New Wave Biotech has launched a new Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool tailored to the biotechnology sector, designed to provide real-time visibility into the environmental impact of manufacturing processes. This new tool is integrated directly into the company’s AI-driven process simulation platform, allowing biomanufacturers to assess multiple environmental factors such as climate change, energy consumption, and resource usage while also optimizing for performance and cost.
“We have created an LCA that moves at the speed of R&D”
The LCA tool is particularly relevant as the biomanufacturing industry faces increasing pressure to demonstrate sustainability. With regulations such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Green Claims Directive now requiring more transparent and verifiable environmental data, this tool offers companies a way to meet those demands earlier in their product development cycles.
Unlike traditional LCAs, which typically involve long timelines and high consultancy fees, New Wave Biotech’s solution automates the process, updating environmental impact data in real time. The company notes that traditional LCA studies can cost tens of thousands of dollars and take months to complete, whereas New Wave’s platform is designed to deliver dynamic, instant results, allowing companies to adjust processes more quickly.
Nix Hall, CTO of New Wave Biotech, explained, “Most LCAs are static snapshots that take months to produce and require costly consultancy work. We have created an LCA that moves at the speed of R&D. It is automated, biotech-specific and built to give scientists and engineers direct access to sustainability insights as they model their processes.”
Built for R&D speed
The tool’s integration with techno-economic analysis (TEA) helps users identify the trade-offs between environmental impact, cost, and operational efficiency early on, avoiding potential delays and unforeseen costs during scale-up.
The tool’s design prioritizes ease of use, featuring visual explanations and guidance to make sustainability assessments accessible to a broad range of users, from first-time researchers to environmental experts. It breaks down the environmental impact by raw materials, unit operations, and various process stages, helping companies understand the implications of each decision at every stage of production. This data is critical for biomanufacturers as they work to balance sustainability goals with the practical realities of production costs and efficiency.
Aligning costs and sustainability
By incorporating sustainability analysis directly into the development process, New Wave Biotech’s LCA tool enables biomanufacturers to make informed decisions that improve both environmental and economic outcomes.
Liven Proteins, a company involved in the production of fermentation-based collagen, has already adopted the platform for assessing the environmental impact of their processes. Fei Luo, Co-Founder and CEO of Liven Proteins, remarked, “New Wave Biotech’s platform has made it much easier for us to weigh up process and sourcing options by putting sustainability and cost side by side. It’s helped us see where the two fit together, and where they don’t, so we can make clearer decisions.”
