Sartorius and Covestro Prove the Recycling Potential of Small-Scale Bioreactors

Exploring Sustainable & Novel Materials

Sartorius Corporate Research is dedicated to discovering and developing new materials that will revolutionize the next generation of products in the life sciences, enhancing functionality while minimizing environmental impact. Our focus is on materials that exhibit biocompatibility, bio-sourcing, biodegradability, biomimicry, stimuli responsiveness, and self-healing properties. We are also pioneering technologies for recycling and recovering plastics through mechanical, chemical, and enzymatic methods.

Our Work

Optimizing Single-Use Technologies

Sartorius scientists are involved in various stages of environmental optimization of single-use technologies, from design to post-use management. Our advanced bioprocessing team focuses on optimizing bioprocesses to reduce emissions and waste for customers. Materials used in the biotech industry are meticulously selected to meet required properties, ensuring no harmful by-products are released throughout the product lifecycle and maintaining batch-to-batch consistency, in alignment with Circular Economy guidelines. The current challenge is to reduce the use of virgin plastics by incorporating bio-sourced, bio-circular, or recycled materials, and to explore recycling options while maintaining plastic quality and value.

Exploring Bioprinting Concepts

Bioprinting is a technology with applications in healthcare and research, such as supporting tissue engineering and regenerative, personalized medicine by creating complex and potentially patient-specific tissue structures that mimic natural tissues, drug testing and development, providing more accurate human tissue models and reducing the need for animal testing. Within our collaboration with the 3d.FAB platform, part of the University of Lyon, we explore and develop bioprinting concepts with related technologies, to produce cm³ scale tissues and new or personalized therapeutic molecules.