Model for the Part Manufacturing and Vehicle Assembly Component of the Vehicle Life Cycle Inventory

A model is presented for calculating the environmental burdens of the part manufacturing and vehicle assembly (VMA) stage of the vehicle life cycle. The model is based on a process‐level approach, accounting for all significant materials by their transformation processes (aluminum castings, polyethylene blow molding; etc.) and plant operation activities (painting; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning [HVAC], etc.) germane to VMA. Using quantitative results for these material/transformation process pairings, a percent‐by‐weight material/transformation distribution (MTD) function was developed that permits the model to be applied to a range of vehicles, both conventional and advanced (e.g., hybrid electric, light weight, aluminum intensive). Upon consolidation of all inputs, the model reduces to two terms: one proportional to vehicle mass and a plant overhead per vehicle term. When the model is applied to a materially well‐characterized conventional vehicle, reliable estimates of cumulative energy consumption (34 gigajoules/vehicle) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions (2 tonnes/vehicle) with coefficients of variation are computed for the VMA life cycle stage. Due to the more comprehensive coverage of manufacturing operations, our energy estimates are on the higher end of previously published values. Nonetheless, they are still somewhat underestimated due to a lack of data on overhead operations in part manufacturing facilities and transportation of parts and materials between suppliers and vehicle manufacturing operations. For advanced vehicles, the material/transformation process distribution developed above needs some adjusting for different materials and components. Overall, energy use and CO₂ emissions from the VMA stage are about 3.5% to 4.5% of total life cycle values for vehicles.     

Next‐Generation Additive Manufacturing of Complete Standalone Sodium‐Ion Energy Storage Architectures

The first entirely AM/3D‐printed sodium‐ion (full‐cell) battery is reported herein, presenting a paradigm shift in the design and prototyping of energy‐storage architectures. AM/3D‐printing compatible composite materials are developed for the first time, integrating the active materials NaMnO₂ and TiO₂ within a porous supporting material, before being AM/3D‐printed into a proof‐of‐concept model based upon the basic geometry of commercially existing AA battery designs. The freestanding and completely AM/3D‐fabricated device demonstrates a respectable performance of 84.3 mAh g^?1 with a current density of 8.43 mA g^?1; note that the structure is typically comprised of 80% thermoplastic, but yet, still works and functions as an energy‐storage platform. The AM/3D‐fabricated device is critically benchmarked against a battery developed using the same active materials, but fabricated via a traditional manufacturing method utilizing an ink‐based/doctor‐bladed methodology, which is found to exhibit a specific capacity of 98.9 mAh m^?2 (116.35 mAh g^?1). The fabrication of fully AM/3D‐printed energy‐storage architectures compares favorably with traditional approaches, with the former providing a new direction in battery manufacturing. This work represents a paradigm shift in the technological and design considerations in battery and energy‐storage architectures.     

Life Cycle Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Automobiles Using Aluminum in China

Transportation is a major part of energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Aluminum (Al) as a light metal can reduce vehicle weight, energy consumption, and pollutant emissions, but Al production is energy intensive. The main contents of this study are the following: (1) create the life cycle inventory of Al parts based on the energy background in China and (2) evaluate the energy savings and GHG reduction for the vehicle when steel parts are replaced by Al parts. Although there is a considerable reduction in energy consumption of per tonne Al in China owing to continuing development of process technology in recent years, energy consumption is higher than the world average level and European level. Over the vehicle's life cycle driving of 200,000 kilometers, the vehicle was found to avoid 1,447 to 1,590 liters of gasoline consumption when six typical steel parts were replaced by Al parts. Based on the current technology, the breakeven distance was calculated, resulting in a net energy benefit to use the lightweight Al parts compared with steel parts. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to show different energy savings by considering secondary weight reduction and different driving distance. The results indicate that weight reduction by using Al is quite effective to reduce the energy consumption and GHG of transportation.     

