NDLI: Enzymes for pharmaceutical applications—a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Kim, Seungdo Jiménez González, Concepción Dale, Bruce E.
Copyright Year	2009
Abstract	During the last decade, the interest in estimating environmental life cycle impacts of bioprocesses has markedly risen. To adequately quantify these impacts, accurate life cycle inventories of materials, such as agricultural substrates and enzymes, are required. The goals of this life cycle assessment were (1) to estimate the life cycle inventories (LCIs) and impacts of three supported enzymes produced in-house for pharmaceutical applications (A, B, and C) and (2) to determine the suitability of applying modular life cycle inventory estimation techniques to enzymes when individual enzyme LCIs are not readily available. The scope of this LCA was cradle to gate, covering the production and purification of the enzymes, energy generation, raw material production, waste treatment, and transportation of the raw materials.Three immobilized enzymes (A, B, and C) produced industrially for application in pharmaceutical products were studied. Enzyme production information was obtained from internal process descriptions. LCI information was obtained from GlaxoSmithKline’s in-house LCA database FLASC™, from LCA commercial databases, and literature. The LCI for the enzyme support was estimated using its material flows. Mass allocations were applied to multi-output processes in the upstream processes. The life cycle impacts considered were nonrenewable energy consumption, global warming, acidification, eutrophication, and photochemical smog formation.Life cycle impacts of the immobilized enzymes A, B, and C were estimated. For instance, nonrenewable energy use is between 117 to 207 MJ/kg of immobilized enzyme and the global warming potential ranges from 16 to 25 kg CO$_{2}$ eq/kg immobilized enzyme. Contributions of different subprocesses were also estimated. For example, support production accounts for about 31% to 67% of the energy consumption and soybean protein and yeast extract account for about 64% to 72% of the total photochemical smog formation. Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis were performed using Monte Carlo simulation and showed that a standard deviation of the environmental impact is less than 7% of the mean in all the environmental impacts considered. “What if” analysis shows that using biobased glycerin instead of petroleum-based glycerin could reduce global warming impacts between 11% and 44%.The production of immobilized enzyme is, in general, energy intensive. Enzyme A has larger environmental impacts than the other enzymes evaluated because of larger energy intensity and lower enzyme production yield. The media preparation inputs (soybean protein, yeast extract) and immobilization subprocesses are the two major contributors to acidification, eutrophication, and photochemical smog formation. Immobilization is the major contributor for global warming potential. “What if” analysis estimated changes on life cycle impacts for biobased vs. synthetic substrates. The results of this LCA are, in general, comparable with results previously reported in the literature (Nielsen et al., Int J Life Cycle Assess 12(6):432–438, 2007). Therefore, using this technique to estimate LCI of enzymes appears to be suitable for future life cycle assessments of biocatalyzed processes. The results of this study will be integrated into GlaxoSmithKline’s FLASC™ to improve the accuracy of life cycle assessment for biocatalyzed processes and enzymes produced in-house.
Starting Page	392
Ending Page	400
Page Count	9
File Format	PDF
ISSN	09483349
Journal	The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
Volume Number	14
Issue Number	5
e-ISSN	16147502
Language	English
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Publisher Date	2009-05-29
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Biocatalysis Bioprocesses Cradle-to-gate Enzymes LCA Life cycle assessment Life cycle inventories Pharmaceuticals Environmental Economics Environment
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Environmental Science

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Life cycle inventories for the production of sodium silicates

Cradle-to-gate life cycle inventory and assessment of pharmaceutical compounds

Life cycle inventory for the production of zeolite a for detergents

Use of Life Cycle assessment in the procedure for the establishment of environmental criteria in the catalan ECO-label of leather

Cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment of global manganese alloy production

Marginal production technologies for life cycle inventories

Parameterised inventories for life cycle assessment : Systematically relating design parameters to the life cycle inventory

A comparative cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment of three concrete mix designs

A cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment of wood fibre-reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) and polylactic acid/thermoplastic starch (PLA/TPS) biocomposites

Enzymes for pharmaceutical applications—a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment

Similar Documents

Life cycle inventories for the production of sodium silicates

Cradle-to-gate life cycle inventory and assessment of pharmaceutical compounds

Life cycle inventory for the production of zeolite a for detergents

Use of Life Cycle assessment in the procedure for the establishment of environmental criteria in the catalan ECO-label of leather

Cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment of global manganese alloy production

Marginal production technologies for life cycle inventories

Parameterised inventories for life cycle assessment : Systematically relating design parameters to the life cycle inventory

A comparative cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment of three concrete mix designs

A cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment of wood fibre-reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) and polylactic acid/thermoplastic starch (PLA/TPS) biocomposites

Enzymes for pharmaceutical applications—a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment