Upstream Production Processes Research Articles

Supply Risk Mitigation in a Decentralized Supply Chain: Pricing Postponement or Payment Postponement?

Problem definition: In a multistage model of a bilateral supply chain, we study two postponement strategies that the downstream retailer may adopt to mitigate the supply yield risk originating from the upstream production process. The retailer could either postpone the procurement payment until after the yield is realized and pay only for the delivered amount; postpone the pricing decision to better utilize the available supply; or do both. Although both strategies have been separately studied in literature, there is little research on their combined effect and system-wide implications in a decentralized setting. Methodology/results: Taking a game-theoretic approach, we formulate a Stackelberg game and solve for the equilibrium in four scenarios, respectively, in which the retailer uses different combinations of the postponement strategies. There are three main findings. First, when the production cost is low and the yield loss is highly likely, the retailer never strictly benefits from either postponement strategy; with relatively high production cost, the retailer is more likely to adopt payment, rather than pricing, postponement. Second, we uncover a situation where postponing payment and postponing pricing are strategic complements for the retailer. That is, the use of one strategy may increase the benefit of using the other. Third, we identify conditions under which the postponement strategies can be Pareto optimal to the entire supply chain, making the firms’ profits and the consumer surplus simultaneously higher. Managerial implications: These results can be applied in many practical settings to provide guidance for firms to better design the procurement contract and properly use marketing instrument (pricing) to effectively mitigate supply risk and increase profit. Funding: G. Xiao acknowledges financial support from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong [General Research Fund Grant PolyU 15503920]. X. Guo acknowledges the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 72293564/72293560]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0198 .

Accelerated and intensified manufacturing of an adenovirus-vectored vaccine to enable rapid outbreak response.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations' "100-day moonshot" aspires to launch a new vaccine within 100 days of pathogen identification, followed by large-scale vaccine availability within the "second hundred days." Here, we describe work to optimize adenoviral vector manufacturing for rapid response, by minimizing time to clinical trial and first large-scale supply, and maximizing output from the available manufacturing footprint. We describe a rapid virus seed expansion workflow that allows vaccine release to clinical trials within 60 days of antigen sequence identification, followed by vaccine release from globally distributed sites within a further 40 days. We also describe a perfusion-based upstream production process, designed to maximize output while retaining simplicity and suitability for existing manufacturing facilities. This improves upstream volumetric productivity of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 by approximately fourfold and remains compatible with the existing downstream process, yielding drug substance sufficient for 10,000 doses from each liter of bioreactor capacity. This accelerated manufacturing process, along with other advantages such as thermal stability, supports the ongoing value of adenovirus-vectored vaccines as a rapidly adaptable and deployable platform for emergency response.

Sensor Selection and State Estimation of Continuous mAb Production Processes

The production of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) plays a pivotal role in therapeutic treatments, and optimizing their production is crucial for minimizing costs and improving their accessibility to patients. One way of improving the production process is to improve model accuracy through the correct estimation of its states and parameters. The contributions of this paper lie in the provision of guidelines for sensor selection in the upstream production process of mAbs to enhance the accuracy of state estimation. Furthermore, this paper applies an effective variable selection technique for simultaneous state and parameter estimations for enhanced estimation results in the biomanufacturing processes of mAbs. An estimation framework of MHE is designed for three different case studies to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach. The estimation performance is compared and assessed using the Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) as an evaluation criterion.

Standardization of Chemical Degumming and Biodegumming of Ramie Fiber Processing for Natural Fiber Supply Chain Strategy as A Source of Textile Raw Materials in Indonesia

Ramie’s natural fiber industry (Boehmeria nivea) has the potential to be able to supply natural cellulose raw materials to meet the demands of the textile industry. A potential consideration in manufacturing ramie-based products is the need for an integrated set of processes to operate efficiently along the supply chain. A strategy in maintaining the supply chain in manufacturing ramie fiber is based on standardization of the upstream production process starting from the ramie cultivation system and processing raw fiber resulting from the decortication process. Raw fiber is processed by standardized procedures, either chemical degumming or biodegumming, using enzymatic activity produced from microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. The purpose of this research is to provide a standardized production line for the manufacture of ramie raw fiber. The study reports on a number of issues, including: supply of ramie fiber, degumming process include biological dan chemical degumming methods which has been used as a production process for small-scale industrial in Indonesia. The recommendation must be tested with data from manufacturing companies in the ramie industry to develop it as a standardized ramie industrial product model in Indonesia.

