Life cycle inventory improvement in the pharmaceutical sector: assessment of the sustainability combining PMI and LCA tools

Pharmaceutical chemicals are complex, high value added products that typically impose significantly greater impacts on the environment per kilogram compared to basic chemicals. A variety of green metrics have been developed to guide the design of chemistries and processes that are more sustainable. Among these, Process Mass Intensity (PMI) was selected by the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable as the key parameter to express sustainability. However, researchers were concerned that these metrics could miss relevant factors that would be addressed by a more comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Lack of inventory data for many chemicals poses a significant barrier to more extensive implementation of LCA for pharmaceuticals. A cradle-to-gate LCA of Viagra™ is used to present a practical approach to construct inventories using patent and literature data. Details of the improved inventory data were presented for four chemicals to illustrate the methodology and highlight the importance of considering out-sourced processing of reagents used in pharmaceutical synthesis. A more comprehensive impact assessment was conducted using ReCiPe v1.11 at both midpoint and endpoint levels. A comparison of two synthesis routes rated them well against results from the simpler green metrics. An area for future work is to address the lack of characterization factors for toxicity and other impact categories for many chemicals.

[1]  Stefanie Hellweg,et al.  Molecular-structure-based models of chemical inventories using neural networks. , 2008, Environmental science & technology.

[2]  L. Ciacci,et al.  Life Cycle Assessment comparison of two ways for acrylonitrile production: the SOHIO process and an alternative route using propane , 2014 .

[3]  Stefanie Hellweg,et al.  A tiered approach to estimate inventory data and impacts of chemical products and mixtures , 2012, The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.

[4]  P. Anastas,et al.  Green Chemistry , 2018, Environmental Science.

[5]  Volker Hessel,et al.  Life cycle analysis within pharmaceutical process optimization and intensification: case study of active pharmaceutical ingredient production. , 2014, ChemSusChem.

[6]  Paul T. Anastas,et al.  Life cycle assessment and green chemistry: the yin and yang of industrial ecology , 2000 .

[7]  Konrad Hungerbühler,et al.  Life cycle assessment of fine chemical production: a case study of pharmaceutical synthesis , 2010 .

[8]  Concepción Jiménez-González,et al.  Evaluating the "greenness" of chemical processes and products in the pharmaceutical industry--a green metrics primer. , 2012, Chemical Society reviews.

[9]  Stefanie Hellweg,et al.  The Environmental Importance of Energy Use in Chemical Production , 2011 .

[10]  Roger A. Sheldon,et al.  The E Factor: fifteen years on , 2007 .

[11]  K. Hungerbühler,et al.  Developing environmentally-sound processes in the chemical industry: a case study on pharmaceutical intermediates , 1999 .

[12]  David J. C. Constable,et al.  Cradle-to-gate life cycle inventory and assessment of pharmaceutical compounds , 2004 .

[13]  Concepción Jiménez-González,et al.  Expanding GSK’s Solvent Selection Guide—application of life cycle assessment to enhance solvent selections , 2004 .

[14]  Martin Kumar Patel,et al.  Sustainability assessment of novel chemical processes at early stage: application to biobased processes , 2012 .

[15]  K. Hungerbühler,et al.  Bridging data gaps in environmental assessments: Modeling impacts of fine and basic chemical production , 2009 .

[16]  A. Bardow,et al.  Life cycle assessment of polyols for polyurethane production using CO2 as feedstock: insights from an industrial case study , 2014 .

[17]  Concepción Jiménez-González,et al.  The evolution of life cycle assessment in pharmaceutical and chemical applications – a perspective , 2014 .

[18]  R. Carter,et al.  Diamines and Higher Amines, Aliphatic , 2001 .

[19]  H. Noorman,et al.  Key Green Engineering Research Areas for Sustainable Manufacturing: A Perspective from Pharmaceutical and Fine Chemicals Manufacturers , 2011 .

[20]  Shinkichi Shimizu,et al.  Pyridine and Pyridine Derivatives , 2000 .

[21]  Peter J. Dunn,et al.  Green chemistry in the pharmaceutical industry , 2010 .

[22]  Concepción Jiménez-González,et al.  Using the Right Green Yardstick: Why Process Mass Intensity Is Used in the Pharmaceutical Industry To Drive More Sustainable Processes , 2011 .

[23]  Fabrizio Passarini,et al.  Glycerol as feedstock in the synthesis of chemicals: a life cycle analysis for acrolein production , 2015 .

[24]  Stefanie Hellweg,et al.  Establishing Life Cycle Inventories of Chemicals Based on Differing Data Availability (9 pp) , 2005 .

[25]  Roger A. Sheldon,et al.  Overcoming barriers to green chemistry in the pharmaceutical industry – the Green Aspiration Level™ concept , 2015 .

[26]  Julie Zimmerman,et al.  Design Through the 12 Principles of Green Engineering , 2003, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[27]  Seungdo Kim,et al.  Enzymes for pharmaceutical applications—a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment , 2009 .

[28]  Konrad Hungerbühler,et al.  Production of fine and speciality chemicals: procedure for the estimation of LCIs , 2004 .

[29]  Peter J. Dunn,et al.  The Chemical Development of the Commercial Route to Sildenafil: A Case History , 2000 .

[30]  B. Trost,et al.  The atom economy--a search for synthetic efficiency. , 1991, Science.

[31]  B. C. Lawes,et al.  Sulfuric and Sulfurous Esters , 2000 .

[32]  Jo Dewulf,et al.  Assessment of the Integral Resource Consumption of Individual Chemical Production Processes in a Multipurpose Pharmaceutical Production Plant: A Complex Task , 2009 .

[33]  Konrad Hungerbühler,et al.  Bottom-up Modeling of the Steam Consumption in Multipurpose Chemical Batch Plants Focusing on Identification of the Optimization Potential , 2008 .

[34]  Mark A. J. Huijbregts,et al.  On the usefulness of life cycle assessment in early chemical methodology development: the case of organophosphorus-catalyzed Appel and Wittig reactions† , 2013 .

[35]  Concepción Jiménez-González,et al.  Expanding the Boundaries: Developing a Streamlined Tool for Eco-Footprinting of Pharmaceuticals , 2013 .

[36]  David J. C. Constable,et al.  Metrics to ‘green’ chemistry—which are the best? , 2002 .

[37]  John M. Woodley,et al.  Life cycle assessment in green chemistry: overview of key parameters and methodological concerns , 2013, The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.

[38]  Konrad Hungerbühler,et al.  Decision framework for chemical process design including different stages of environmental, health, and safety assessment , 2008 .