Water related impact of energy: Cost and carbon footprint analysis of water for biopharmaceuticals from tap to waste
Alessandro Luigi Cataldo, Bernhard Sissolak, Karl Metzger, Kristi L. Budzinski, Osamu Shirokizawa, Markus Luchner, Alois Jungbauer, Peter Satzer
Abstract
Manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals requires high quality water. Overall conditions for production of clean water vary across the globe due to availability and quality. We combined economic and ecological modeling to assess energy consumption of water production from tap to waste. We defined a metric, the WAter Related Impact of ENergy (WARIEN) to directly correlate the amount of CO2 emitted per kg biopharmaceutical and included membrane- and distillation-based methods for clean water production. Three scenarios for production of antibodies with a 500 L fed-batch fermentation with stainless steel, or single-use or a 100 L perfusion were assessed. The WARIEN varied from 16 to 89 kg CO2/kg antibody. Highest is the production with perfusion in stainless steel using distillation-based water and lowest the fed-batch with single-use using membrane-based water. The water related costs per kg product and the WARIEN correlate and therefore can be used as a design criterion.