Sustainability Assessment of Blue
Biotechnology Processes: Addressing
Environmental, Social and Economic
Dimensions
Paula Pérez-López, Gumersindo Feijoo and María Teresa Moreira
Abstract The biotechnological development has traditionally focused on the
compliance with regulatory demands rather than optimising the processes or analysing their sustainability. This work proposes the combination of available tools
for the comprehensive sustainability assessment of a blue biotechnology process
based on the cultivation of the microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis. The work aims
to include environmental, economic and social dimensions to measure the sustainability of the production of a carotenoid with potential applications in food,
nutraceutical, cosmetics and eventually pharmaceutical industries. Electricity for
cultivation was identified as the major contributor to the environmental impacts,
which depended significantly on the production scale. Social benefits were mainly
related to workers and consumers, while the economic assessment suggested a
profitable process with a relatively short period to recover the initial investment.
1 Introduction
Biotechnology is a wide industrial sector that ranges from high value, low volume
products such as pharmaceuticals to low value commodities such as biofuels. The
main effort to date has focused on implementing processes effectively to meet
the regulatory demands more than optimising the operations or analysing the
sustainability, especially in the case of fine chemicals [1]. Nevertheless, there have
been several attempts to develop methodologies for the measurement of bioprocess
sustainability in the last decade [2, 3].
P. Pérez-López (&) Á G. Feijoo Á M. T. Moreira
Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Technology,
University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
e-mail: paula.perez_lopez@mines-paristech.fr
P. Pérez-López
Centre Observation, Impacts, Energie (O.I.E.), MINES ParisTech,
PSL Research University, 1 Rue Claude Daunesse CS 10207, 06904
Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France
© The Author(s) 2018
E. Benetto et al. (eds.), Designing Sustainable Technologies,
Products and Policies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66981-6_53
475
Biotechnology Processes: Addressing
Environmental, Social and Economic
Dimensions
Paula Pérez-López, Gumersindo Feijoo and María Teresa Moreira
Abstract The biotechnological development has traditionally focused on the
compliance with regulatory demands rather than optimising the processes or analysing their sustainability. This work proposes the combination of available tools
for the comprehensive sustainability assessment of a blue biotechnology process
based on the cultivation of the microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis. The work aims
to include environmental, economic and social dimensions to measure the sustainability of the production of a carotenoid with potential applications in food,
nutraceutical, cosmetics and eventually pharmaceutical industries. Electricity for
cultivation was identified as the major contributor to the environmental impacts,
which depended significantly on the production scale. Social benefits were mainly
related to workers and consumers, while the economic assessment suggested a
profitable process with a relatively short period to recover the initial investment.
1 Introduction
Biotechnology is a wide industrial sector that ranges from high value, low volume
products such as pharmaceuticals to low value commodities such as biofuels. The
main effort to date has focused on implementing processes effectively to meet
the regulatory demands more than optimising the operations or analysing the
sustainability, especially in the case of fine chemicals [1]. Nevertheless, there have
been several attempts to develop methodologies for the measurement of bioprocess
sustainability in the last decade [2, 3].
P. Pérez-López (&) Á G. Feijoo Á M. T. Moreira
Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Technology,
University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
e-mail: paula.perez_lopez@mines-paristech.fr
P. Pérez-López
Centre Observation, Impacts, Energie (O.I.E.), MINES ParisTech,
PSL Research University, 1 Rue Claude Daunesse CS 10207, 06904
Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France
© The Author(s) 2018
E. Benetto et al. (eds.), Designing Sustainable Technologies,
Products and Policies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66981-6_53
475