Viral clearance in end-to-end integrated continuous process for mAb purification: Total flow-through integrated polishing on two columns connected to virus filtration.

There are few reports of the adoption of continuous processes in bioproduction, particularly the implementation of end-to-end continuous or integrated processes, due to difficulties such as feed adjustment and incorporating virus filtration. Here, we propose an end-to-end integrated continuous process for a monoclonal antibody (mAb) with three integrated process segments: upstream production processes with pool-less direct connection, pooled low pH virus inactivation with pH control and a total flow-through integrated polishing process in which two columns were directly connected with a virus filter. The pooled virus inactivation step defines the batch, and high impurities reduction and mAb recovery were achieved for batches conducted in succession. Viral clearance tests also confirmed robust virus reduction for the flow-through two-columnchromatography and the virus filtration steps. Additionally, viral clearance tests with two different hollow fiber virus filters operated at flux ranging from 1.5 to 40 LMH (liters per effective surface area of filter in square meters per hour) confirmed robust virus reduction over these ranges. Complete clearance with virus logarithmic reduction value ≥4 was achieved even with a process pause at the lowest flux. The end-to-end integrated continuous process proposed in this study is amenable to production processes, and the investigated virus filters have excellent applicability to continuous processes conducted at constant flux.

Abeona Therapeutics evaluates a scalable suspension-based platform for production of viral vector for MPS-IIIA

Viral vector-based gene therapies are bringing life-changing treatments to patients. One investigational therapy in development is a novel hSGSH gene replacement therapy for the treatment of Mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIA (MPS IIIA), which uses an AAV capsid to deliver a functional gene. If this therapy is approved, a scalable upstream production process is needed to provide the necessary manufacturing capacity to allow it to reach patients. In a recent webinar, new insights into scaling up production of high titer and high-quality viral vectors at clinical and commercial scales were discussed. Some key experimental results are highlighted here.

Modulating tyrosine sulfation of recombinant antibodies in CHO cell culture by host selection and sodium chlorate supplementation.

Tyrosine sulfation is a post-translational modification found on many surface receptors and plays an important role in cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. However, tyrosine sulfation of therapeutic antibodies has only been reported very recently. Because of potential potency and immunogenicity concerns, tyrosine sulfation needs to be controlled during the manufacturing process. In this study, we explored methods to modulate antibody tyrosine sulfation during cell line development and upstream production process. We found that tyrosine sulfation levels were significantly different in various Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines due to differential expression of genes in the sulfation pathway including tyrosylprotein sulfotransferase 2 (TPST2) and the sulfation substrate transporter SLC35B2. We also screened chemical inhibitors to reduce tyrosine sulfation in CHO culture and found that sodium chlorate could significantly inhibit tyrosine sulfation while having minimal impact on cell growth and antibody production. We further confirmed this finding in a standard fed-batch production assay. Sodium chlorate at 16mM markedly inhibited tyrosine sulfation by more than 50% and had no significant impact on antibody titer or quality. These data suggest that we can control tyrosine sulfation by selecting CHO cell lines based on the expression level of TPST2 and SLC35B2 or adding sodium chlorate in upstream production process.

Unlocking the environmental hotspots of palm biodiesel upstream production in Malaysia via life cycle assessment

Palm biodiesel has emerged as a potential renewable fuel to substitute vehicle fossil fuel in Malaysia. The embodied environmental impacts due to palm biodiesel upstream production processes are often overlooked and not thoroughly investigated. This study identifies the environmental hotspots of all palm biodiesel upstream production processes (from palm tree cultivation to refined palm biodiesel production) using life cycle assessment methodology. The result shows that the major environmental hotspots are the agricultural stage (fresh fruit bunch plantation) and milling stage, totaling up to 81–92% of the overall environmental loads. Fossil fuel utilization, chemical fertilizers application, and transportation are the key activities that induce the overall upstream burdens, contributing to 69–82% of the damage assessment. The findings reveal that air particulate matters, greenhouse gases, and heavy metals are the main chemical compounds that escalate the environmental burdens in major environmental hotspots in the upstream processes. A configuration setup of crude palm kernel oil plant located within the mill with anaerobic digestion shows a reduction of 4.13–12.2% of environmental impacts compared to the baseline scenario in Malaysia. This study suggests practical environmental reduction solutions to allow stakeholders to construct a more sustainable palm biodiesel upstream production.

