Practical considerations for delivering on the sustainability promise of fermentation-based biomanufacturing

Abstract

Increasingly, bio-based products made via sugar-powered microbial cell factories and industrial fermentation are reaching the market and presenting themselves as sustainable alternatives to fossil and animal-based products. The sustainability potential of biotechnology, however, has been shown to come with trade-offs and cannot be taken for granted. Shared environmental impact hotspots have been identified across industrial fermentation-based products, including biomass production, energy consumption, and end-of-life fate. Based on both these patterns and our direct experience in preparing for the commercial-scale production of Brewed Protein™, we outline practical considerations for improving the sustainability performance of bio-based products made via industrial fermentation.

Secretion‐Catalyzed Assembly of Protein Biomaterials on a Bacterial Membrane Surface

“…Commercial investment in "brewed materials" and "engineered living materials" underscores the high current interest in engineered protein biomaterials. [1,4,60] Whilst the last decade has seen progress in expressing silk proteins, [10,11,29,38,61] modifying their sequences, [32,62,63] and developing biomimetic processing workflows, [31,47] the notion that microbes could autonomously synthesize, secrete, and process protein materials has not been widely discussed.…”

“…Protein‐based biomaterials have recently attracted attention because of their multifaceted uses in biomedical applications as well as emerging applications as a sustainable material [1–4] . Like other biomaterials, proteins tend to be biocompatible and biodegradable, though they are also genetically‐encodable and programmable [5] .…”

“…Protein-based biomaterials have recently attracted attention because of their multifaceted uses in biomedical applications as well as emerging applications as a sustainable material. [1][2][3][4] Like other biomaterials, proteins tend to be biocompatible and biodegradable, though they are also genetically-encodable and programmable. [5] Recombinant approaches have been explored to obtain long-chain protein materials that can form fibrous assemblies with superior mechanical properties.…”

Biomaterial Artistry: Investigating the aesthetic expressions of voluminous form-giving applied to knit-bacterial cellulose composite textiles derived from material development in the context of footwear

“…From a material perspective, this project delves into the artistic potential of biodesign and, specifically, into the interaction between the different bio-composite materials that constitute the research outcome in order to exact form. While biomaterial production offers a vast array of sustainable avenues, current research is prominent in performance, science-based biotechnology and replacing non-renewable materials (Lips, 2021;Parkes, 2021), while the creation of designerly or artistically-oriented biomaterials occupies a more inconspicuous position (Doveil, 2022). Observing this research gap in parallel with the struggles of practice-based design and artistic expression in establishing their disciplinary validity within academia (Tonkinwise, 2017), it can be concluded that artistic research foundations in conjunction with scientific and biotechnological workflows may aid in legitimising the intersection between science and design as a practice field.…”

Biomaterial Artistry: Investigating the aesthetic expressions of voluminous form-giving applied to knit-bacterial cellulose composite textiles derived from material development in the context of footwear

“…From a material perspective, this project delves into the artistic potential of biodesign and, specifically, into the interaction between the different bio-composite materials that constitute the research outcome in order to exact form. While biomaterial production offers a vast array of sustainable avenues, current research is prominent in performance, science-based biotechnology and replacing non-renewable materials (Lips, 2021;Parkes, 2021), while the creation of designerly or artistically-oriented biomaterials occupies a more inconspicuous position (Doveil, 2022). Observing this research gap in parallel with the struggles of practice-based design and artistic expression in establishing their disciplinary validity within academia (Tonkinwise, 2017), it can be concluded that artistic research foundations in conjunction with scientific and biotechnological workflows may aid in legitimising the intersection between science and design as a practice field.…”