Plastic materials contaminating our environment have been of great recent interest.  Many biomanufacturers and their materials suppliers are examining the effects of employing single-use systems.  Many individuals, corporations and communities each emphasize the importance some particular environmental concerns over others.  Most are especially concerned about the more visible impact categories, such as landfill use or ocean contamination.  However, in establishing more truly sustainable manufacturing systems, all types of pollution or environmental impacts should be considered, and throughout the entire lifecycle of manufacturing facilities, equipment and materials.  The <i>Life Cycle Assessment</i> (LCA) approach is an objective method for discovering and ranking environmental impacts, benefits, trade-offs and burden shifts. GE Healthcare has performed a second, extended LCA study of biopharmaceutical manufacturing that considers additional equipment scale, product types, production modes, and installation placements “from cradle to grave”.  It compares traditional stainless steel, single-use and hybrid facilities in the production of both Monoclonal antibodies (MAb) and Adenovirus vaccines (Adv) across the full process train, including upstream and downstream operations.  It considers the effect of many new parameters, including 1) such regional distinctions in the location of manufacturing plants as materials shipping distances and many facets of power and water sources, and 2) various end-of-life disposal options for the used plastic consumables.<br/>

Science-based sustainability: Further LCA studies in single-use biomanufacturing

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.