Multi‐Stage Supply Chain with Production Uncertainty

With supply chains becoming increasingly extended, the uncertainties in the upstream production process can greatly affect the material flows that aim toward meeting the uncertain demands at the downstream. We analyze a two‐location system in which the upstream production facility experiences random capacities and the downstream store faces random demands. Different from the widely used approach that seeks the decomposition of the profit function based on the echelon inventories, our approach builds on the notions of stochastic functions, in particular, the stochastic linearity in midpoint and the directionally concave order. With these notions, we establish the concavity and submodularity of the profit functions in the transformed decision variables. In general, it is optimal to follow a two‐level state‐dependent threshold policy such that an order is issued at a location if and only if the inventory position of that location is below the corresponding threshold. In the special case where the salvage values are linear in the ending inventories, the profit function becomes separable in the inventory positions, and the optimal policy reduces to the echelon base‐stock policy. The effect of the uncertain capacity and demand depends critically on whether the production capacity is limited or ample in relation to the demand. Only when the capacity and the demand do not differ much, the upstream facility carries positive inventory; otherwise, all units produced are shipped immediately toward the downstream. We further extend our analysis to systems with general stochastic production functions and with multiple locations.

Disentangling Individual Phases in the Hunted vs. Farmed Meat Supply Chain: Exploring Hunters' Perceptions in Italy.

The growing body of literature concerning the hunted wild game meat (HWGM) supply chain is mainly focused on the final consumer, while little is known about upstream production processes. Even though the hunter plays a central role here, it is not well understood how hunters themselves perceive their role in the various phases of the production process. The present study explores Italian hunters’ perception of the HWGM supply chain and compares it to their perception towards the conventional farmed meat supply chain. We distinguish several phases of this production process and find that the final phase related to on-site game dressing is considered problematic, perhaps because hunters perceive themselves as less skilled than professional butchers. The results, in fact, show that hunters prefer hunted products over farmed meat, but that they consider hunted wild boar meat less safe compared to farmed pork. Findings from this study provide a rare glimpse from the inside of the supply chain and reveals the needs for a broad risk assessment analysis on the Italian game meat supply chain. Considering the development of the Italian emerging market of the HWGM, our results also highlight the relevance of training activities on hunters in order to increase the safety and quality of the final product.

Multi-Stage Supply Chain with Production Uncertainty

With supply chains becoming increasingly extended, the uncertainties in the upstream production process can greatly affect the material flows that aim toward meeting the uncertain demands at the downstream. We analyze a two-location system in which the upstream production facility experiences random capacities and the downstream store faces random demands. Different from the widely used approach that seeks the decomposition of the profit function based on the echelon inventories, our approach builds on the notions of stochastic functions, in particular, the stochastic linearity in midpoint and the directionally concave order. With these notions, we establish the concavity and submodularity of the profit functions in the transformed decision variables. In general, it is optimal to follow a two-level state-dependent threshold policy such that an order is issued at a location if and only if the inventory position of that location is below the corresponding threshold. In the special case where the salvage values are linear in the ending inventories, the profit function becomes separable in the inventory positions, and the optimal policy reduces to the echelon base-stock policy. The effect of the uncertain capacity and demand depends critically on whether the production capacity is limited or ample in relation to the demand. Only when the capacity and the demand do not differ much, the upstream facility carries positive inventory; otherwise, all units produced are shipped immediately toward the downstream. We further extend our analysis to systems with general stochastic production functions and with multiple locations.

Supply Risk Mitigation in a Decentralized Supply Chain: Price Postponement or Payment Postponement?

In a multi-stage model of a bilateral supply chain, we study two postponement strategies that the downstream retailer may deploy to mitigate the supply yield risk originated from the upstream production process. The retailer could either postpone the procurement payment until after the yield is realized and pay only for the delivered amount, or postpone the pricing decision to better utilize the available supply, or do both. Due to the decentralized setting, the timing of the payment and pricing will have a ripple effect and generate system-wide implications on the channel performance. Taking a game theoretic approach, we formulate a Stackelberg game and solve for the equilibrium in four scenarios respectively, in which the retailer uses different combination of the aforementioned postponement strategies. There are three main findings. First, when the production cost is low and the yield loss is highly likely, the retailer never strictly benefits from either postponement strategy; otherwise, the retailer is more likely to deploy payment, rather than price, postponement. Second, we uncover a situation where postponing price and payment are strategic complements for the retailer. That is, the use of one strategy may increase the benefit of using the other. Third, we identify conditions on the production cost and the random yield distribution, under which the postponement strategies can be Pareto optimal to the entire supply chain, making the firms' profits and the consumer surplus simultaneously higher. These results can be applied in many practical settings to provide guidance to effectively mitigate supply yield risk. Specifically, they may help a firm better design the procurement contract and properly use marketing instrument (pricing) to mitigate supply risk and increase profit.

