Key takeaways
- The plant is predicted to provide 100 gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable fuel 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 recognized for pioneering new medicines than renewable vitality, AstraZeneca has taken a major step: it’s now fuelling its U.Okay. operations with “inexperienced fuel” 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 severe dedication to decarbonization — and a template for different high-emitting industries to comply with.
“We’ve been on a journey within the UK for a few years to cut back our carbon footprint,” Liz Chatwin, vp of sustainability and world security, well being and setting at AstraZeneca, instructed Trellis. “The lacking piece of the puzzle was our supply of warmth energy.”
That hole has now been crammed by biomethane produced from regionally grown vitality crops by way of anaerobic digestion, then injected into the nationwide fuel 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 predicted to provide 100 gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable fuel 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 large, completes AstraZeneca’s objective of getting all its UK R&D and manufacturing powered by 100% renewable vitality. AstraZeneca will take all the plant’s era capability for no less than the following 15 years.
Why biomethane is an effective match for the life sciences
The pharmaceutical trade has an enormous emissions downside. In keeping with a 2019 examine, pharma firms 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 plenty of processes in prescription drugs which can be exhausting to impress as a result of they require excessive warmth, like elevating steam,” mentioned Philipp Lukas, CEO of Future Biogas. “Biomethane is a drop-in gasoline for that. It’s a one-for-one substitute, that means all of the infrastructure to ship and use it’s already there.
“If an organization needs to decarbonize rapidly 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 mission 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 probably selling intensive livestock farming. “AstraZeneca wished one thing the place they might see the sustainability all over,” he mentioned.
As an alternative, crops are grown regionally beneath five-year contracts that assist farmers spend money on regenerative practices, resembling diversified crop rotation, decreased fertilizer use and improved soil well being.
“The thrilling factor about that is which you could assist meals manufacturing, not solely boosting resilience but in addition lowering fossil gasoline inputs on the farm,” Lukas mentioned.
Reduce carbon, and seize it too
The Gonerby Moor website doesn’t cease at producing biomethane: It additionally consists of carbon seize know-how that removes CO₂ from the fermentation course of — CO₂ that the vitality crops had absorbed from the ambiance a season earlier.
To start with, the captured fuel can be utilized in trade — for greenhouses, tender drink carbonization and the like – however longer-term, AstraZeneca hopes to ship it for everlasting geological storage by way of Norway’s Northern Lights mission, turning the plant right into a carbon-negative operation.
In keeping with AstraZeneca, the partnership with Future Biogas will scale back its emissions by 20,000 tonnes of CO₂ equal per yr. 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 internet zero by 2045.
A mannequin for others?
It’s a daring transfer — however is it replicable? May different pharmaceutical or life science firms undertake an analogous strategy?
“The Moor Bioenergy plant serves as a wonderful blueprint for different firms in our sector.” mentioned Chatwin. “By using regionally sourced bioenergy crops and revolutionary 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 mission highlights the broader function of firms in serving to to construct up renewable vitality infrastructure,” mentioned Amy Sales space, a researcher on the College of Oxford who research the environmental influence of well being techniques. “It could be good to see others within the trade taking that up too.”
AstraZeneca shouldn’t be solely shopping for into biomethane — it has additionally lower its vitality demand. The unique estimate was that the corporate would wish 350 GWh of electrical energy per yr. After a company-wide push on vitality effectivity — upgrading tools, enhancing insulation and switching to electrical techniques the place potential — that determine dropped to 100 GWh.
“All the time comply with the maxim: use much less, and pay extra,” mentioned Lukas. “The much less vitality you want, the extra you’ll be able to afford to spend money on the sustainable choices.”
The corporate is planning to spend money on different renewable vitality initiatives, together with a partnership within the US with Vanguard Reneawables to ship biomethane to all of its websites by the tip of 2026.
Different firms are additionally exploring biomethane. French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi just lately introduced a purchase order settlement to decarbonize 56 % of its fuel 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 website in Lyon.
GSK, one other pharmaceutical behemoth, is as a substitute seeking to photo voltaic. The corporate agreed a digital energy buy settlement in 2024 to provide 50 % of its European operations with solar energy for 12 years utilizing websites in Spain.
Challenges forward
Vitality procurement alone won’t 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 thing from packaging and logistics to the tip use of merchandise, all working beneath various laws 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,” mentioned Dr. Jagjit Singh Srai, head of the Centre for Worldwide Manufacturing on the College of Cambridge. “Scope 1 is one thing you’ll be able to actually management — that’s your vitality effectivity, et cetera. And I believe the following most controllable factor is your vitality sourcing. They are going to be taking a look at Scope 3 additionally and addressing that instantly.”
AstraZeneca has its eyes upon the Scope 3 problem, as nicely.
Greater than two thirds of Astra Zeneca’s suppliers have dedicated to science-based targets, Chatwin mentioned. The corporate can also be a founding member of Energize — a collaboration between Schneider Electrical and 19 world pharma firms to “facilitate renewable energy at scale for our suppliers.
“Whereas there may be nonetheless extra to be performed, we’re making progress, and it’s certainly a shared problem.”
