Key takeaways
- The plant is anticipated to produce 100 gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable gasoline yearly to AstraZeneca’s crops within the U.Okay.
- It was constructed by Future Biogas with a 15-year, $130 million offtake settlement from AstraZeneca.
- It operates with out subsidies and makes use of devoted vitality crops, not waste supplies.
In an trade higher identified for pioneering new medicines than renewable vitality, AstraZeneca has taken a major step: it’s now fuelling its U.Okay. operations with “inexperienced gasoline” from a purpose-built biomethane plant.
The power, positioned at Gonerby Moor in Lincolnshire, east England, and operated by Future Biogas, is the UK’s first unsubsidised biomethane plant devoted to serving the life sciences sector.
It additionally represents a critical dedication to decarbonization — and a template for different high-emitting industries to observe.
“We’ve been on a journey within the UK for a few years to scale back our carbon footprint,” Liz Chatwin, vice chairman of sustainability and world security, well being and setting at AstraZeneca, advised Trellis. “The lacking piece of the puzzle was our supply of warmth energy.”
That hole has now been stuffed by biomethane produced from domestically grown vitality crops by way of anaerobic digestion, then injected into the nationwide gasoline grid. Biomethane is taken into account carbon impartial as a result of the carbon launched throughout digestion and burning is first absorbed by the crops as they develop.
The plant is anticipated to produce 100 gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable gasoline yearly to AstraZeneca’s websites in Macclesfield, Cambridge, Luton and Speke — sufficient to satisfy the warmth demand of over 8,000 UK properties.
The plant, constructed with a 15-year, £100 million ($130 million) dedication from the pharmaceutical big, completes AstraZeneca’s objective of getting all its UK R&D and manufacturing powered by one hundred pc renewable vitality. AstraZeneca will take the entire plant’s technology capability for no less than the subsequent 15 years.
Why biomethane is an effective match for the life sciences
The pharmaceutical trade has an enormous emissions downside. In accordance with a 2019 examine, pharma corporations generate over 48 tonnes of CO₂ equal per $1 million of income — round 55 % greater than the emissions depth of the automotive sector.
In all, roughly 4.5 % of world emissions are attributed to the healthcare sector, with the majority of those attributed to pharmaceutical procurement, manufacturing and use.
So why flip to biomethane?
“There’s numerous processes in prescription drugs which can be arduous to impress as a result of they require excessive warmth, like elevating steam,” stated Philipp Lukas, CEO of Future Biogas. “Biomethane is a drop-in gasoline for that. It’s a one-for-one substitute, which means all of the infrastructure to ship and use it’s already there.
“If an organization desires to decarbonize shortly while on that journey to electrification, then working on biomethane can present an answer in 12 to 18 months.”
Future-proof energy provides
Past comfort, the undertaking additionally goals to be self-sustaining. Not like many earlier biogas schemes, this plant operates with out subsidies and makes use of devoted vitality crops — not waste supplies.
That distinction issues. Whereas animal manure could be a precious feedstock for biomethane, Lukas famous it comes with the complication of presumably selling intensive livestock farming. “AstraZeneca wished one thing the place they might see the sustainability right through,” he stated.
As an alternative, crops are grown domestically underneath five-year contracts that assist farmers spend money on regenerative practices, corresponding to diversified crop rotation, diminished fertilizer use and improved soil well being.
“The thrilling factor about that is you could assist meals manufacturing, not solely boosting resilience but in addition lowering fossil gasoline inputs on the farm,” Lukas stated.
Minimize carbon, and seize it too
The Gonerby Moor web site doesn’t cease at producing biomethane: It additionally contains carbon seize expertise that removes CO₂ from the fermentation course of — CO₂ that the vitality crops had absorbed from the environment a season earlier.
To start with, the captured gasoline might be utilized in trade — for greenhouses, mushy drink carbonization and the like – however longer-term, AstraZeneca hopes to ship it for everlasting geological storage by way of Norway’s Northern Lights undertaking, turning the plant right into a carbon-negative operation.
In accordance with AstraZeneca, the partnership with Future Biogas will scale back its emissions by 20,000 tonnes of CO₂ equal per 12 months. A significant retrofit of its Macclesfield mixed warmth and energy (CHP) plant will save one other 16,000 tonnes.
All that is a part of the corporate’s Ambition Zero Carbon programme, which goals to halve emissions throughout its full worth chain by 2030 and attain science-based web zero by 2045.
A mannequin for others?
It’s a daring transfer — however is it replicable? May different pharmaceutical or life science corporations undertake an identical strategy?
“The Moor Bioenergy plant serves as a wonderful blueprint for different corporations in our sector.” stated Chatwin. “By using domestically sourced bioenergy crops and progressive carbon seize applied sciences, we’re demonstrating how vitality effectivity and sustainability might be built-in into manufacturing and analysis processes.”
“The unsubsidized nature of this undertaking highlights the broader position of firms in serving to to construct up renewable vitality infrastructure,” stated Amy Sales space, a researcher on the College of Oxford who research the environmental impression of well being programs. “It could be good to see others within the trade taking that up too.”
AstraZeneca will not be solely shopping for into biomethane — it has additionally minimize its vitality demand. The unique estimate was that the corporate would want 350 GWh of electrical energy per 12 months. After a company-wide push on vitality effectivity — upgrading gear, bettering insulation and switching to electrical programs the place attainable — that determine dropped to 100 GWh.
“At all times observe the maxim: use much less, and pay extra,” stated Lukas. “The much less vitality you want, the extra you possibly can afford to spend money on the sustainable choices.”
The corporate is planning to spend money on different renewable vitality tasks, together with a partnership within the US with Vanguard Reneawables to ship biomethane to all of its websites by the top of 2026.
Different corporations are additionally exploring biomethane. French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi just lately introduced a purchase order settlement to decarbonize 56 % of its gasoline consumption in France. The 6-year deal covers 1.3 TWh of energy, together with an extra 10-year contract overlaying 110 GWh to decarbonize Sanofi’s web site in Lyon.
GSK, one other pharmaceutical behemoth, is as an alternative seeking to photo voltaic. The corporate agreed a digital energy buy settlement in 2024 to produce 50 % of its European operations with solar energy for 12 years utilizing websites in Spain.
Challenges forward
Power procurement alone is not going to considerably shrink AstraZeneca’s footprint. Upwards of 90 % of the pharmaceutical trade’s emissions are Scope 3, stemming from advanced, world provide chains that embody every part from packaging and logistics to the top use of merchandise, all working underneath various rules throughout completely different nations.
“I’d congratulate [AstraZeneca] on this, however to place it into perspective, Scope 2 is a small a part of the general emissions problem,” stated Dr. Jagjit Singh Srai, head of the Centre for Worldwide Manufacturing on the College of Cambridge. “Scope 1 is one thing you possibly can actually management — that’s your vitality effectivity, et cetera. And I feel the subsequent most controllable component is your vitality sourcing. They are going to be Scope 3 additionally and addressing that instantly.”
AstraZeneca has its eyes upon the Scope 3 problem, as effectively.
Greater than two thirds of Astra Zeneca’s suppliers have dedicated to science-based targets, Chatwin stated. The corporate can also be a founding member of Energize — a collaboration between Schneider Electrical and 19 world pharma corporations to “facilitate renewable energy at scale for our suppliers.
“Whereas there’s nonetheless extra to be performed, we’re making progress, and it’s certainly a shared problem.”
