diff --git a/modules/nextflow/src/main/groovy/nextflow/cli/CmdRun.groovy b/modules/nextflow/src/main/groovy/nextflow/cli/CmdRun.groovy
index c881c749f6..46aa1e208c 100644
--- a/modules/nextflow/src/main/groovy/nextflow/cli/CmdRun.groovy
+++ b/modules/nextflow/src/main/groovy/nextflow/cli/CmdRun.groovy
@@ -680,12 +680,12 @@ class CmdRun extends CmdBase implements HubOptions {
         }
     }
 
-    void preloadLifebitPlugins() {
-        def plugins = sysEnv.get('NXF_LIFEBIT_PRELOAD_PLUGINS')
-        if( plugins ) {
-            log.debug("Pre-loading Lifebit's plugins '${plugins}'...")
-            Plugins.load([plugins: plugins.tokenize(',')])
-            log.debug("Preloaded Lifebit's plugins '${plugins}'.")
+    private void preloadLifebitPlugins() {
+        def envPlugins = sysEnv.get('NXF_LIFEBIT_PRELOAD_PLUGINS')
+        if( envPlugins && envPlugins.trim().length() > 0 ) {
+            log.debug("Pre-loading Lifebit's plugins '${envPlugins}'...")
+            Plugins.load([plugins: envPlugins.tokenize(',').collect { it.trim() }.findAll { it }.unique()])
+            log.debug("Preloaded Lifebit's plugins '${envPlugins}'.")
         } else {
             log.debug("No Lifebit's plugins to pre-load")
         }