Environmental footprint of High-Throughput Screening technologies for enzyme discovery and engineering: a Life Cycle Assessment comparison
Abstract
High-throughput screening (HTS) is widely used in enzyme discovery and engineering towards developing more sustainable industrial processes and environmental applications, yet it is a plastic intensive approach whose environmental performance has been rarely assessed quantitatively. Here, we conducted a comparative cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) among four representative screening technologies to assay 1 million enzymes or enzyme variants: a pipettingbased liquid handling robot in 384-well plates (P-LHR 384 wp), an acoustic liquid handler in 1536-well plates (A-LHR 1536 wp), agar-based screening, and droplet microfluidics. Primary inventory data were compiled for reagents, plastics, and electricity consumption and translated into 16 Environmental Footprint (EF) impact categories. Droplet microfluidics consistently showed the lowest impacts nearly across the 16 EF indicators, typically by 1–3 orders of magnitude relative to conventional plate-based robotics. For climate change, droplet microfluidics reached 1.3 kg CO 2 eq per million assays, compared with 1381 kg CO 2 eq for P-LHR 384 wp, 150 kg CO 2 eq for A-LHR 1536 wp and 56 kg CO 2 eq for agar-based assays. The lower environmental impacts of droplet microfluidics emerged from extreme assay miniaturization and nearelimination of plastic disposables, shifting the impact contribution burden mainly to electricity use. A parallel cost analysis showed the same trend, from >850,000 € for P-LHR 384 wp to ~20 € for droplet microfluidics. These results identify reaction miniaturization, plastic reduction, and decarbonized electricity as the primary drivers for sustainable HTS enzyme discovery.
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BibTeX
@misc{rodriguezmateos2026environmental,
title = {{Environmental footprint of High-Throughput Screening technologies for enzyme discovery and engineering: a Life Cycle Assessment comparison}},
author = {Pablo Rodríguez-Mateos and Javier Sáez-Guinoa and Sara Lago-Olveira and Aurelio Hidalgo},
howpublished = {ChemRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.26434/chemrxiv.15008682/v1},
url = {https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15008682/v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Environmental footprint of High-Throughput Screening technologies for enzyme discovery and engineering: a Life Cycle Assessment comparison
AU - Pablo Rodríguez-Mateos
AU - Javier Sáez-Guinoa
AU - Sara Lago-Olveira
AU - Aurelio Hidalgo
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/10
PB - ChemRxiv
DO - 10.26434/chemrxiv.15008682/v1
UR - https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15008682/v1
AB - High-throughput screening (HTS) is widely used in enzyme discovery and engineering towards developing more sustainable industrial processes and environmental applications, yet it is a plastic intensive approach whose environmental performance has been rarely assessed quantitatively. Here, we conducted a comparative cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) among four representative screening technologies to assay 1 million enzymes or enzyme variants: a pipettingbased liquid handling robot in 384-well plates (P-LHR 384 wp), an acoustic liquid handler in 1536-well plates (A-LHR 1536 wp), agar-based screening, and droplet microfluidics. Primary inventory data were compiled for reagents, plastics, and electricity consumption and translated into 16 Environmental Footprint (EF) impact categories. Droplet microfluidics consistently showed the lowest impacts nearly across the 16 EF indicators, typically by 1–3 orders of magnitude relative to conventional plate-based robotics. For climate change, droplet microfluidics reached 1.3 kg CO 2 eq per million assays, compared with 1381 kg CO 2 eq for P-LHR 384 wp, 150 kg CO 2 eq for A-LHR 1536 wp and 56 kg CO 2 eq for agar-based assays. The lower environmental impacts of droplet microfluidics emerged from extreme assay miniaturization and nearelimination of plastic disposables, shifting the impact contribution burden mainly to electricity use. A parallel cost analysis showed the same trend, from >850,000 € for P-LHR 384 wp to ~20 € for droplet microfluidics. These results identify reaction miniaturization, plastic reduction, and decarbonized electricity as the primary drivers for sustainable HTS enzyme discovery.
ER -