Sustainable by Design

Interesting talk on sustainable design by Catherine Mohr. Could we take design to a whole new level? Using energy calculations to build more sustainable housing is probably going to be the future. Certainly gives me something to think about.

Useful Recovered Ocean Plastic

 This is a tribute to the good people at METHOD. They are doing truly admirable work with the drive and passion to make things right.
Once again demonstrating what innovation can do, they have launched a new range of dish+hand soap bottles using recovered ocean plastics.

Visit their website to find out more: http://methodhome.com/ocean-plastic/


By the way its not a new company, they've  been around in the US for some time now. We need to spread their work to the rest of the world. Below is their journey from the start which i can copied from their website.

Their Journey...

 
2000: eric’s wondering why cleaning products are so poorly designed, and adam’s dreaming of green cleaners that actually work and aren’t stinky. together, these two childhood friends come up with an idea to revolutionize the cleaning world with stylish, eco-friendly products made with non-toxic ingredients that clean like heck and smell like heaven.
 
2001: method is born and eventually lands its first sale: four cleaning sprays to Mollie Stone’s grocery store in Burlingame, Calif. note method’s primitive early invoicing process, held by adam. also note tie worn by adam. both items have improved over time.
 
2002: after enlisting designer Karim Rashid to help design packaging, method convinces Target to test its cleaning sprays and dish soaps in 90 stores. seven months later, method launches in Target stores nationwide.
 
2003: method debuts its first hand wash in the brand’s iconic teardrop-shaped bottle, which becomes one of method’s most popular products and a best-smeller.
 
2004: method launches the first triple-concentrated (3x) laundry detergent in the US mass market.
 
2005: method launches in Canada and the United Kingdom.
 
2006: Inc. 500 ranks method as the 7th fastest growing private company in America. And PeTA announces eric and adam as its Men of The Year.
 
2007: method becomes a founding B Corporation, formally making social and environmental change a company objective. check out what it means to be a B.
 
2008: method begins making bottles from 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic.
g’day mate! method launches in Australia.
 
2009: method becomes one of the first Cradle to Cradle endorsed companies, with 37 Cradle to Cradle certified products at launch, among the most of any company in the world (now up to 60 certified products and counting).
 
2010: method launches method laundry detergent with smartclean technology® – a powerful, patent-pending, plant-based detergent that’s 8x concentrated and packaged in a handheld pump bottle. say hello to our little friend at methodlaundry.com.
bonjour + konnichiwa! method launches in France and Japan.
 
2011: method celebrates 10 years in business, with thanks to everyone who made it possible.
 
2012: method ties the knot, joining forces with Ecover to create the world’s largest green cleaning company.

Questioning Global Warming

This is just a random rant after reading an article on Global Warming today. 

So is the world warming up or cooling down?

Countless articles compare atmospheric CO2 levels over a million years. However they fail to estimate how much carbon is put into the atmostphere by human activities and how much of it is being sequestered. There is no doubt humans beings actively release millions of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere each year above and beyong the baseline amount if there were no humans. But do we really need to rely on questionable million year comparisons to measure CO2 across the past 50 to 100 years? I am smart enough to spot manipulated data, non-normal data made to look normalised and presented by an Ex-vice president. 

I doubt we still argue that human activity releases CO2 at an increasing and continuous level and that a proportion of it is not stored by the earth's biological sequestration process.

The truth is: Self-interest and extremism have been driving both sides of this debate for too long. 

WE simply want to know how much carbon dioxide, as a percentage of overall atmospheric carbon dioxide, is added to the atmosphere each year. Will the oracle at Mauna Lua provide some relevant data?

Sustainability is becoming the norm

Was watching Bloomberg TV this morning and saw Hybrid and Electric Cars being showcased inthe recent North American AutoShow. Sustainable technology is becoming embedded in all cars nowadays. The idea of getting more mileage out of an electric car is no longer a fantasy, we'll be looking at 50 to 60 miles to the gallon by 2020. In order to be more competitive, more car manufacturers are adopting "green" features into their mass market vehicles. Its a similar situation for air and rail industry, the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 are more fuel efficient per passenger than a Toyota Prius. The modern train is 10 times more fuel efficient  of the Prius, travelling at higher speeds comfortably. The transportation industry is undergoing a change (positive) to develop more fuel efficient modes of transport.

Germany is heading most countries in developing electricity from renewable energy sources, a whopping 35% by 2020. China is increasingly worried about their air pollution situation, hence they have increased their renewable energy target this year to 49GW. Just a few months ago, China announced they are cooperating with Germany on energy policy, industrial collaboration and city wide renewable systems.  

Other industries are also integrating energy and emissions efficiency into their day-to-day operation with reduced cost, enhanced innovation and competitive advantage. In the last decade or so, industrial energy efficiency improvements have globally outpaced those of transportation, utilities and buildings. It is about time, all industry sectors ask the big Sustainability question not only within their corporate structure but also with their customers, suppliers, delivery chains and competitors. It is time to adopt green energy into their baseline design, manufacturing and delivery of products. 

Failure is not an option. Any company that falls behind will inevitably lose the edge and competitiveness against others who do. Germany is one such country to look up to, their green technology sector is going to be 15% of GDP, employing 4 million people by the year 2020. I urge more countries to have an aggressive policy to push the industry towards adopting sustainable technologies until it becomes the norm. 

