Transcript EPICC Presentation - Expertise Limited

Biotechnology and BAT
Seán Moran
Biotechnology and BAT
• What are BAT?
• Appropriateness of Applications of
Biotechnology to the Chemical Industry
• Selection Procedures
• Sources of Help and Information
Best Available Techniques (BAT)
• This term is defined as 'the most effective and
advanced stage in the development of
activities and their methods of operation
which indicates the practicable suitability of
particular techniques for providing the basis
for emission limit values designed to prevent,
and where that is not practicable, generally to
reduce the emissions and the impact on the
environment as a whole'.
Best Available Techniques (BAT)
• This definition implies that BAT not only
covers the technology used but also the way
in which the installation is operated, to ensure
a high level of environmental protection as a
whole. BAT takes into account the balance
between the costs and environmental
benefits (i.e. the greater the environmental
damage that can be prevented, the greater
the cost for the techniques).
Best Available Techniques (BAT)
• Where there is a choice, the technique that is
best overall will be BAT unless it is not an
'available technique'. There are two key
aspects to the availability test:
• a) what is the balance of costs and
advantages? This means that a technique
may be rejected as BAT if its costs would far
outweigh its environmental benefits
Best Available Techniques (BAT)
• b) can the operator obtain the technique?
This does not mean that the technique has to
be in general use. It would only need to have
been developed or proven as a pilot, provided
that the industry could then confidently
introduce it. Nor does there need to be a
competitive market for it. It does not matter
whether the technique is from outside the UK
or even the EU.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture
•
•
•
•
Cleaner, cheaper, safer production processes
New products
New feedstocks
Cost-effective environmental compliance
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture
• In Process
• Environmental
• Monitoring
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture: In Process
• The use of biotechnology in chemicals’
manufacture is not new and a large number
of well-established processes are now
operated. Examples of larger-scale industrial
biocatalytic processes include the production
of glucose from starch and high fructose
syrup from glucose, the manufacture of citric
acid by fermentation, the production of a
number of amino acids
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : In Process
• Many of the largest commercial processes
are for ingredients for food products but
increasingly other sectors of the chemical
industry are realising the benefits that
biological catalysis can provide for both large
scale and smaller scale production.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : In Process
• The existing and potential in-process
applications of biotechnology in the chemicals
industry include:
– biotransformations to introduce chirality;
– biotransformations to change or introduce
selective functionality;
– fermentation for the cost effective
production of a range of chemicals;
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : In Process
• Biological processes offer the advantage of
being operated under mild conditions of
temperature and pressure, and with high
selectivity leading to fewer by-products. This
has provided opportunities to make
compounds that are not readily made by
conventional chemical synthetic routes or to
replace existing manufacturing processes by
easier routes with fewer steps and potentially
lower environmental impact.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : In Process
• Biotechnology is not the solution to all the
problems of chemicals manufacturing. It is,
however, one of the key enabling tools in the
technology portfolio. Companies that do not
have capabilities in biotransformations risk
being excluded from some of the higher value
segments of the market.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture: Example 1
• Ciba Specialty Chemicals Water and Paper
Treatment Segment
– manufactures a range of polymers based
on acrylamide and acrylic acid for use as
purification agents in water treatment and
many other applications.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Example 1
– The conventional, in-house method for
producing acrylic acid was a hazardous,
multi-step, energy-intensive process with
high acrylonitrile concentrations,high
temperatures, toxic vapour emissions and
substantial amounts of waste.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Example 1
– The Company has developed a biotransformation
route with many benefits, including:
– a simple, single-step process
– a cost-effective process giving a good quality
product
– operation at ambient temperature and
atmospheric pressure
– low acrylonitrile concentrations throughout
manufacture
– few by-products
– almost quantitative atom efficiency.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Example 1
– The Segment had little in-house experience of
biotechnology, but with help from the
Government’s LINK Biochemical Engineering
Programme and staff from a nearby university, it
undertook a study of alternative bioprocesses. A
species of the microorganism Rhodococcus was
identified, which contained an enzyme that could
convert acrylonitrile directly to acrylic acid with an
efficiency greater than any previously reported
enzyme. The Company has patented the
biotransformation and is seeking to license the
technology.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture: Environmental
• Although cleaner technology and waste
minimisation are the favoured approaches to
reduce the environmental impact of
operations in the chemicals industry, a need
will remain for the treatment of wastes and for
the remediation of contaminated soil and
groundwater.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Environmental
• There are a number of bioprocess
technologies available, which offer solutions
to some of the problems typical of the sector
and which compete economically with nonbiological methods.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Environmental
• For companies which operate on sites with a
long history of chemical activity,
contamination of the soil and groundwater is
an ever-present possibility. The Environment
Agency and the water companies treat
aquifer pollution very seriously and can take
legal action against companies that pollute
aquifers.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Environmental
• Increasingly, banks and other funding
institutions are enquiring specifically about
the risks from contaminated land before
agreeing new loans and financing
arrangements. The choice of technology for
remediating any contaminated site will
depend on the specific contamination and the
site conditions.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Environmental
• Bioremediation is one of the many
technologies for treating contaminated soil
and groundwater and involves the use of any
bioprocess to remove the contamination or
render it harmless.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Environmental
• Bioremediation of soil may be carried out insitu without excavation, or contaminated soil
may be excavated prior to ex-situ treatment.