Environmental sustainability of orthopedic devices produced with powder bed fusion

Additive manufacturing consists in melting metallic powders to produce objects from 3D data, layer upon layer. Its industrial applications range from automotive, biomedical (e.g., prosthetic implants for dentistry and orthopedics), aeronautics and others. This study uses life cycle assessment to evaluate the possible improvement in environmental performance of laser‐based powder bed fusion additive manufacturing systems on prosthetic device production. Environmental impacts due to manufacturing, use, and end of life of the designed solution were assessed. In addition, two powder production technologies, gas atomization (GA) and plasma atomization (PA), were compared in order to establish the most sustainable one. Production via traditional subtractive technologies and the additive manufacturing production were also compared. 3D building was found to have a significant environmental advantage compared to the traditional technology. The powder production process considerably influences on a damage point of view the additive manufacturing process; however, its impact can be mitigated if GA powders are employed.     

A new large‐scale manufacturing platform for complex biopharmaceuticals

Complex biopharmaceuticals, such as recombinant blood coagulation factors, are addressing critical medical needs and represent a growing multibillion‐dollar market. For commercial manufacturing of such, sometimes inherently unstable, molecules it is important to minimize product residence time in non‐ideal milieu in order to obtain acceptable yields and consistently high product quality. Continuous perfusion cell culture allows minimization of residence time in the bioreactor, but also brings unique challenges in product recovery, which requires innovative solutions. In order to maximize yield, process efficiency, facility and equipment utilization, we have developed, scaled‐up and successfully implemented a new integrated manufacturing platform in commercial scale. This platform consists of a (semi‐)continuous cell separation process based on a disposable flow path and integrated with the upstream perfusion operation, followed by membrane chromatography on large‐scale adsorber capsules in rapid cycling mode. Implementation of the platform at commercial scale for a new product candidate led to a yield improvement of 40% compared to the conventional process technology, while product quality has been shown to be more consistently high. Over 1,000,000 L of cell culture harvest have been processed with 100% success rate to date, demonstrating the robustness of the new platform process in GMP manufacturing. While membrane chromatography is well established for polishing in flow‐through mode, this is its first commercial‐scale application for bind/elute chromatography in the biopharmaceutical industry and demonstrates its potential in particular for manufacturing of potent, low‐dose biopharmaceuticals. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2012; 109: 3049–3058. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Filtration kinetics of chitosan separation by electrofiltration

Downstream processing of chitosan requires several technological steps that contribute to the total production costs. Precipitation and especially evaporation are energy-consuming processes, resulting in higher costs and limiting industrial scale production. This study investigated the filtration kinetics of chitosan derived from cell walls of fungi and from exoskeletons of arthropods by electrofiltration, an alternative method, thus reducing the downstream processing steps and costs. Experiments with different voltages and pressures were conducted in order to demonstrate the effect of both parameters on filtration kinetics. The concentration of the biopolymer was obtained by the average factor of 40 by applying an electric field of 4 V/mm and pressure of 4 bars. A series of analytical experiments demonstrated the lack of structural and functional changes in chitosan molecules after electrofiltration. These results, combined with the reduction of energy and processing time, define the investigated method as a promising downstream step in the chitosan production technology.     

Life‐cycle and cost of goods assessment of fed‐batch and perfusion‐based manufacturing processes for mAbs

Life‐cycle assessment (LCA) is an environmental assessment tool that quantifies the environmental impact associated with a product or a process (e.g., water consumption, energy requirements, and solid waste generation). While LCA is a standard approach in many commercial industries, its application has not been exploited widely in the bioprocessing sector. To contribute toward the design of more cost‐efficient, robust and environmentally‐friendly manufacturing process for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), a framework consisting of an LCA and economic analysis combined with a sensitivity analysis of manufacturing process parameters and a production scale‐up study is presented. The efficiency of the framework is demonstrated using a comparative study of the two most commonly used upstream configurations for mAb manufacture, namely fed‐batch (FB) and perfusion‐based processes. Results obtained by the framework are presented using a range of visualization tools, and indicate that a standard perfusion process (with a pooling duration of 4 days) has similar cost of goods than a FB process but a larger environmental footprint because it consumed 35% more water, demanded 17% more energy, and emitted 17% more CO₂ than the FB process. Water consumption was the most important impact category, especially when scaling‐up the processes, as energy was required to produce process water and water‐for‐injection, while CO₂ was emitted from energy generation. The sensitivity analysis revealed that the perfusion process can be made more environmentally‐friendly than the FB process if the pooling duration is extended to 8 days. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 32:1324–1335, 2016     

