New Wave Biotech Launches Biotech-Specific LCA to Empower Sustainable Process Design

• Built directly into New Wave Biotech’s platform, the new LCA tool gives biotech teams a clearer view of their environmental impact.

• Allows biomanufacturers to assess multiple environmental impact categories instantly while optimising processes for cost and performance.

Manchester, 4 November 2025 – New Wave Biotech, an innovator in bioprocess optimisation,  has launched the industry’s first biotech-specific Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) solution. Fully integrated into its AI-powered process simulation platform, the new capability allows biomanufacturers to quantify and compare the environmental impact of their processes, from climate change and energy output to land and water use, while simultaneously optimising for cost and performance. This launch comes as sustainability and transparency expectations rise across biomanufacturing. Regulations such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Green Claims Directive are reinforcing the need for verifiable environmental data. At the same time, expensive late-stage assessments have exposed gaps in how emerging sectors (such as new foods) measure and validate their true impact. New Wave Biotech’s approach helps companies generate trusted sustainability insights earlier, avoiding costly setbacks at scale. 

Unlike traditional LCAs, which are often manual, expensive and disconnected from process development, New Wave Biotech’s LCA delivers dynamic, automated insights tailored for biotechnology. Consultancy-led studies can typically cost anywhere between $5,000 to $100,000 and take months to complete. New Wave Biotech’s solution draws on extensive, high-quality biotech-specific data and updates results in real-time, linking directly with process and techno-economic analysis (TEA) to show how design choices affect sustainability, cost and efficiency. This helps users understand key trade-offs and adapt their processes to their specific needs. 

“Most LCAs are static snapshots that take months to produce and require costly consultancy work,” said Nix Hall, CTO at New Wave Biotech. “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.”

Developed for accessibility, the LCA feature offers built-in guidance and visual explanations, making sustainability analysis accessible for anyone, from first-time users to environmental specialists. Results are presented across multiple environmental indicators, with clear breakdowns by raw materials, unit operations, and overall process stages. This can be used to support R&D decisions, internal reporting, or sustainability communications, removing the need for external consultancy work.

The LCA capability has already been tested in pilot projects with partners across industrial biotechnology. One early adopter, Liven Proteins, has used the platform to assess process-level environmental impacts for fermentation-based collagen production.

“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,” said Fei Luo PhD, Co-Founder & CEO, Liven Proteins.

By embedding life cycle analysis directly into process simulation, New Wave Biotech allows companies to design sustainability into their processes from the start. The launch marks a major step toward faster, smarter and more sustainable scale-up for the biomanufacturing industry.