Bioenergy and Biomass Utilisation

Attended a workshop recently on Bioenergy and Biomass Utilisation organised by ICES in collaboration with A*Star Singapore. I'll try and summarise their research outputs here. ICES has been exploring 2nd Generation Biofuels, i.e. derived from non-food crops. I drew up a diagram to better explain things below:

Current research and Development team in ICES have made some fascinating discoveries However i think they have some way to go in order to commercialise these technologies.

1. In the generation of biofuels via biological process: A single species of Clostridium has been identified as highest yielding strain capable of producing butanol at 29% yield.
2. Membrane based pervaporation was successfully demonstrated to yield 99.5% alcohol from fermentation broth. This membrane technology is currently being explored for commercialisation.
3. Novel biocatalysts (enzymes from fungal strains) for biomass hydrolysis and sugar fermentation were identified and tested with Oil palm empty fruit bunch. Results show 84% conversion rate.

I believe there is a great potential to convert biomass from Palm-Oil kernel into biofuels. We are not exploring these options right now because it is too expensive a process for its conversion. That is simply the reason, it is not economical although it is the right thing to do instead of their current practice of dumping underground or burning it off.

 

Pharmaceutical Industry

My recent interest in the Pharmaceutical Industry has allowed me to explore learn a great deal about the manufacturing processes and regulatory guidelines in different countries. I would like to share what i have learned about Good Manufacturing Practices(GMP) in the Pharmaceutical Industry.

 

Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)

Guidelines and standards are important in any industry you work in but nowhere does it get updated and changed more so than in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Designing a modern, compliant pharmaceutical facility is difficult enough within a demanding and competitive industry but constantly changing standards and increasing complexity of regulations make it even tougher¹.

 

 Overview

According to the World Health Organisation(WHO): “GMP or good manufacturing practice is a part of quality assurance which ensures that products are consistently produced and controlled to the quality standards appropriate to the intended use as required by the marketing authorisation.” The general guiding principle behind GMP is that quality should built into the product and not just into a finished product. So the product not only meets the final specification but has been made using the same procedures under the same conditions under the same conditions each and every time. There is a term for ensuring quality is built into the design of pharmaceutical products, Quality by Design (QbD), which is probably the hottest topic in the industry now since GSK has successfully demonstrated a continuous production process. I will have to talk more on QbD on another article and place the link here**.

This would mean that we have to control the quality of the starting materials, the facility and its systems should be top notch as well as maintaining quality of production at all stages. Apart from these, quality should be ensured during testing of the product and all materials must have adequate storage facilities.

GMP covers all aspects of manufacturing process and I am going to list out below what GMP inspectors are typically looking for:

1.                   A well-defined manufacturing process

2.                   Validated critical manufacturing steps

3.                   Suitable premises for storage and transport of materials

4.           Qualified and trained production, quality control personnel

4.                   Adequate laboratory facilities

5.                   Approved written procedures and instructions

6.                   Records all steps taken

7.                   Full traceability of product

8.                   Systems for recall and investigation of complaints

If we look at a typical project stages in the Pharmaceutical industry, we can locate the stages in which certain guidelines and regulations kick in. For example see the figure below for an overview:

Regulatory driven manufacturing requirements cover various issues including facilities design, product delivery and validation issues.

 

Regulatory Issues

Although different countries have their own regulatory bodies, the most widely used (accepted) are the FDA, EU and Japan regulations because these regions house major pharmaceutical manufacturers and represent the largest proportion of the market combined. While FDA’s current GMPs provide minimal guidance by outlining facility requirements and requirements for documentation of manufacturing procedures, the FDA also issues regulations in the code of federal register (CFR) 21. These regulations are summarised in the table below:


 

No.	CFR Regulations
21 CFR 210	Current Good Manufacturing Practices in Manufacturing, Processing, Packaging or General Holding of Drugs
21 CFR 211	Current Good Manufacturing Practices for Finished Pharmaceuticals
·  Part C	Building and Facilities
·  Part D	Equipment
21 CFR 600	General Biological Products
21 CFR 820	Quality Systems Regulations

Future Implications

GMP guideline is constantly evolving with technology to accommodate rising demand for quality and value products. The future of global pharmaceutical industry is going to be “dynamic and highly responsive to marketing and regulatory forces”¹. There will be higher expectations from manufacturing facilities to keep up with economic and regulatory requirements in order to maintain flexibility, safety, value and speed to market. Good design practices will apply to all manufacturers as they try to achieve business objectives and at the same time conform to globally harmonised guidelines which address an increasingly safety and quality conscious community. 

 

Reference/Further Reading:

[1] Good Design Practices for GMP Pharmaceutical Facilities: Drugs and the pharmaceutical industry, Andrew A. Signore, Terry Jacobs Vol. 146 [2005]

[2] Good Manufacturing Practices for Pharmaceuticals: A plan for Total Quality Control, Sidney H. Willig, Murray M. Tuckerman and William S. Hatchings IV, [2^nd / 3^rd Edition]

[3] Modern Pharmaceutics, edited by Gilbert S. Banker and Christopher T.  Rhodes

[4] Pharmaceutical Process Validation, edited  by Bernard T. Loftus and Robert A. Nash

[5] Handbook of Pharmaceutical Granulation Technology, edited by Dilip M. Parikh

[6] Automation and Validation of Information in Pharmaceutical Processing, edited by Joseph F. deSpautz

[7] Pharmaceutical Process Engineering, Anthony J. Hickey and David Ganderton*