Why Bioengineering Offers Benefits for Sustainability

Better environmental protection and optimized products: Bioengineering could provide significant impetus for greater sustainability in the coming years – but only if a few hurdles are overcome. 

Almost all industrial companies are involved in bioengineering. Sustainability is a central motive for companies' interest in biotechnology. According to the study "Engineering biology: The time is now" by the Capgemini Research Institute on the bioeconomy, over 70 % of companies expect to be able to achieve their sustainability goals much faster with the help of biosolutions. Other motives are cost reduction, product optimization and – especially in Germany – greater safety of product and production processes.

Bioengineering or engineering biology (also known as synthetic biology) utilizes principles from biology and engineering in conjunction with artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven computing technologies to create new or redesigned biological systems. Generative AI is expected to increase precision, speed and cost efficiency in bioengineering in the future. Products, materials or processes in which bioengineering is used are referred to as biosolutions. According to Felizitas Graeber, Managing Director of Capgemini Invent in Germany, biotechnology enables innovations that "can be found in all branches of industry - from energy and utilities to the automotive industry, healthcare and agriculture".

Disruption Through Bioengineering

According to the study, almost all of the managers surveyed (99 % internationally, 100 % of German managers) expect bioengineering to bring major changes to their industry in the next two to ten years or more. In Germany, more than one in two (58 %) expect this to happen in the next two to five years.

Most organizations in the industry (96 % internationally, 99 % in Germany) are already working on biosolutions: 40 % were in the exploration phase, for example; 56 % were conducting research and pilot projects or using biosolutions on a commercial scale. The majority of organizations are planning to increase investment in biotechnology.

Applications in the Automotive Sector

According to the study, the following fields of application for bioengineering have become established in the automotive sector:

• Bio-based materials such as bioplastics and leather alternatives for interior trim (seats and floor coverings): For example, Toyota is working with the Japanese biotechnology start-up Spiber. The car manufacturer is using Spiber's biotechnologically produced fibers, which are manufactured using microbial fermentation, for the interior of a Land Cruiser Prado concept model. And Continental has developed Benova Eco Protect, a vegan surface material for automotive interiors. Dieter Beste explains what the increased use of bioplastics can look like as a sustainable alternative to conventional petroleum-based polymers in vehicles in the article Advances in Bioplastics from ATZworldwide 1-2024.
• Bio-based paints and coatings: Californian biotech start-up Lygos is developing microbes to produce malonic acid, a variant of which (malonate) is used in the automotive industry. The conventional process for hardening or curing paints and coatings requires temperatures of up to 450° C, while malonate enables painting at low temperatures. The Lygos process is intended to enable the sustainable production of malonic acid, which otherwise requires toxic chemicals that pose environmental and health risks.
• Bio-based alternatives for battery materials and battery recycling: For example, scientists at the University of Edinburgh are researching the use of genetically modified bacteria to extract valuable metals such as cobalt, manganese, nickel and lithium from used lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles.
• Biofuels: The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), LanzaTech, Northwestern University and Yale University are working together on a project funded by the US Department of Energy to produce more sustainable biofuels through bioengineering. The aim is to develop carbon-consuming bacteria using genome engineering and machine learning to convert carbon emissions into biofuels on an industrial scale. Springer author Olaf Kruse describes how fuels can be produced using phototrophic microorganisms, such as bacteria and microalgae, in the German chapter Synthetic Biology and Biofuels in the book Synthetic Biology.

Costs too High and Lack of Qualified Specialists

With regard to the challenges involved in the scaled introduction of biosolutions, study participants from both established companies and biotechnology start-ups named the following as some of the biggest hurdles: high costs and the lack of suitable large-scale infrastructure such as bioreactors as well as a lack of skilled workers. They also pointed to the complexity of redesigning supply chains and potential regulatory changes to the development and use of biosolutions. Almost two-thirds (65 %) of bioengineering start-ups believe that widespread ignorance of biological issues is limiting their ability to scale biosolutions; they emphasized the need for more expertise in the subject.

Respondents saw digital and engineering technologies as key factors in reducing costs, optimizing bioprocesses, shortening time-to-market for biosolutions and mitigating environmental and societal risks. They rated AI as the technology with the greatest transformation potential. Robotics for process automation and digital twins of bioreactors that predict production results were also named as important measures for reducing costs and scaling up more quickly.

This is a partly automated translation of this German article.