Biochemist Project to develop flow process techniques for biomanufacturing
Three UK technology companies, C‐Tech Innovation, Ingenza and AM Technology are collaborating on a
C‐Tech Innovation, of Capenhurst, Cheshire, develops processes to provide energy and material efficient manufacturing solutions for the chemical, food and process industries.
Ingenza is a biocatalyst and bioprocess development company based in Roslin, near Edinburgh. It operates molecular biology, fermentation and chemistry laboratories, which integrate its expertise in biocatalyst discovery, production, high throughput screening, bioprocess development and synthetic chemistry.
AM Technology is a specialist reactor design company based in Runcorn, Cheshire. The company has multiple patents on flow systems and produces the Coflore reactor, which won the innovation prize in the Energy and Environment category at the UK NanoForum & Emerging Technologies 2009 conference.
Unlike batch reactors, the output of a flow device can be changed without altering the hardware or set‐up conditions. This flexibility saves time and cost in development. The improved control capabilities of flow systems can also deliver better yield and productivity. The objectives of this project will be to design a compact flow reactor for continuous bio processing and develop improved process design techniques to accelerate the introduction of bio‐manufacturing processes for a variety of product types such as unnatural amino acids and chiral amines.
The reactor to be developed for this project will be based on the Coflore design. This patented concept is a modular multi stage CSTR that is said to combine good plug flow with efficient mixing independently of reaction time and has good solids handling capabilities.
The Technology Strategy Board is a business‐led public body established by the UK Government. Its role is to promote and support research into technology and innovation for the benefit of UK business. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is its sponsor.
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Ingredients
Let enzymes do the work
The use of enzyme catalysts has had a real impact on the synthesis of pharmaceutical ingredients, making it possible to improve some syntheses dramatically and even make some molecules that would otherwise be either impossible or impractical to synthesise. The use of flow reactors in biocatalysis faces challenges arising from the heterogeneous slurry nature of the reaction mixture and problems with gas and liquid handling. But research is being carried out into continuous manufacturing methods for biocatalytic reactions.
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