An impurity characterization based approach for the rapid development of integrated downstream purification processes

In this study, we describe a new approach for the characterization of process‐related impurities along with an in silico tool to generate orthogonal, integrated downstream purification processes for biological products. A one‐time characterization of process‐related impurities from product expression in Pichia pastoris was first carried out using linear salt and pH gradients on a library of multimodal, salt‐tolerant, and hydrophobic charge induction chromatographic resins. The Reversed‐phase ultra‐performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) analysis of the fractions from these gradients was then used to generate large data sets of impurity profiles. A retention database of the biological product was also generated using the same linear salt and pH gradients on these resins, without fraction collection. The resulting two data sets were then analyzed using an in silico tool, which incorporated integrated manufacturing constraints to generate and rank potential three‐step purification sequences based on their predicted purification performance as well as whole‐process “orthogonality” for impurity removal. Highly ranked sequences were further examined to identify templates for process development. The efficacy of this approach was successfully demonstrated for the rapid development of robust integrated processes for human growth hormone and granulocyte‐colony stimulating factor.     

Environmental Assessment of Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotube Processes

The environmental assessment of nanomanufacturing during the initial process design phase should lead to the development of competitive, safe, and environmentally responsible engineering and commercialization. Given the potential benefits and concerns regarding the use of single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), three SWNT production processes have been investigated to assess their associated environmental impacts. These processes include arc ablation (arc), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and high‐pressure carbon monoxide (HiPco). Without consideration of the currently unknown impacts of SWNT dispersion or other health impacts, life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology is used to analyze the environmental impact and provide a baseline for the environmental footprint of each manufacturing process. Although the technical attributes of the product resulting from each process may not be fully comparable, this study presents comparisons that show that the life cycle impacts are dominated by energy, specifically the electricity used in production. Under base case yield conditions, HiPco shows the lowest environmental impact, while the arc process has the lowest impact under best case yield conditions.     

Economic simulation of batch and continuous aqueous two-phase purification for viral products

Vaccine manufacturing strategies that lower capital and production costs could improve vaccine access by reducing the cost per dose and encouraging localized manufacturing. Continuous processing is increasingly utilized to drive lower costs in biological manufacturing by requiring fewer capital and operating resources. Aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) are a liquid–liquid extraction technique that enables continuous processing for viral vectors. To date, no economic comparison between viral vector purifications using traditional methods and ATPS has been published. In this work, economic simulations of traditional chromatography-based virus purification were compared to ATPS-based virus purification for the same product output in both batch and continuous modes. First, the modeling strategy was validated by re-creating a viral subunit manufacturing economic simulation. Then, ATPS capital and operating costs were compared to that of a traditional chromatography purification at multiple scales. At all scales, ATPS purification required less than 10% of the capital expenditure compared to chromatography-based purification. At an 11 kg per year production scale, the ATPS production costs were 50% less than purification with chromatography. Other chromatography configurations were explored, and may provide a production cost benefit to ATPS, but the purity and recovery were not experimentally verified. Batch and continuous ATPS were similar in capital and production costs. However, manual price adjustments suggest that continuous ATPS plant-building costs could be less than half that of batch ATPS at the 11 kg per year production scale. These simulations show the significant reduction in manufacturing costs that ATPS-based purification could deliver to the vaccine industry.     

Darwin at High Temperature: Advancing Solar Cell Material Design Using Defect Kinetics Simulations and Evolutionary Optimization

Material defects govern the performance of a wide range of energy conversion and storage devices, including photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, and batteries. The success of large‐scale, cost‐effective manufacturing hinges upon rigorous material optimization to mitigate deleterious defects. Material processing simulations have the potential to accelerate novel energy technology development by modeling defect‐evolution thermodynamics and kinetics during processing of raw materials into devices. Here, a predictive process optimization framework is presented for rapid material and process development. A solar cell simulation tool that models defect kinetics during processing is coupled with a genetic algorithm to optimize processing conditions in silico. Experimental samples processed according to conditions suggested by the optimization show significant improvements in material performance, indicated by minority carrier lifetime gains, and confirm the simulated directions for process improvement. This material optimization framework demonstrates the potential for process simulation to leverage fundamental defect characterization and high‐throughput computing to accelerate the pace of learning in materials processing for energy applications.     

