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White Biotech TP is funded by FP6

United Kingdom

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Introduction

The UK is as a significant player in industrial biotechnology. Building on its life sciences strengths and productive healthcare biotechnology industry, the UK has established good conditions for industrial biotechnology to reinforce the biotech sector. The UK Government has recognised the tremendous potential of industrial biotechnology as both a means of making UK manufacturing industries more competitive and as a way of reducing emissions and environmental pollution.

Today, progressive governmental support, innovative institutes and companies together with powerful collaborations are supporting the discovery and development of new industrial biotech processes and bio-products.

In May 2009 an Innovation and Growth Team investigating Industrial Biotechnology was sponsored by the Department of Business Innovation & Skills. The resulting industry-led report, IB 2025: Maximising UK Opportunities from Industrial Biotechnology in a Low Carbon Economy provided 21 recommendations to government which were addressed in the positive Government Response published in June 2009. The recommendations covered many aspects of IB from skills and training, through promotion and facilitation of uptake, to the need for an open access demonstrator facility.

The implementation of the recommendations has already seen the provision of £12m capital investment in a highly adaptable demonstration facility, SUSPROC, based in Wilton. SUSPROC, the UK’s Sustainable Processing and Advanced Manufacturing Centre, helps companies and organisations test, develop and scale up sustainable processes and energy solutions. Its practical and commercial approach is designed to enable customers to enter valuable and new markets as quickly as possible. SUSPROC is a business unit of the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI).

I. Research and Innovation

Modern industrial biotechnology is a relatively new discipline, with major areas of knowledge still to be explored. Public support to research as well as the establishment of pilot and demonstration facilities to scale-up individual processes will therefore help in the development of a European bio-based economy.

A. Public research funding

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) funds underpinning academic research and training in the non-clinical life sciences in the UK. Their Strategic Plan 2010 – 2015 identifies Bioenergy & Industrial Biotechnology as one of its three key research priorities. The Responsive mode and Initiatives Programme of the BBSRC supports several initiatives and research projects for the period 2000-2010. It is mainly funding universities and public research institutes. In 2008, 239 projects were supported.

The UK Technology Strategy Board (TSB) is a source of funding for applied and development research in industrial biotechnology and is a member, as a partner, of the European Research Area – Industrial Biotechnology (ERA-net IB). The TSB has published a Biosciences Strategy 2009 – 2012 which identifies industrial biotechnology as one of its three priority areas. In both 2009 and 2010 the TSB has run a competition to fund the development and commercialisation of innovative processes that will generate high value chemicals though industrial biotechnology. In each year up to £2.5m has been made available for both feasibility and collaborative research and development projects. This funding enables industrial researchers the ability to use the open access demonstrator facilities NIBF and SUSPROC, providing access to a multi-purpose plant up to 10,000 litre capacity. The Technology Strategy Board is an executive non-departmental public body (NDPB), established by the Government.

Defra, in conjunction with the Department for Energy and Climate Change and the BBSRC sponsor the Renewable Materials LINK programme. LINK is a means by which the UK Government encourages collaborative research for innovative and industrially-relevant research to support its wealth creation and quality of life goals. The Renewable Materials LINK programme encourages investment in research and the exchange of knowledge between the private sector and the research base in furthering the non-food uses of renewable materials to support sustainable development. Grants totalling £10M have been awarded to projects with a total programme value of £22M.

Integrated Biorefining Technologies Initiative (IBTI), launched in 2008, is a jointly funded partnership between industry and research councils for a fully integrated biorefining collaboration to cover activities from R&D through pilot plant to demonstration. The research club is being led by the UK’s main public funder of bioscience research – the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) together with the Biosciences KTN and it involves the full supply chain from growers to end users and targets the production from biomass, of chemicals, materials and fuels. IBTI has £6m initially for R&D projects and is closely working with the founder company members of the IBTI Club to identify areas of salient research. The IBTI industrial members are: Biocaldol, BP Biofuels UK, British Sugar, Croda, Danisco A/S Genencor, Green Biologics, AHDB-HGCA, KWS UK, Syngenta and TMO Renewables.

