprocessing inventions often involve finding new uses for the familiar,” says Doerksen.

“Bacteria and fungi have already been used to make food and food products, but now they are being used to make renewable products and things like biopesticides, bioherbicides and biological-based fertilizers.”

Along those lines, bio-based materials such as green chemicals and natural structural materials are all becoming prime candidates for commercialization.

As an example, creative niche opportunities exist in producing chemicals from biomass. Studies by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.K. Business Resource Efficiency and Waste Program have defined this potential, noting that many chemicals made from petroleum could be replaced with value-added chemicals from biomass.

But finding new products isn’t bioprocessing’s main challenge; finding new and better bio-based processes is.

Perfecting New Processes
Though biomaterials and products grab most of bioprocessing’s press, new developments in thermo-chemical and biological manufacturing processes are beginning to attract more attention.

Processing biomass into biofuel is a good example.

“Like everything else, biofuel technology comes in waves,” says Miguel Providenti, a research scientist in SRC’s Health and Food laboratories. “Ethanol from food-based feedstocks like corn and wheat is a very mature area of bioprocessing, but many researchers and companies are now thinking about the next generation of biofuels and developing new conversion methods.

“Finding alternatives to food-based feedstocks is emerging as a priority, and the keys to this are novel thermo-chemical and biological processing methods.”

In keeping with this trend, SRC created its Saskatchewan Bioenergy Systems Industry Support (Sask BioSIS) team last year to help its clients and partners capitalize on new conversion technology.

The Sask BioSIS team is focusing on bioenergy technology that uses plant matter called biomass—flax straw, branches, bark and sawdust, to name a few varieties—and coverts it into biofuel and biofertilizer.

It only makes sense to tap these alternate feedstock sources. Saskatchewan alone has enough waste and byproduct biomass to replace its entire current petroleum use on a green renewable basis without taking away any agricultural products from food and feed markets.

Sask BioSIS is investigating gasification technology as one biomass conversion pathway. Gasification produces a synthesis gas containing a hydrogen-carbon monoxide mixture used in many industrial processes.

Gasification can take waste biomass, such as wood chips and excess straw, and turn it into synthesis gas. The synthesis gas passes through a chamber containing a catalyst that facilitates a chemical reaction. This process can produce biofuels and biochemicals, generate electricity and provide heat.

In a similar vein, SRC has begun working with the U of S on a biomass conversion project that uses fast pyrolysis technology.

“Fast pyrolysis uses heat to rapidly decompose biomass in the absence of oxygen and then quench the vapours to produce bio-oil and biochar. This process converts leftover agriculture residues into products such as biofuels and biofertilizers,” says Darren Anweiler, the SRC research engineer who leads Sask BioSIS.

Gasification and pyrolysis are only a couple examples from the biofuel arena. Other bioprocesses in development are offering new ways to create different products.

Biological processing of cellulose, for example, uses the bulky fibrous part of agricultural and forestry biomass as feedstock and converts it into ethanol and other products. This type of cellulosic conversion is growing in importance because it consumes stalks and other plant parts not typically suitable for food.

“There is a lot of interest in finding an economical way to break down cellulosic biomass into sugar and other simpler chemicals, which can then be upgraded to almost any bioproduct,” says Providenti.

Refining Profitable Processes
Like any up and coming R&D sector, cost-effectiveness is the crux for bioprocessing.

As an industry sector that depends on a lot of early-to-mid stage R&D, bioprocessing is having to prove that it is as efficient as traditional products and manufacturing methods.

But there is evidence that bioprocessing is answering these questions.

Biorefineries offer proof that bioprocessing can be efficient and compete. These facilities combine biological, chemical, mechanical and thermal conversion processes to produce bioproducts from biomass. Waste from one manufacturing process can be used to create a different product or converted into energy that powers the refinery.

Biorefinery developers and proponents say these efficient factories can increase profits, provide energy and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

The biorefinery concept is applied at ethanol processing facilities where residues from biomass used to produce fuel are fed to livestock in an adjacent feedlot. The feedlot’s animal waste can be converted into heat and power for the ethanol plant, creating a completely integrated manufacturing facility.

Even this relatively new biorefinery concept is starting to take on new shapes.

SRC scientists and three research partners from Innoventures Canada (I-CAN) are developing the Carbon Recycling System (CARS), which feeds waste heat and flue gas containing CO2 from industrial exhaust stacks to micro-algae growing in artificial ponds.

With support from 12 industrial partners, SRC and other I-CAN partners have started an ambitious five-year project to adapt conventional algal ponds and closed cultivation systems used elsewhere in the world. They are aiming to make the technology succeed in demanding Canadian climate conditions and optimize its potential to mitigate CO2.

One CARS module of 12 optimized ponds could potentially consume 200,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, equal to removing 40,000 vehicles from the road.

“CARS offers the opportunity for profit and avoids CO2 disposal costs,” says Cindy Jackson, SRC senior research scientist in energy production and processing.

These opportunities are possible because algae grow faster than any other plant-like organisms. In addition to quickly producing massive amounts of organic material, algae are pliable enough to be processed into value-added goods.

Like plants, algae consist of protein, carbohydrates and oils that all have value. The oils can be extracted to make biodiesel while the carbohydrates can be processed into ethanol and the proteins turned into animal feed or fertilizer.

According to an economic model developed for the project, selling the biodiesel made from harvested algae could nearly cover the system’s costs. As an added benefit, converting algal biomass leaves less of an environmental footprint than other biofuel sources.

In addition to selling these and other algae byproducts for profit, participating companies may be able to qualify for greenhouse gas offset credits and other emission reduction credits.

These added returns on investment show why the biorefinery concept is gaining traction. In late 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy announced US$200 million to support pilot and demonstration-scale biorefineries that use algae and other feedstocks to produce biobutanol, green gasoline and other innovative biofuels.

In Canada, both federal and provincial departments are also investing in biorefinery pilots, making biorefineries a more permanent fixture on bioprocessing’s future landscape.
These funding incentives will certainly help both researchers and companies overcome some of the hurdles facing biorefineries, such as finding the right scale to make biorefineries both environmentally sustainable and economically viable.

Beyond Green Marketing
There are no easy answers to all the tests set before an industry as diverse as bioprocessing.

There are, however, some obvious starting points. As a follow-up to all the green marketing that has propelled bioprocessing and its products, the industry can work at backing up advertising using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).

“LCA is a comprehensive and unbiased approach to estimating the environmental effects of a product or process in comparison to the business-as-usual scenario,” explains Monique Wismer, a research scientist at SRC. “We use LCA to identify areas where efficiency improvements can be made and to verify a company’s claim that their product is greener or more environmentally sustainable than another.”

Using internationally recognized ISO standards, a scientist collects data on environmental effects and inputs the data into a computer model. After that, the scientist quantifies and categorizes emissions information to provide an impact assessment. Results are used to compare environmental effects, such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy use and water toxicity.

By testing their environmental claims, bioprocessing companies have opportunities to show they are accountable for their claims and gain a valuable marketing tool in the process.

“In many industries, including bioprocessing, it is now seen as a competitive advantage to undertake this type of unbiased, scientific evaluation to back up green statements,” says Wismer.

But bioprocessing has to do more than this if it is going to gain ground on conventional manufacturing and products.

SRC and other R&D companies must continue to find better feedstocks, more efficient conversion catalysts and a slew of other innovations to demonstrate to investors and consumers that bioprocessing can compete while providing increased environmental sustainability.