Biotechnology for Clean Industrial Products and Processes
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BIOTECHNOLOGY FOR CLEAN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS AND PROCESSES Towards Industrial Sustainability OECD BIOTECHNOLOGY FOR CLEAN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS AND PROCESSES Towards Industrial Sustainability ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT Pursuant to Article 1 of the Convention signed in Paris on 14th December 1960, and which came into force on 30th September 1961, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shall promote policies designed: ± to achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and employment and a rising standard of living in Member countries, while maintaining ®nancial stability, and thus to contribute to the development of the world economy; ± to contribute to sound economic expansion in Member as well as non-member countries in the process of economic development; and ± to contribute to the expansion of world trade on a multilateral, non-discriminatory basis in accordance with international obligations. The original Member countries of the OECD are Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The following countries became Members subsequently through accession at the dates indicated hereafter: Japan (28th April 1964), Finland (28th January 1969), Australia (7th June 1971), New Zealand (29th May 1973), Mexico (18th May 1994), the Czech Republic (21st December 1995), Hungary (7th May 1996), Poland (22nd November 1996) and Korea (12th Decem- ber 1996). The Commission of the European Communities takes part in the work of the OECD (Article 13 of the OECD Convention). PubliÂe en franËcais sous le titre : LA BIOTECHNOLOGIE AU SERVICE DE PRODUITS ET DE PROCEDÂ ESÂ INDUSTRIELS PROPRES Vers un dÂeveloppement industriel durable OECD 1998 Permission to reproduce a portion of this work for non-commercial purposes or classroom use should be obtained through the Centre franËcais d'exploitation du droit de copie (CFC), 20, rue des Grands-Augustins, 75006 Paris, France, Tel. (33-1) 44 07 47 70, Fax (33-1) 46 34 67 19, for every country except the United States. In the United States permission should be obtained through the Copyright Clearance Center, Customer Service, (508)750-8400, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 USA, or CCC Online: http://www.copyright.com/. All other applications for permission to reproduce or translate all or part of this book should be made to OECD Publications, 2, rue AndrÂe-Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France. FOREWORD Biotechnology for Clean Industrial Products and Processes: Towards Industrial Sustainability is the report of an Ad Hoc Task Force of the OECD Working Party on Biotechnology. It was approved by the Working Party's 6th Session on 24-25 February, and by the Committee for Scienti®c and Technological Policy on 10-11 March 1998. It continues the OECD's review of environmental biotechnologies which began with Biotechnology for a Clean Environment (1994) and included workshops in Tokyo (1994), Amsterdam (1995) and Mexico (1996), but also opens the door to major new efforts to improve industrial sustainability in and outside the OECD. Industrial biotechnology has emerged into a world where environmental sustainability has become a global concern. The report illustrates how modern process biotechnologies can address this global concern, and how they are penetrating industrial operations in many sectors. It identi®es environmental and economic advantages over other technologies, as well as technical and other bottlenecks. It also emphasises that industry and governments must act together to respond to the challenges of industrial sustainability through biotechnology. The Ad Hoc Task Force was chaired by Alan Bull (United Kingdom), with co-chairs Barry Marrs (United States) and Ryuichiro Kurane (Japan). This team, together with Wulf Crueger (Germany), co-ordinated the drafting work, supported by the Secretariat, where the responsibilities were with Salomon Wald and Tadashi Hirakawa. The report was written by seven chapter co-ordinators ± Chapter 1: A. Bull (United Kingdom), Chapter 2: B. Marrs (United States) and H. Doddema (Netherlands), Chapter 3: R. Kurane (Japan), Chapter 4: W. Crueger (Germany), Chapter 5: B. Dixon (United Kingdom), Chapter 6: V. Aidun (Canada) replacing D. Mahon (Canada), Chapter 7: all. In addition, Ad Hoc Task Force members made essential contributions, particularly R. Atlas (United States) as scienti®c and policy expert, and M. Grif®ths (United Kingdom) as assistant to the chair. The assistance of many other contributors, including industrial companies, is gratefully acknowledged. Many are mentioned in individual chapters of the report. Particular thanks are due to the European Commission (DG XII), and to the governments of Germany (BMETF), Japan (MITI) and the Netherlands (Ministry of Economic Affairs) for their generous voluntary contributions to the ®nancing of this report. The report is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD and does not necessarily re¯ect the views of the OECD and all its Member countries. In addition, it must be emphasised that the mention of industrial companies, trade names or speci®c commercial products or processes, does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by the OECD. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary .............................................................. 7 Preface ........................................................................ 13 Chapters 1. Industrial Sustainability and the Role of Biotechnology ............................. 15 2. Current Industrial Applications of Biotechnology ................................... 29 3. Science and Technology Trends and Potential .................................... 63 4. Evaluating the Cleanliness of Biotechnological Industrial Products and Processes ........ 87 5. Public Attitudes and Education ................................................ 117 6. National and International Policies .............................................. 131 7. Conclusions and Policy Implications ............................................. 137 Annexes 1.1. Models of Industrial Sustainability .............................................. 141 1.2. Novel Clean Chemistry ....................................................... 143 2.1. Recent Biotechnological Developments Addressing the Needs of Process Chemistry ..... 145 2.2. Pulp and Paper ............................................................. 146 2.3. Metals and Minerals ......................................................... 151 4.1. LCA Methodology ........................................................... 155 4.2. LCA Standardisation ......................................................... 164 4.3. Review of Life Cycle Assessments .............................................. 166 4.4. Research Requirements ...................................................... 173 6. Policies and Legislation in Canada, Japan and Germany ............................ 179 Glossary ....................................................................... 195 List of Participants ............................................................... 199 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Industrial biotechnology has come of age. Improved industrial sustainability through biotechnol- ogy, the focus of this report, addresses many global environmental concerns. Biotechnology has clear environmental advantages and is economically competitive in a growing number of industrial sectors. It enables reductions of material and energy consumption, as well as pollution and waste generation, for the same level of industrial production. Continued technical innovation, including that based upon recombinant DNA technology, is vital for the wider utilisation of biotechnology by industry. Moreover, joint government-industry action is needed to underpin the development and use of clean industrial products and processes. Biotechnology for Clean Industrial Products and Processes continues the OECD's review of environmental applications of biotechnology. It began with Biotechnology for a Clean Environment (OECD, 1994), which focused on bioremediation of polluted air, soil and water, and was followed by workshops in Tokyo in 1994, Amsterdam in 1995, and Mexico in 1996 (OECD, 1995, 1996, 1997). Chapter 1, ``Industrial Sustainability and the Role of Biotechnology'', highlights the paradigm shift that has taken place since the early 1990s: the emphasis is no longer on the removal of pollutants from an already damaged environment, but on the need to reshape industrial process technologies to prevent pollution at the source. However, the concept of ``clean technology'' has appeared so quickly that the conceptual agenda is, in many instances, in advance of the necessary R&D, and also does not take account of the existing technological potential. Achieving ``clean technology'' or ``industrial sustainability'' ± the two terms are largely congruent ± will not be possible without a steady stream of creative innovations based on advanced science and technologies, among which biotechnology is likely to play an increasing role. Gaps between the conceptual agenda, R&D needs and technical possibilities can be narrowed by alerting governments, industry and the public to biotechnology's growing potential, but also to the bottlenecks which still must be removed to bring this potential to fruition. Although de®nitions of sustainable