IBTI activities are:

Activity 1: A strategic research programme (BBSRC Industry Research Club) -An industry-guided research programme with bi-annual dissemination meetings to ensure members are informed of research outputs. This forum provides opportunities for early engagement with UK academics to establish close working relationships for future collaborative ventures.
Activity 2: Demonstration Projects -Industry and government departments fund demonstration projects as proof-of-concept. Projects vary in size and extent of private/public investment according to the specific needs of individual companies/consortia.
Activity 3: A facilitated network -The IBTI Industrial Strategy Board is an influential group of experts with knowledge across the entire biorefining supply chain. Importantly, this includes both the energy and non-energy sectors to ensure commercial potential is maximised through the integrated production of bioenergy, biochemical and biomaterial products.

The BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre was established in January 2009 and represents a £27m investment in the pipeline from growing biomass to fermentation for biofuels. This centre delivers integrated activity across 6 research programmes that bring together a total of 12 universities and institutes with 14 industrial partners. The Centre underpins development in the important and emerging bioenergy sector and provides a focus for: ensuring sustainability; widening the range of starting materials for bioenergy; making plant cell walls easier to break down; optimising fermentation to produce fuel.

The Centre of Excellence for Biocatalysis, Biotransformations and Biocatalytic Manufacture (CoEBio3 ) comprises a “hub” at the University of Manchester with “spokes” at the Universities of York, Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt; University College London Department of Biochemcial Engineering is also associated with CoEBio3. This centre provides an entry point for R&D in IB in the UK with all of the university departments working together to deliver R&D for the industry members of the centre.

B. Pilot and demonstration plants

A descriptive list of pilot and demonstration plants in the United Kingdom is available here.

The Sustainable Processing and Advanced Manufacturing Centre, SUSPROC at CPI, helps companies and organisations test, develop and scale up sustainable processes and energy solutions. Its practical and commercial approach is designed to enable customers to enter valuable and new markets as quickly as possible. Within SUSPROC is The National Industrial Biotechnology Facility (NIBF) based on demand from the growing sector. The NIBF is an open access facility designed to help companies of all sizes develop bio-tech products and processes quickly and cost-effectively. Companies can explore alternatives to traditional chemical processing techniques to create cleaner and more sustainable manufacturing processes.

The NIBF combines unique open access testing and scale-up facilities with practical experience and applied knowledge of science and engineering. Opened in 2007, it is the only commercially-available site in the UK which can perform Industrial Biotechnology (IB) fermentation from 1 to 10,000 litres. The extensive combination of equipment at NIBF is supported by a comprehensive knowledge of process development and scale-up, a combination of disciplines that is not widely commercially available. This means that a manufacturing concept can be taken from the laboratory bench to large scale commercial production – all on one site, with one team, at speed.

Integrated chemical and physical processing facilities are also available at SUSPROC. These often allow the final stages of an Industrial Biotech process to be carried out on site, producing up to kilo quantities of final material as part of proof of concept studies and providing whole process solutions which may be to FEED for retrofit or new build.

II. Policy

In May 2009 an Innovation and Growth Team investigating Industrial Biotechnology was sponsored by the Department of Business Innovation & Skills. The resulting industry led report, IB 2025: Maximising UK Opportunities from Industrial Biotechnology in a Low Carbon Economy provided 21 recommendations to government which were addressed in the positive Government Response published in June 2009. The recommendations covered many aspects of IB from skills and training, through promotion and facilitation of uptake to the need for an open access demonstrator facility.

An Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum (IB-LF) has been created to ensure that the recommendations contained in the document “IB 2025” are delivered. Co-Chaired by Dr Ian Shott and a government minister from BIS, the IB-LF comprises industry leaders and stakeholders whose directions are carried out by an Industrial Biotechnology Special Interest Group (IB SIG). The IB SIG is led by Biosciences KTN and Chemistry Innovation KTN and includes many networks and organisations relevant to industrial biotechnology and the chemicals and chemistry using industries.

The IB SIG addresses a wide range of issues pertinent to the uptake of industrial biotechnology including improvement of the regulatory framework; the integration of specification for bio-based products in public procurement; the establishment of standardisation, labelling and certification schemes to overcome perceived uncertainty about product properties and weak market transparency; the development of financial instruments and supports to increase investments into research, technology development and innovation as well as the elaboration of a communication and information campaign to communicate the benefits of bio-based products to users. An IB Industry Expert has been appointed to communicate on a one-to-one basis with companies and an innovative, easy to use method of calculating life cycle analysis has been made freely available.

