Current manufacturing processes across all industrial sectors rely on petrochemicals, either to power them, or as starting points for their product. This over reliance on finite fossil resources is having a detrimental impact on the health of the world and its population. Professor Aline Miller explains how industrial biotechnology can break this addiction to petrochemicals and argues that there needs to be governmental action to ensure businesses are supported to transition into this new bioeconomy.

• The global bioeconomy is estimated to be worth over £3 trillion pounds.
• 60% of all physical inputs into the global economy could be produced via biological means, but the correct infrastructure must be in place to support this.
• There is currently little incentive for businesses to transition away from petrochemicals, slowing the rate of progress for this new technology.
• Standards and safeguards must be put in place as soon as possible to act as an underpinning for wider investment and to ensure a high level of safety and consistency in industrial processes across different sectors.

What is industrial biotechnology?

To understand industrial biotechnology, we must first understand what biotechnology is. Biotechnology (also sometimes called engineering biology) is a way of using natural processes and mechanisms to transform one compound into another. Think of it as a kind of real-life alchemy, but instead of making gold from valueless metals, we’re generating wealth from our waste. What this means is that we can use things that would otherwise end up in landfill, like plastic bottles, as a feedstock (raw materials) for processes that produce valuable chemicals such as those used to make pharmaceuticals or biomaterials.

To transform one thing into another, we usually use fungi, bacteria, or enzymes that have naturally evolved to carry out that process, such as using yeasts to create the bubbles in beer or that leaven bread, but we can also genetically engineer these organisms to have specific characteristics that make them perfect for a given task. For example, making vegan cheese from milk protein that doesn’t come from a cow but is incorporated by modifying the yeast.

When we find a fungi, bacteria, or enzyme that has the characteristics we need, we can then put it to work in a bioreactor – a large vat – where it carries out the biological reaction, working like a mini factory to produce the target molecule. Scaled up, and applied in a real-world factory environment, this is industrial biotechnology.

What can industrial biotechnology do for industry?

Industrial biotechnology holds huge potential to revolutionise industry as we know it by making production processes more sustainable (less energy-intensive, less reliant on fossil fuels), faster, and more efficient. It can be used across key sectors including energy, materials, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and food. It could help tackle the global climate crises while also improving the health and wellbeing of the population.

Barriers to Biotechnology

With this level of potential, it is not surprising that businesses around the world are looking at ways to incorporate biotechnology into their own production pipelines. However, there is a disconnect between research and application. Currently, biotechnology sits at the earlier technology readiness levels (TRLs), with research institutions laying the groundwork for industry. But these research institutions are unable to scale it up due to a lack of larger-scale infrastructure, and companies will not adopt a new technology until it is proven at scale.

Traditionally, this gap is bridged by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) who can demonstrate the technology at scales large enough that prove its effectiveness. However, the UK does not currently have the necessary infrastructure in place to allow for this bridging scale-up, and SMEs do not typically have the capital to build it themselves.

But this isn’t the only problem facing industrial biotechnology. Currently, there are no set standards by which these processes operate, and no ways of measuring the quality of the products made via these processes. While this may not be quite as important for some industries, it is of paramount importance to any industries that produce products that will be used or consumed by humans such as medicines, food, material and personal care industries.

Industrial biotechnology also relies on the valorisation of waste, which is a boon for industry – we can take our rubbish and turn it into something useful – but by using waste as a feedstock, consideration needs to be given to the safety of those handling the waste streams and also preventing any potential pathogens passing downstream.

The Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Catalyst (IBIC)

The newly launched Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Catalyst (IBIC), is starting to address some of these challenges. Led by The University of Manchester’s Institute of Biotechnology to connect academia with policymakers and businesses, it aims to bridge the gap between lab and life. While the IBIC is focused on supporting the north-west, we hope that the consortium can act as a roadmap for how to translate industrial biotechnology across the UK.

How can government support the transition?

As with any new technology, there is a time lag between innovation, application, and scale up. A lack of infrastructure, investment, and sound regulatory underpinning are challenges which can prolong this lag. Government can offer support with these barriers to transition.

Infrastructure

Governmental departments like the Department for Business and Trade, and the Department for Science, Industry and Technology (DSIT) should help by commissioning medium and large-scale pilot infrastructure and helping academia and industry to access such capability that can prove industrial biotechnological processes to enterprise level organisations. They can do this by aiding in the expansion of regional biotechnology innovation catalysts and investing in longer timescales (5-10 years) to not only demonstrate proof of concept research and development and potential benefits to industry, using IBIC as an example of best practice, but also to generate economic return to public investment and deliver a long-term legacy by enabling society to overcome challenges in energy security, disease and hunger mitigation.

Incentives

In addition to this, government can create incentives to help drive the transition to biotech processes. This could be through offering grants to SMEs for new equipment and training for staff or offering tax breaks to companies looking to divest from petrochemicals and invest in industrial biotechnological alternatives and take these new technologies in-house. The new government could also continue with plans for an engineering biology showcase, initially floated as part of the National Vision for Engineering Biology in 2023. The showcase to be attended by investors and customers would spotlight the UK’s leadership in engineering biology and foster a dialogue about the opportunities available to pull through.

Regulatory frameworks

In 2023, Engineering Biology Regulators Network (EBRN) was formed by DSIT to support the development of regulatory reforms. Before the election, EBRN which is formed of a cross section of government departments and regulators was given the task of mapping the current regulations already in place across the industry. In order to underpin the vision of the biotechnology economy going forward there should be one regulatory pathway which sets out the measurement mechanisms and standards for industrial biotechnological processes and products to ensure they meet key safety and efficacy thresholds. Government should work with the EBRN to produce an interim report on their mapping work which details any grey areas in the current regulatory system and proposals as to how these might be overcome. This should then be subject to consultation.

The UK has an incredible knowledge and skill base in industrial biotechnology and a growing pipeline of R&D within engineering biology that could significantly contribute to the UK economy. If the government can address these issues and create a supportive ecosystem for industrial biotechnology to thrive, it will put the UK front and centre of the biotechnological revolution.