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  • Simulation of plasmid DNA production process with the simulator Aspen Batch Plus 2004 [Elektronski vir]
    Strnad, Jure, 1982- ; Glavič, Peter
    Plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid (pDNA) can be used as a part of a vaccine or as a vector in gene therapy. It is a safe and perspective alternative to classical (virus-based) gene transfer elements. A ... bioprocess for producing pDNA was simulated with the simulator Aspen Batch Plus 2004. In the literature there are several different alternative process schemes[1], but none of them defines the actual annual consumption of raw materials or the annual production rate. Our goal was to use a proposed process scheme and simulate its mass balance and economic analysis. We found Aspen Batch to have considerable problems in simulating this bioprocess. A huge problem was that we had to define most of the properties of the biological components for which there are less data available than for classical chemical components. This inconsistency is very common in commercial bioprocess simulators (Aspen Batch Plus 2004, SuperPro Designer v5.5 etc.) and should be improved. The simulation supplied approximate figures for the annual raw material consumption and the annual production rate of pDNA. Lacking industrial process economic data, we had to approximate a lot of economic parameters. The economic analysis although very crude, was very optimistic. We speculate that even though the economic analysis was beneficial, there is a marginal chance for the proposed process to be operable anywhere else than in a large pharmaceutical company. More research must be carried out on the process, requiring scientific knowledge and capital investments, mostly available at successful pharmaceutical companies. A working industrial process was reported by Boehringer Ingelheim Austria GmbH, short time after we finished or simulation, but we were not able to establish a contact with the plant management.[2] There is a huge space for optimisation in this process, the loses being around 50 %. The critical process steps are the cell lysis and the chromatography steps, causing most of the loses. A basic summary of pack-bed chromatography and monolithic chromatography, which could be used instead of the classical chromatography columns will be discussed, too. A substantial effort was given to comparison between the simulators SuperPro Designer v5.5 and Aspen Batch Plus 2004. Both programs are still very poorly applicable for simulating bioprocesses. They lack firm restrictions, making it possible to simulate operations that are not possible in reality. In this aspect Aspen Batch is a trifle better than SuperPro Designer, because it has at least some basic restrictions. In most programme features SuperPro Designer was in our opinion superior to Aspen Batch Plus. Especially the user friendly interface of SuperPro Designer is the leading feature of the simulator. Both simulators have a very useful scheduling and economic tool. We decided to use SuperPro Designer for further educational purposes at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in Maribor, Slovenia.
    Source: CHISA 2008 : CD-ROM of full texts [Elektronski vir] ([8] str.)
    Type of material - conference contribution
    Publish date - 2008
    Language - english
    COBISS.SI-ID - 12555030

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