SusChem United Kingdom is the national platform that links the UK with the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry . It is an alliance of six partner organisations (Royal Society of Chemistry, Society of Chemical Industries, Chemical Industries Association, Institution of Chemical Engineers, Biosciences KTN, Chemistry Innovation KTN) with an interest in sustainable chemistry, working together to support industry and academia in providing the chemistry-based solutions that will contribute to a sustained quality of life. Launched in June 2008, SusChem United Kingdom focuses on areas where innovation in chemistry, engineering and related sciences can bring about major advances in sustainability through the design, manufacture, formulation, packaging and distribution of products and through new and improved processes.

A. Policies and regulations

No policies are in place at present although some discussions have taken place as mentioned in the White Paper “Innovation Nation” ( March 2008) and in the UK Life Science marketing strategy launched in November 2007.

In 2004, DEFRA and DTI (now BIS) published a “A strategy for non-food crops and uses - Creating value from renewable materials” . The Strategy action plan covers areas such as tackling climate change, funding more scientific research and increasing the use of sustainable products.

In November 2006 the Strategy Project Board published its report on the delivery of the first two years of the Strategy and in May 2007, the Government responded to this two years evaluation by refocusing the action plan for developing the strategy up to the end of 2009. The Government noted that Bioenergy has seen most progress over the last two years. He noted that to achieve a low carbon economy, the development of biorefineries to provide a sustainable manufacturing base for energy, fuels, biomaterials and chemicals is central.

The DTI (now BIS) established, in October 2004, the Biomass Task Force with the challenge ‘to assist Government and the biomass industry in optimising the contribution of biomass energy to enewable energy targets and to sustainable farming and forestry and rural economy objectives’. The Task Force concluded that biomass – in its diverse forms – has potential for contributing strongly to our renewable energy and climate change objectives, and that much of this potential is currently unrealised. Biomass cannot solve all of the issues facing us, for energy or for farming. But its contribution can be very significant and in this response we set out our plans for moving forward towards optimum use of this resource.

In 2006, the Government responded to the task force. The response provided further detail on how the United Kingdom intends biomass to contribute to renewable development. The Government asked the Task Force to concentrate on the use of biomass for heat and electricity generation, while taking account of biofuels for transport and other non food uses of crops in so far as cross-cutting issues arose.

B. Public procurement

There are no specific guidelines on bio-based products in public procurement. Ad hoc – some examples of renewable products have been incorporated into public procurement contracts.

C. Standardisation, labelling and certification

Support for the EU wide ecolabel rather than a separate National scheme.

A life cycle analysis tool, CCaLC, has been developed at the University of Manchester and represents a simple, easy to use method of measuring the carbon footprint of a product taking into account the source of starting materials, processes and end use and disposal.

This tool has been made available free of charge to users.

D. Access to finance

The Bioscience Unit in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is part of BIS’s Business Relations activity, within Enterprise and Business Group. Business Relations aims to use sector knowledge and expertise to create the conditions for globally competitive UK business. The Unit’s vision is growing Bioscience R&D capability and commercialisation within the UK.

Knowledge Transfer Networks (KTN) promote collaboration between research, industry and technology organisations to broaden and accelerate industry driven knowledge transfer from scientific expertise into the end-user markets through a range of activities facilitating the entire chain.

The Biosciences KTN includes industrial biotechnology in its remit and also operates across food science, plant & crop biotechnology and animal breeding & health and is designed to meet the challenge of integrating rapid developments in the biosciences. The IB sector includes biocatalytic manufacturing processes to achieve industrial excellence. Chemistry Innovation KTN includes the chemicals and chemistry using industries and is also involved with green and clean technologies.

E. Communication

Both KTNs are in regular direct contact with their network and membership through a web portal facilitated by the Technology Strategy Board and are the conduit for conveying relevant IB information to the community.

NNFCC (The National Non-Food Crops Centre) are developing a communications strategy for non-food crops to provide information to the consumer to influence behaviour and support beneficial choices and to industry on new commercial opportunities.

Main Sources

UK KBBE-net delegate

BioIndustry Association

Bioscience for Business KTN