Microfluidic platform for rapid screening of bacterial cell lysis

Over the past decade significant progress has been found in the upstream production processes, shifting the main bottlenecks in current manufacturing platforms for biopharmaceuticals towards the downstream processing. Challenges in the purification process include reducing the production costs, developing robust and efficient purification processes as well as integrating both upstream and downstream processes. Microfluidic technologies have recently emerged as effective tools for expediting bioprocess design in a cost-effective manner, since a large number of variables can be evaluated in a small time frame, using reduced volumes and manpower. Their modularity also allows to integrate different unit operations into a single chip, and consequently to evaluate the effect of each stage on the overall process efficiency.This paper describes the development of a diffusion-based microfluidic device for the rapid screening of continuous chemical lysis conditions. The release of a recombinant green fluorescent protein (GFP) expressed in Escherichia coli (E. coli) was used as model system due to the simple evaluation of cell growth and product concentration by fluorescence. The concept can be further applied to any biopharmaceutical production platform. The microfluidic device was successfully used to test the lytic effect of both enzymatic and chemical lysis solutions, with lysis efficiency of about 60% and close to 100%, respectively, achieved. The microfluidic technology also demonstrated the ability to detect potential process issues, such as the increased viscosity related with the rapid release of genomic material, that can arise for specific lysis conditions and hinder the performance of a bioprocess. Finally, given the continuous operation of the lysis chip, the microfluidic technology has the potential to be integrated with other microfluidic modules in order to model a fully continuous biomanufacturing process on a chip.

Calcium Alginate Bead-mediated Enhancement of the Selective Recovery of a Lead Novel Antifungal Bacillomycin Variant

In the pursuit of new antifungal compounds, five coproduced lipopeptide variants (AF1 to AF5) from wild-type Bacillus subtilis RLID 12.1 were identified in our previous study. Out of five, AF4 was identified as a novel lead molecule belonging to the bacillomycin family showing less cytotoxicity at its respective minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) evaluated against 81 strains of Candida and Cryptococcus species (including clinical isolates); besides this, AF4 purified in the present study exhibited encouraging MIC values against 10 clinical mycelial fungi. Aiming for a selective production augmentation of AF4 lipopeptide variant, a new fermentation media comprising malt extract (1.01%), dextrose (0.55%), peptone (1.79%), MnSO4 (2mM), and NaCl (0.5%) was formulated. Maximum production of 954.8 ± 10.8mg/L was achieved with 44% selectivity at 30°C compared to unoptimized conditions (186.4 ± 6.1mg/L). Use of calcium alginate beads in the formulated media during the onset of lipopeptide production resulted in an augmentation in the selectivity of the most efficacious AF4 variant to about 72% presumably due to attenuation of other coproduced lipopeptide variants AF1 and AF2. Difference in yield of lipopeptides varied with bead size, bead preparation ratios, and sodium alginate concentrations. Use of Ca-alginate beads in the upstream production process of the lead AF4 variant may be considered as a novel strategy to address the potential challenge that may arise during the scale-up and downstream processing steps. Another significant finding derived from the study is that the proportion of bacillomycin variants of B. subtilis RLID 12.1 could be controlled by temperature and metal ions under static and shaking conditions.

Identifying emission hotspots for low carbon technology transfers

Abstract Data on consumption-based CO2 emissions has become increasingly available over the past years. These data raise the awareness of the link between final goods and the environmental pollution caused by upstream production processes. Consumers of final products learn where in the world CO2 was emitted along the upstream production chain. For producers of final products these data provide benchmarks for total CO2 emitted in upstream production processes. These are used together with an extended version of the inverse important coefficient methodology to identify ‘emission hotspots’. ‘Emission hotspots’ are defined as countries/industries where a bulk of the upstream emissions occur and where a change in technology brings about the largest decrease in upstream emissions. This knowledge provides a basis for well-targeted technology transfers to clean up the upstream production chain, thus reducing the emission footprint of final goods production. The highest impact overall in a significant number global value chains analyzed here would be replacing upstream use of coal electricity by low carbon electricity. These results support the call of the ‘Powering Past Coal Alliance’ at the COP23 of ending the use of coal power sooner rather than later.