Similarly, groundwater may also be treated insitu or pumped to the surface for treatment in
purpose-built bioreactors. The trend in
treatment of contaminated land is moving
towards more treatment in-situ.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Environmental
• In the UK bioremediation has been used to
clean up the site of a former coke works that
was heavily polluted with PAHs. This project
showed that bioremediation can be very cost
effective, especially when used with risk
based assessment, and that the unit costs for
biotreatment of contaminated soil can be
much lower than offsite disposal to landfill.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Environmental
• The use of bioremediation is, in principle,
favoured by increasingly strict toxic waste
regulations, which provide an incentive to
develop techniques which are cost effective.
However, regulations are sometimes founded
in old technology, and may set standards for
compliance in a manner which does not take
into account the strengths and weaknesses of
the bioremediation approach.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Environmental
• Air pollution regulators have historically
interpreted compliance requirements in terms
of BATNEEC. This has now been replaced by
BAT, but in practice, there is still a cost/benefit
trade off in the choice of environmental clean
up techniques, which is set by the interaction
of industrial practice with regulatory
enforcement.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Environmental
• Incineration by the industry standard
regenerative thermal oxidiser (RTO)
technique may be able to reduce the outflow
of certain pollutants to lower levels than
bioremediation, but if both techniques can
nevertheless meet emissions limits there may
be other environmental benefits from using
bioremediation.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Environmental
• The use of aerobic and anaerobic biological
waste treatment is already well established in
the chemical industry. As a result of pressure
to control effluent discharges more
companies are assessing and installing such
units.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Environmental
• Biological treatment can also be applied to
the treatment of odours and volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) in gaseous effluent
streams. The processes used generally rely
on contacting the contaminated gas stream
with a mixed microbial population in either a
solid or liquid media.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Example 2
British Sugar plc increased the feed rate of sugar
beet into its York factory by 30%, from 7,000
tonnes/day to 9,100 tonnes/day. The existing
treatment system,which consisted of an aerobic
system with discharge to sewer, did not have the
capacity to treat the corresponding increase in
wastewater. British Sugar decided to investigate
alternative biological systems to see if it was possible
to treat all wastewater sufficiently to allow discharge
directly into a river
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Example 2
• British Sugar decided to install an anaerobic
digester upstream of the existing aerobic
system, which was retained to remove
residual organic waste and ammonia before
final discharge to the river. British Sugar
opted for anaerobic digestion over aerobic
treatment because it offered a number of
advantages:
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Example 2
• reduced sludge production from effluent
treatment
• the ability to treat higher levels of organic
waste
• faster treatment with lower energy costs
• production of biogas as a by-product
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Example 2
British Sugar estimates that it saved over
£800,000/year by not having to pay trade
effluent charges to discharge the same
volume of wastewater to sewer. Burning the
biogas generated from the process on site as
a boiler fuel has the potential to save a further
£73,000/year.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Example 2
Environmental benefits include less sludge
waste, the elimination of odours and the
ability to deal with higher organic waste
loads. Recycling treated wastewater within
the water-handling system also reduced acid
levels in the wastewater lagoons, alleviating
the need to add lime - reducing costs further.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Environmental
• Some chemical companies emit volatile
organic compounds (VOCs) or produce
odours from their manufacturing processes.
There is strict legislation limiting VOC
emissions in the UK because of their impact
on air quality and, while odours may not be
harmful, they can lead to complaints and
negative publicity.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Environmental
• Depending on the composition and volume of
a contaminated air stream, biotechnology
offers lower capital and operating costs
compared with alternative systems such as
thermal oxidation. Methods such as
bioscrubbing and biotrickling filters degrade
VOCs and odorous compounds
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Example 3
BIP Ltd manufactures a wide range of raw
materials for the paper, textiles and plastics
industries, including speciality resins and
amino moulding powders. The Company was
faced with increasing legislative pressure to
reduce its VOC emissions, most of which
were generated during the powder-drying
process.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Example 3
• The Company reviewed the available
abatement technologies to find a solution that
would meet its requirements (eg low capital
and operating costs, low-to-medium levels of
VOCs, limited space and minimal need for
further treatment of any waste generated
during abatement).
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Example 3
• BIP opted for a biotrickling filter system,
which uses naturally occurring microorganisms to continuously degrade the VOCs
to carbon dioxide and water. The benefits of
using this system at BIP include savings of up
to £500,000 on capital costs and up to
£100,000/year on running costs compared
with incineration techniques and a safer
process.
Biotechnology in chemicals
manufacture : Example 3
• In addition, BIP was able to install the
equipment on the roof of the existing process
plant and no further wastewater treatment
was required. Maintenance requirements are
minimal and odours have been reduced.
Sources of Help and Information
BIOWISE Helpline
0800 432100
Envirowise Helpline
0800 585794