Uses automated workflows to provide proteomics and metabolomics services for qualitative and quantitative analysis.
Industrial biotechnology in Scotland
Unlock new revenue streams and accelerate your business growth with Scotland’s industrial biotechnology sector. Find out more and get access to support, investment opportunities and academic expertise.
Learn about the significant opportunities in this sector and get access to innovation and R&D support, investment opportunities, academic expertise, sustainable resources and feedstocks.
Industrial biotechnology offers your business a powerful opportunity to innovate, cut emissions and create new high-value products. By using renewable plant based and waste resources, you can develop sustainable chemicals, materials and fuels while reducing reliance on fossil based inputs.
For businesses looking to scale greener products, improve resource efficiency or enter rapidly growing global markets, Scotland provides an ideal environment to make it happen.
Scotland's industrial biotechnology strengths
Scotland provides your business with the core ingredients needed to succeed in industrial biotechnology – from research expertise to a skilled workforce, and natural resources. Key strengths include:
- Industry leadership: a well-coordinated sector with strong public sector backing makes it easier for your business to innovate, partner and scale
- Natural resources and feedstocks: over 27 million tonnes of bioresources produced annually give you dependable access to diverse feedstocks such as forestry, waste and macroalgae
- Academic expertise: world-leading universities and centres like IBioIC support your R&D, scale up and workforce development – helping your ideas reach market faster
- Innovation and investment: a growing community of companies including GSK, Ingenza, Celtic Renewables, Cellucomp and MiAlgae creates collaboration, supply chain and investment opportunities
Biomass inputs
There are six key areas with the greatest potential to develop Scotland's bio-based economy:
- Agricultural biomass
- Forestry biomass
- Marine biomass
- Food and food processing by-products
- Whisky co-products
- Carbon dioxide
Market size
By 2025, turnover from Scottish industrial biotechnology companies was expected to reach £1.2 billion. Scotland has existing strengths in the following markets and global demand is growing fast:
- Plant-based proteins – forecast to reach $17.4 billion USD by 2027
- Bioplastics – forecast to reach $209.5 billion USD by 2028
- Chemicals – worth $5.76 trillion USD by 2025
Source: National Plan for Industrial Biotechnology in Scotland (June 2022)opens in a new window
With more than 160 companies already operating in the sector in Scotland, you can plug into established supply chains and skilled talent.
Significant opportunities
The Grangemouth site and surrounding area represents a significant opportunity to develop into a leading manufacturing hub for low carbon, sustainable fuels and fine chemicals.
Project Willow was set up to evaluate Grangemouth’s potential to create a sustainable future for the site. It’s estimated that it could lead to the creation of up to 1,200 jobs and contribute £1 billion to £2 billion gross value added (GVA) annually, while cutting carbon emissions by up to 6 million tonnes.
The following nine technologies present commercial opportunities for businesses aiming to scale sustainable manufacturing:
| Technology | Description |
| Hydrothermal plastic recycling | Breaking down hard-to-recycle plastics to produce recycled naphtha and vapour (and pyrolysis oil). |
| Dissolution plastics recycling | Using chemicals to dissolve and filter plastics, returning them to a virgin-like state. |
| ABE biorefining | Bacterial fermentation of carbohydrate-rich waste material. |
| 2nd generation ethanol | Breaking down and fermenting Scottish timber into bioethanol. |
| Anaerobic digestion | Fermentation of organic waste and biogas upgrading to produce biomethane. |
| HEFA | Converts Scottish oil seed cover crops into sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel. |
| Fuel switching | Replacing natural gas combustion with low carbon hydrogen. |
| E-methanol and methanol to jet | Using low carbon hydrogen to produce methanol and convert it to SAF. |
| E-ammonia | Producing low carbon ammonia from hydrogen for shipping and chemicals. |
Research facilities
Get access to Scotland's outstanding research facilities. Our world-class expertise can help accelerate your R&D and reduce your development risk.
Offers world-leading biological research facilities and expert knowledge open to academic institutions, industrial partners, students and researchers to use.
Offers advanced genomics services, providing access to a range of genomic technologies and services including next-generation sequencing (NGS), transcriptomics, single-cell sequencing, epigenomics, metagenomics, bioinformatics analysis and training.
Creates innovative solutions to global challenges, working with industry to test and develop robotic, AI and automated technologies and move pioneering research from lab to market.
IBioIC’s Bioprocessing Scale Up Centre. It specialises in bridging the gap between laboratory innovation and industrial-scale implementation, enabling both industry and academia to advance their bioprocesses.
Provides cyanobacterial, protistan and macroalgal cultures, bioinformatic data, services and advice to the scientific community world-wide.
Offers state of the art facilities, extensive research capabilities and plant science expertise. APGC aims to harness the entrepreneurial spirit within the agriculture, food and drink sectors and enhance their collective capability and innovation.
Specialises in the modular assembly of DNA constructs using a highly automated robotic platform.
Find out more
Get in touch to explore how Scotland’s industrial biotechnology ecosystem can support your business – from market insights and partnerships to scale up and investment opportunities.