Single-use technology is now well established for many bioprocessing unit operations, including sterile filtration and product storage, where it provides specific benefits such as elimination of cleaning and cleaning validation, reduced risk of contamination, and enclosed systems for safer handling. Recently, single-use technology has been introduced into more complex unit operations such as purification by chromatography (1), tangential-flow filtration (2), and mixing systems. More complex processing steps, however, present a challenging task for developers of single-use products. Mixing…
Author Archives: Bruce Rawlings
A Prescriptive Approach to Management of Solid Waste from Single-Use Systems
In biopharmaceutical manufacturing, the disposal of solid waste from single-use systems is becoming an increasingly important issue. The new focus is driven by several major factors including a broadening range of disposable technologies enabling, in some cases, the installation of completely disposable multistage systems; improved scalability of single-use components offering production capacities to thousands of liters; and the environmental impact of waste disposal. The latter concern includes not only regulatory and cost constraints, but also the need for…
Environmental Impact of Single-Use and Reusable Bioprocess Systems
Bioprocess manufacturing systems have incorporated single-use/disposable components for more than 50 years and have demonstrated well-defined process benefits from their use (1,2,3,4,5,6). The environmental impact of single-use technologies, however, has been a major focus of attention only in recent years. This evolving interest has been driven by many factors including concerns over environmental change, emissions, and energy supplies; rapidly increasing costs and restrictions on waste disposal; greater recognition of the role of disposables in bioprocessing; and availability of…
Managing Solid Waste from Single-Use Systems in Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing
The increasing implementation of single-use systems (SUS) in biopharmaceutical manufacturing has been driven by multiple factors including cost reduction, increased flexibility, improved process development time, and reduced capital investment. But questions are being raised over the disposal of solid waste materials from this alternative technology. Disposal concerns may not be justified on financial considerations because solid-waste disposal costs represent only a small proportion of the total manufacturing costs when using disposable systems (1, 2). Furthermore, comparative studies have…