Bioethanol: Experiences from running plants,optimization and prospects

In the past decades, the agro-industry in Europe has made a tremendous move from more regional to globally operating food groups processing a variety of different crops to agrochemicals, e.g. to carbohydrates such as sugars, starches and inulin. Moreover, these agrochemicals are feedstocks for a variety of further processed products. Biotechnology plays a central role in these material transformations. Besides a considerable number of developments using enzyme technology as ‘chemical’ catalysts, for example for the production of Palatinose? (isomaltulose), isomalt, and oligofructosides or special inulins, fermentations are starting to become an important tool, too. When the EU made the move towards bio-fuels, European agro-industry decided to become a major player in this field. For bio-ethanol production, besides raw material the factors with the highest impact on overall costs are energy consumption and yield. To optimize both, innovative developments were successfully established for different process steps, including fermentation and enzymatic hydrolysis of starch and other bio-polymers. Further optimization of yeasts, for example by using gene modification technology, is possible. Besides specific energy saving techniques like multi effect evaporation and distillation, enzyme technology has made a great contribution to reduction in overall energy consumption. For further energy savings, improved enzymes are necessary and should be developed.     

Saving Energy versus Saving Materials

To reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in housing construction, the energy-intensive processes and life-cycle stages should be identified and integrated. The environmental impact of vertically integrated factory-built homes (VIHs) constructed with increased material inputs in Japan's northern island of Hokkaido was assessed using life-cycle inventory (LCI) analysis methods. Manufacturing process energy and CO₂ intensities of the homes were evaluated based on the material inputs. They were compared with those of a counterpart home hypothetically built using the vertically integrated construction methods, but in accordance with the specifications of a less material-intensive conventional home (CH) in Hokkaido today. Cumulative household energy consumption and CO₂ emissions were evaluated and compared with those of the production stages. The annual household energy consumption was compared among a VIH, a CH, and an average home in Hokkaido. The energy intensity of the VIH was 3.9 GJ production energy per m² of floor area, 59% higher than that of the CH. Net CO₂ emissions during VIH manufacturing processes were 293 kg/m², after discounting the carbon fixation during tree growth. The cumulative use-phase household energy consumption and CO₂ emissions of a VIH will exceed energy consumption and CO₂ emissions during the initial production stage in less than six years. Although VIHs housed 21% more residents on average, the energy consumption per m2 was 17% lower than that of a CH. This may indicate that using more materials initially can lead to better energy efficiency.     

Continuous counter‐current chromatography for capture and polishing steps in biopharmaceutical production

The economic advantages of continuous processing of biopharmaceuticals, which include smaller equipment and faster, efficient processes, have increased interest in this technology over the past decade. Continuous processes can also improve quality assurance and enable greater controllability, consistent with the quality initiatives of the FDA. Here, we discuss different continuous multi‐column chromatography processes. Differences in the capture and polishing steps result in two different types of continuous processes that employ counter‐current column movement. Continuous‐capture processes are associated with increased productivity per cycle and decreased buffer consumption, whereas the typical purity‐yield trade‐off of classical batch chromatography can be surmounted by continuous processes for polishing applications. In the context of continuous manufacturing, different but complementary chromatographic columns or devices are typically combined to improve overall process performance and avoid unnecessary product storage. In the following, these various processes, their performances compared with batch processing and resulting product quality are discussed based on a review of the literature. Based on various examples of applications, primarily monoclonal antibody production processes, conclusions are drawn about the future of these continuous‐manufacturing technologies.     

Power consumption evaluation of different fed-batch strategies for enzymatic hydrolysis of sugarcane bagasse

The minimization of costs in the distillation step of lignocellulosic ethanol production requires the use of a high solids loading during the enzymatic hydrolysis to obtain a more concentrated glucose liquor. However, this increase in biomass can lead to problems including increased mass and heat transfer resistance, decreased cellulose conversion, and increased apparent viscosity with the associated increase in power consumption. The use of fed-batch operation offers a promising way to circumvent these problems. In this study, one batch and four fed-batch strategies for solids and/or enzyme feeding during the enzymatic hydrolysis of sugarcane bagasse were evaluated. Determinations of glucose concentration, power consumption, and apparent viscosity were made throughout the experiments, and the different strategies were compared in terms of energy efficiency (mass of glucose produced according to the energy consumed). The best energy efficiency was obtained for the strategy in which substrate and enzyme were added simultaneously (0.35 kg_glucose kWh^?1). This value was 52 % higher than obtained in batch operation.     

