Chemicals is one area where industrial biotechnology has major emissions reduction potential, according to report
National standards body partners with government innovation agency InnovateUK and the Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum on major new report setting out full potential for bio feedstocks
The British Standards Institution (BSI) has this morning published a roadmap setting out how a number of UK’s most emissions-intensive industrial sectors could move closer to net zero emissions by transitioning away from fossil fuels to alternative bio-based energy sources, fuels, or chemicals.
In a report published this morning, the national standards body has set out how industrial biotechnology can reduce the significant emissions produced by the UK’s agritech, biofuel, fine and speciality chemicals, plastics, and textiles sectors and thus steer the nation closer to its ambition of reaching net zero emissions.
Of the five industrial sectors included in the study, the report claims biofuels and agritech have the most prospect for carbon dioxide reduction over the next the three to five years. However, it notes all other sectors can also “gain important traction” on the journey to net zero emissions through more effective use of biotechnologies.
BSI manufacturing sector lead Ben Sheridan said the report could help standardise the approach taken by industrial companies looking to eliminate emissions. “This major new report provides a route-map for companies in the industrial biotechnology supply chain who want to follow good practice and take action to reduce CO2 emissions,” he said. “It also provides guidance to policy makers and industry, based on interviews with 50 stakeholders, to inform future regulation and standardisation priorities”.
The report, which was sponsored by government innovation agency InnovateUK and the Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum, concludes that government support, agreement on good practices, and private sector investment is needed to realise the potential of the sector, which the government hopes can double in size to £440bn by 2030.
Paul Mines the interim co-chair of the Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum said the report demonstrated the “significant contribution” that industrial biotechnology can make to the UK’s prosperity and quest for net zero emissions. “It highlights how important industrial sectors that touch our everyday lives might be transformed and how standards and regulations, communicated clearly, are vital in this fast-growing technology space,” he said.
Players from across the biotechnology supply chain – from companies, regulatory agencies, individuals, processes, materials, and municipalities – must work together to allow industrial biotechnology to thrive, according to the report, which notes that a number barriers related to infrastructure, tax policy, regulations and standards, and perceptions and behaviours are holding back its potential.
The report calls on players to help to establish biotechnology as the “linchpin” of a circular economy, by ensuring that processes capture value where there was once waste or overlooked capacity. This “virtuous cycle” will stimulate investment in industrial biotechnology, it states. It also recommends that industry players and government work to create better awareness and a shared understanding of the potential and benefits of industrial biotechnology, and take a science-based approach to business.
It also urges players from across the supply chain to work together to ensure a level playing field that allows industrial biotechnology technologies to compete on a more equitable footing with fossil fuel derived technologies, and sets out a number of recommendations in this regard related to funding, infrastructure, government interventions, and tax policy.
While biofuels are regarded as the best available short- to medium-term solution for curbing emissions in many sectors, there are concerns in some quarters about the feasibility of scaling up biofuel production and whether heavy industry and transport’s growing embrace of biofuels is a distraction from the need to switch to zero emission technologies.
