(German title: Forschungskolleg iProcess: Intelligente Prozessentwicklung - von der Modellierung bis zum Produkt)

Process developments in the field of chemical, biotechnological and pharmacological processes are currently faced with the problem that the complexity of the systems generally does not allow complete modeling and prediction. In the case of transferring a process from the laboratory to production scale, an additional complication is that not all parameters can be transferred equally during scale-up, as size-dependent factors are sometimes in the denominator and sometimes in the numerator of important process parameters. It is therefore only possible to scale up as many key figures as possible, but not all of them equally. In addition to the physically based equations and those derived from dimensional considerations, many empirical equations are also used, particularly in bioprocess engineering.

As part of the iProcess research college, researchers from Bingen University of Applied Sciences, Trier University of Applied Sciences and the Technical University of Kaiserslautern are working closely together from all process areas to develop innovative process strategies using two model processes. The overall scientific objective of the application-oriented iProcess research college is to develop the process engineering basis for using fungi and cyanobacteria as production organisms for pharmaceutically active substances. In particular, models are to be developed that are needed to design the basic process engineering operations. These models are to be developed for each stage of the entire process chain, from cultivation in bioreactors to product separation. This will be demonstrated using two process chains as examples. The first is the production of protease inhibitors using fungi and the second is the production of polypeptide antibiotics using cyanobacteria. The Department of Bioprocess Engineering is investigating the emerse cultivation of cyanobacteria.

Further information to iProcess