产业园区温室气体排放清单研究

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 产业园区温室气体排放清单 DOI: 10.5846/stxb201306091508 作者: 作者单位: 北京师范大学环境学院,北京师范大学 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 国家自然科学基金(91325302,41271543);国家科技支撑计划课题(2012BAK30B03);国家基金委创新研究群体科学基金(51121003);高等学校博士学科点专项科研基金(20130003110027) Greenhouse Gas Inventory of industrial parks in China Author: Affiliation: School of Environment,Beijing Normal University,State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control,School of Environment,Beijing Normal University,State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:温室气体排放所导致的全球气候变化是国际社会长期关注的热点问题,它严重限制了人类社会的发展并威胁着人类的生存。产业园区通常集中了一个区域主要的生产要素与生产能力,也代表着特定产业在该区域的发展水平,理应作为发展低碳经济的基础单元和减少温室气体排放的重要控制点,也可以成为解决区域资源、环境问题的突破口。明确了产业园区温室气体排放的系统边界和内部结构,梳理了产业园区全生命周期温室气体排放行为,综合考虑产业园区能源消耗、工业生产、物质材料消耗、仪器设备投入、废弃物处理处置、景观绿化等过程,建立产业园区温室气体排放核算方法,并对案例园区进行了清单分析。结果表明:案例园区整个生命周期的温室气体排放量为1872177 t CO2-eq,其中运行管理阶段占全生命周期排放的比例最高,为95.35%。建设阶段的温室气体排放总量中建筑材料消耗引起的排放占到96.95%,主要集中在建筑工程、内部装修工程和外部装饰工程3个环节。运行管理阶段电力消耗、热力消耗和污水处理过程的排放量占到总量的98.69%。根据核算及分析结果提出了案例园区在建设和运行管理阶段实现温室气体减排的建议。 Abstract:Global climate change caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, has severely limited the development of human society and threatened the survival of humanity. Gathering the primary production factors and capacity of the region, an industrial park represents the development level of specific industries in the region. Therefore, the industrial park should be regarded as the base unit for developing a low-carbon economy and reducing GHG emissions, and also a breakthrough in allocating regional resource and overcoming environmental problems. Low-carbon mode has become a trend of development in industrial parks. Researches about GHG emissions from industrial parks make suggestions on the critical points for controlling GHG emissions and provide guidance for the construction or reform projects of low-carbon industrial parks, as well as providing references for entry thresholds and emission standards of low-carbon industrial parks. This study selects the high-end industrial parks as research object, defines the boundary of GHG inventories, and clarifies the structure of the carbon sources. In this study, a GHG inventory is set up to analyze the life-cycle GHG emissions from industrial parks, which includes 6 types of GHG emission sources, namely energy consumption, industrial production, materials consumption, equipments investment, waste disposal and landscaping. The above method was used for one high-end low carbon industrial park in Beijing as a case study. The results were as follows: (1)the overall GHG emission of the whole life-cycle is 1872177 t CO2-eq. The construction stage takes up 4.546% which means 85105.82 t CO2-eq GHG emission with an intensity of 801.69 kg CO2-eq /m2; while the operation stage contributes the great majority of GHG emission, which achieves a proportion of 95.352%. The GHG emission of operation stage is 37717.18 t CO2-eq, and the intensity is 355.29 kg CO2-eq /m2. (2) During the construction stage of the case industrial park, the top 3 emission sources are S (59.71%), ID (20.33%) and OD (11.40%), followed by L (3.74%), V (1.78%) and R (1.09%). The other 6 steps only take up the proportion of less than 1%. (3) More attention should be given tothe processes of sewage treatment, heat energy consumption and electricity consumption, as they contribute 98.69% of the stage emission. Finally, based on the analysis of the results, suggestions for GHG reduction are proposed to guide the low-carbon development of the high-end industrial park, such as making use of the local materials to reduce the amount of fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions due to the long-range transport, using the low carbon and regeneration construction materials instead of the traditional ones to reduce the GHG emission from the upstream production process and downstream disposal, scientifically arranging the construction progress to promote a safe and low carbon form of construction work, applying advanced management methods and strengthening the propaganda of energy conservation and emissions reduction. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

GaSe Formation at the Cu(In,Ga)Se2/Mo Interface–A Novel Approach for Flexible Solar Cells by Easy Mechanical Lift‐Off

