Bioseparation and downstream processing equipment represent at least 50% of the cost of preparing a biological product suitable for market consumption. The key to cutting production costs is emphasizing improvements in bioseparation and downstream processing equipments ["Bioseparation of Proteins (Unfolding / Folding and Validation)" by Ajit Sadana - Academic Press, 1998]. The possibility exists to simulate a complete biotechnology process. With our programs, we can help your company in the following steps:

(i) understanding downstream processing

(ii) integrating it with upstream processing

(iii) improving the economics of the whole process.

Computer-aided process design (CAPD), a standard tool for designing, evaluating and optimizing chemical processes, enables process engineers and scientists (i) to describe model complex and integrated processes and (ii) to conduct experiments with these models on the computer to better understand the behavior of real systems under various equipment configurations and operating conditions. Such experiments done in the laboratory are very expensive in both time and money.

The benefits of CAPD vary depending on the type of product, the stage of development and the size of the investment. For commodity - like low - priced biochemicals, minimization of manufacturing cost is the primary benefit. For high - priced biopharmaceuticals, systematic process development facilitates accelerated commercialization and improvement in process and product quality.

The benefits from the use of computer-aided process design and simulation tools in the commercialization process can be summarized as follows:

• during the stage of "idea generation" , CAPD is used for project screening / selection and strategic planning;
• during process development CAPD is used to improve team communication, minimize environmental impact, expedite process development and evaluate alternatives (adjusting several key parameters affecting the performance of processing steps, completely cstomizing the economic evaluation process, inspecting Gantt charts and evaluating the trade-off between scheduling alternatives and costing, just to name a few of many issues that can be explored).
• at the level of facility design, CAPD is used to systematically design and optimize the manufacturing facility (operational flexibility, safety and process scheduling);
• during product manufacturing, CAPD is used for plant debottlenecking, process scheduling and overall plant optimization (including production cost minimization).

["Computer Simulation Systems"  by Carol Potera in Genetic Engineering News 18 (n. 16) 1998 pages 10 and 29].

"Introduction to bioprocess simulation" by D.B. Petrides, R. Nir, J. Calandranis, and C.L. Cooney in Manual of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology, 2nd edition, edited by A.L. Demain and J.E. Davies, ASM Press, Washington, D.C. (1999) pages 289 - 299

We can assist your company offering a complete simulation analysis for designing integrated biochemical, pharmaceutical, food, specialty chemical as well as waste recycling, treatment and disposal processes. The simulation will include:

(i) mass and energy balances as well as equipment sizing

(ii) process economics

(iii) environmental impact assessment

(iv) rigorous VOC emission calculations

(v) chemical component fate prediction.

If you have questions or would like to receive information about the "Real-Time Simulation" programme, please give us a phone call  at (1) 305-776-2241 (internationally) or  send an e-mail. We look forward to hearing from you.