Abstract
Any consumer good requires a manufacturing plant in order to be produced. These plants are large in scale and impact the systems and environments in which they are placed. Thus, they must be structurally and technically sound, while their broader impacts are also acknowledged. As chemical engineers, our role is vital in this process. We must be able to scale up and optimize manufacturing processes while prioritizing safety, preserving resources, and understanding how offering certain products affects social groups. My technical project involves designing a cosmetic-grade hyaluronic acid (HA) powder manufacturing plant with a focus on environmental friendliness and cost-effectiveness. For manufacturing plants to remain viable, they must be profitable, which makes process efficiency and product pricing important. In this case, cosmetic-grade HA can be sold at a higher price due to the strong luxury segment of the cosmetics market. This is why I chose my STS project to analyze the impacts of the luxury market on consumer behavior and well-being, in order to understand how producing cheaper products could affect that market.
The technical portion of my thesis presents a design for an upstream fermentation and downstream purification process for microbially produced, dried, cosmetic-grade HA. The upstream process includes an inoculum sequence that begins with the master cell bank, progresses to the working cell bank, and then to the inoculum seed train, which is grown in the bioreactor. The raw materials used in the bioreactor to grow the HA-producing bacteria are byproducts of the sugar and corn milling industries. In specific, blackstrap molasses and corn steep liquor were chosen to be more environmentally sustainable.
The downstream process begins with centrifugation to remove waste from the HA solution, followed by ethanol precipitation to solidify the HA. A second centrifugation step isolates the solid HA, which is then processed through tangential flow filtration, anion exchange chromatography, a desalting unit, and finally a dryer. An additional feature that improves cost-effectiveness and environmental sustainability is the inclusion of an ethanol recycle stream in the design, which reduces raw material costs. The final design and cost analysis of my technical project showed that it is theoretically possible to design a sustainable and profitable HA manufacturing plant.
The STS research of my work uses a sociotechnical framework combining consumer behavior research and the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) to analyze how luxury markets influence consumer behavior and how affordable alternatives like lower-cost HA, may shift these patterns. Through the research, I argue that luxury consumption is driven by intertwined psychological motivations such as status signaling, identity formation, and social comparison. The research also found structural factors like income inequality and product accessibility. By examining the rise of “dupe” culture and increased access to affordable products, my STS research suggests that consumer values may be shifting from status-driven purchases to function-driven ones. Using evidence from sociopsychological studies and market trends, it concludes that producing affordable HA is not just a technical or economic change, but a social intervention that could reshape consumer perceptions, reduce harmful status-based consumption, and promote more practical and socially responsible purchasing behaviors.
Considering technical, organizational, and cultural factors together helps engineers better understand a more holistic view of their work. In my project, designing a cost-effective and environmentally sustainable HA manufacturing plant is not just about the technical process, but it is also shaped by cultural influences like luxury consumption and digital marketing. STS shows that technology is not separate from society. In fact, it is influenced by how people use it and influences people on how they use it at the same time. It also can influence people’s cultures and values. In my case, making cheaper HA is not just a technical improvement. It could change how consumers think about cosmetic products, shifting focus from status to function. In turn, this could impact consumers' morals and overall well being. By considering all of these factors, engineers can make more responsible decisions that balance efficiency, sustainability, profit, and social impact. This is important because the purpose of engineers is to fix technical problems to benefit the general public.
