Reducing water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in production are an important part in meeting Recipharm’s sustainability objectives as a CDMO. A focus on increasing resource efficiency has helped us identify water as a key resource, with cleaning consuming a large amount of the water used daily by each of our production sites.
Due to local requirements and regulations around water usage, we rely on each of our sites to manage their water use on a local level, leading to an increase in many locally driven water-saving initiatives.
“This has led to local projects in which 22 of our sites reported a reduction in water withdrawal in 2022.” Åsa Bergström, Director Global Sustainability, Recipharm.
One of the water-saving initiatives implemented by our site in Pianezza, Italy, resulted in not just a decrease in water usage but also led to a reduction in gas emissions and expenses.
The cleaning process project
Recipharm’ s facility in Pianezza, collaborated with two main customers on a project with the aim of keeping current quality standards whilst reducing the number of cleaning stops between production lines.
Line LOR 2
In June 2022, the team initiated the cleaning process project, commencing with the 75mL oral solution format produced for both customers. A total of 82 batches were manufactured in 2022 on Line LOR 2. This previously meant an equal amount of cleaning stops between each batch.
The team trialed the new cleaning process on 51 of the 82 batches manufactured, reducing the need to clean by around 49%. The trial led to an overall reduction in production time, energy usage and related expenses.
Line LOR 1
In May 2023, the team expanded the project to Line LOR1 for the same customers, by increasing the number of batches produced between each tank cleaning.
Initially implementing one cleaning process for every batch production, they were able to gradually decrease the frequency of the cleaning process to once every six days within the same batch line. A monthly average reduction of around 33% in tank cleaning from May to August 2023.
The new processes were validated and approved by our quality team and the customers, showing no impact on overall product quality.
The cleaning future
The Pianezza team aim to extend the project to all products and customers manufactured on production lines LOR 1 and LOR 2.
“This project has been a great success with our current customers, that we are now in plans to implement it universally across all oral liquid production lines for different customers, here at Recipharm in Pianezza.” Davide Jaretti Sodano, HSE Manager, Recipharm.
They estimate that this will be an average reduction of over 1,200,000 liters of water used each year as well as a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of almost 60%, with related cost savings on water and gas usage across both lines.
