The Promise of Advancing Biomanufacturing Innovation
by Greg Potter and Glenn Farris (Lipiferm Scientific andFarris Advisory Services/Lee Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels Digest) On September 12, 2022, President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order to Advance Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation to support solutions in health, climate change, energy, food security, agriculture, supply chain resilience, and national and economic security. This declaration could not come too soon as rapid population growth and climatic instability in particular pose major existential threats to overall health and well-being in the United States and globally. Fortunately, substantial biotechnological innovation is already underway developing new manufacturing paradigms for commodity materials and other products that typically have a strong reliance on petrochemical inputs and/or high associated carbon footprints. These bioprocessing solutions can utilize microbial fermentations to make bioplastics and recombinant animal proteins, and cell culture systems to manufacture cell-based meat, to name a few. Yet, despite the promise of these new biomanufacturing processes, there are several key challenge areas impacting scalability and cost-effective production.
Challenge Areas in Biomanufacturing Process Development
In the case of microbial fermentations, it is typically important to maximize the growth rate of the organism and yield of biomass from the substrate, and to ensure the strain readily takes up the gene construct of interest (when relevant). Development work should also determine that the metabolite/protein is produced without markedly impacting growth functions of the strain, and that recombinant proteins exhibit the desired bioactivity compared to the native form. Another impediment to advancing microbial fermentations for biomanufacturing purposes centers on fermentation capacity. Until lately many American companies have been forced to secure contract manufacturing capacity in Mexico, Europe, India or elsewhere; however, efforts are now in place to develop the domestic infrastructure needed.
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Categorized Analysis of Media Constituents for Core Bioprocessing Paradigms
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A Primer on Industrial-grade Feedstocks
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The Supply Chain for Ag Residues and Purpose Grown Crops
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Key Considerations for Feedstock Selection in Large Scale Bioeconomy Projects
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Many of the projects under development and or in the planning process require 350,000 tons of feedstock. These resources are readily available in many areas of the country. However, there is no infrastructure or commodities market that supports the supply chain for these materials. While the harvest, collection and storing of these materials is well understood, these are not activities that take place on a large-scale basis. There are companies and individuals that work in these areas and supply these materials but many if not all of them are already working at near maximum capacity.
A supply chain that supplies 350,000 tons of material requires the purchase of anywhere from $10-12MM worth of equipment to over $50MM.
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Navigating the Road Ahead
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Realizing the potential of these novel manufacturing systems will, without question, require multidisciplinary collaborations between bioprocessing scientists, feedstock specialists and more. READ MORE
