The pharmaceutical industry is one of the world's largest consumers of water and energy. Considerable efforts must therefore be made in the future to ensure the sustainability of processes as well as product quality.

Abstract

Water serves for the production of pharmaceutical ingredients, intermediates and final products. Accordingly, the quality requirements are particularly high. Next to quality, sustainability of the production and climate change mitigation will play an increasingly important role. For instance, in 2015, the total global emissions of the pharma sector was significantly higher than the CO₂ emissions generated by the automotive sector. Thus, efforts must be made at all stages of production of pharmaceuticals to reduce the environmental impact.