Implementing photovoltaic devices based on high efficiency thin‐film technologies on cheap, light‐weight and flexible polymeric substrates is highly appealing to cut down costs in industrial production and to accelerate very large scale deployment of photovoltaics in the upcoming years. Lift‐off processes, which allow separating active layers from primary substrates and subsequent transfer onto an alternative substrate without modifying the upstream production process and without performance losses, are an emerging alternative to direct growth on polymeric substrates. This study concerns the feasibily of direct mechanical lift‐off process for high efficiency Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) thin film solar cells grown by coevaporation on glass/molybdenum substrates without performance losses. The study presents an in depth characterization (SEM,AFM,GIXRD,XPS) of samples leading to excellent lift‐off properties. They are explained by a specific gallium rich CIGS graded interface structure according to the interfacial sequence glass/Mo/MoSe2/GaxSey/Ga‐rich‐CIGS. The interfacial layer, attributed to GaSe, has a layered structure and out performs the molybdenum diselenide layered layer which forms spontaneously at the interface Mo/CIGS. It allows a very easy lift‐off process at the interface GaSe/CIGS thanks to Van‐der‐Waals adhesion mechanism in GaSe. Key physical‐chemical parameters are identified and analyzed. After lift‐off, an efficiency of 14.3%, higher than the initial reference CIGS solar cell efficiency (13.8%) is measured.

Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment of Winter Maintenance Treatments for Roadways

Departments of Transportation (DOTs) rely heavily on chloride-based treatments for winter road maintenance despite the well-documented effects of these chemicals on infrastructure and the environment. Proposed alternative treatments have yet to be widely adopted because of economic and technical limitations that are largely outside of the control of the DOT. This work explores the application of winter maintenance chemicals with a life-cycle approach to understand which actions a DOT can take to reduce the negative life-cycle environmental impacts of these activities. Three representative treatments and/or best management practices are compared: conventional rock salt, calcium magnesium acetate (CMA), and preemptive treatments of roadways with a brine of salt and/or CMA. The results conclusively show that CMA, which has been widely touted as an environmentally preferable, if more expensive, alternative to chloride-based treatments, has considerably higher environmental impacts over its entire life cycle. Most of these burdens are associated with the upstream production processes required to generate the CMA. The salt-based treatments consume considerably less water, energy, and generate fewer greenhouse gases and biochemical oxygen demand in receiving waters. Applying the chloride chemicals as a brine rather than in the dry form results in important reductions in all environmental impacts over the entire life cycle. This result is consistent for a variety of climate conditions (e.g., representative of coastal, piedmont, and mountain climates) considered for this study, which used historical weather data from Virginia. Because DOTs can affect appreciable improvements in efficiency by using brines, sensitivity analysis identifies the activities specifically resulting in the most important environmental improvement on a systems basis. The DOT-controlled steps with the greatest potential for improvement include reducing the energy consumed for the salt application process and implementing practices that reduce total storm water runoff to reduce chloride loading.

Development and fine-tuning of a scale down model for process characterization studies of a monoclonal antibody upstream production process

Background It has always been an objective of process development and more recently it has also become a regulatory expectation to build robustness into and demonstrate proper control of a manufacturing process, thus ensuring that the biological product meets consistently its quality attributes and specifications. This is achieved mainly through systematic process development and understanding. Once a process is locked and ahead of consistency runs at the intended commercial scale, process characterization studies (PCS hereafter) further contribute to the demonstration of process robustness and the justification of process control ranges. These studies characterize the relationship between process parameters and process performance as well as product quality attributes. For practical reasons PCS are performed in a scale down model (SDM hereafter) of the manufacturing process studied. Therefore, it is essential to establish a SDM that is representative of the commercial scale. Here we describe a road map for developing a scale down model of a cell culture process for recombinant protein production. The cell culture process modeled was a 12,000 L scale fed batch process producing a monoclonal antibody.

An Application of a Modified Ecological Footprint Method and Structural Path Analysis in a Comparative Institutional Study

This paper presents an application of a modified ecological footprint method, using a regional, disturbance-based approach. In contrast to conventional institutional ecological footprint calculations, energy and land use resulting from all upstream production processes are explored by employing an input-output framework. Ecological footprints are calculated for two research institutions: the School of Physics (SoP) at the University of Sydney, and the Sustainable Ecosystems (CSE) Department of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. These are broken down further in terms of land disturbance and greenhouse gas emissions, and as a function of production layer. To enable the use of the results in policy formulation, the ecological footprints are decomposed into detailed contributing paths, which are ranked according to their importance, using structural path analysis. The paper demonstrates that a considerable proportion of impacts occur upstream in industrial production. Thus a significant result of the study is the weight of obscure paths in the total footprints and, therefore, the importance of conducting an holistic assessment in order to ensure all upstream contributions are captured in the final impact of the institution.