Activity-Based Environmental Inventory Allocation

This article presents a generic method to assist product and process designers in measuring resource use and environmental discharges based on the relationships between process flow inputs and outputs and their activity levels. It combines activity-based costing from conventional accounting with life-cycle inventories. The method is demonstrated on four electronic assembly product and process designs. The demonstration exhibits the disaggregation and allocation of costs and effluents from various manufacturing operations. This activity-based environmental allocation approach may be integrated with inventory analysis-the first step in full and streamlined life-cycle assessments, design for environment evaluation methods, environmental management activities, and new production planning models that consider environmental impacts.     

Application of a simple unstructured kinetic and cost of goods models to support T-cell therapy manufacture

Manufacturing of cell therapy products requires sufficient understanding of the cell culture variables and associated mechanisms for adequate control and risk analysis. The aim of this study was to apply an unstructured ordinary differential equation-based model for prediction of T-cell bioprocess outcomes as a function of process input parameters. A series of models were developed to represent the growth of T-cells as a function of time, culture volumes, cell densities, and glucose concentration using data from the Ambr®15 stirred bioreactor system. The models were sufficiently representative of the process to predict the glucose and volume provision required to maintain cell growth rate and quantitatively defined the relationship between glucose concentration, cell growth rate, and glucose utilization rate. The models demonstrated that although glucose is a limiting factor in batch supplied medium, a delivery rate of glucose at significantly less than the maximal specific consumption rate (0.05 mg 1 × 10⁶ cell h⁻¹) will adequately sustain cell growth due to a lower glucose Monod constant determining glucose consumption rate relative to the glucose Monod constant determining cell growth rate. The resultant volume and exchange requirements were used as inputs to an operational BioSolve cost model to suggest a cost-effective T-cell manufacturing process with minimum cost of goods per million cells produced and optimal volumetric productivity in a manufacturing settings. These findings highlight the potential of a simple unstructured model of T-cell growth in a stirred tank system to provide a framework for control and optimization of bioprocesses for manufacture.     

Chimeric antigen receptor–T cell therapy manufacturing: modelling the effect of offshore production on aggregate cost of goods

Cell and gene therapies have demonstrated excellent clinical results across a range of indications with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)–T cell therapies among the first to reach market. Although these therapies are currently manufactured using patient-derived cells, therapies using healthy donor cells are in development, potentially offering avenues toward process improvement and patient access. An allogeneic model could significantly reduce aggregate cost of goods (COGs), potentially improving market penetration of these life-saving treatments. Furthermore, the shift toward offshore production may help reduce manufacturing costs. In this article, we examine production costs of an allogeneic CAR-T cell process and the potential differential manufacturing costs between regions. Two offshore locations are compared with regions within the United States. The critical findings of this article identify the COGs challenges facing manufacturing of allogeneic CAR-T immunotherapies, how these may evolve as production is sent offshore and the wider implication this trend could have.     

Optimal control of antagonistic muscles

Recently, a model for a pair of antogonistic muscles has been studied (O?uztöreli and Stein, 1982). In the present paper we formulate and investigate the minimization of the costs associated with the time to complete the movement, the oscillation about the end-point, the energy costs to the muscles to complete the movement, the cost to the nervous system to supply the inputs, and the cost of reliability in the face of perturbing forces. To solve these optimization problems the maximum principle of Pontryagin is employed. In all of these optimization problems, except the energy optimal problem, the optimal controls (active states or nervous inputs) are of the bang-bang type.     

The Role of Scale and Technology Maturity in Life Cycle Assessment of Emerging Technologies: A Case Study on Carbon Nanotubes

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been applied for assessing emerging technologies, where large‐scale production data are generally lacking. This study introduces a standardized scheme for technology and manufacturing readiness levels to contextualize a technology's development stage. We applied the scheme to a carbon nanotube (CNT) LCA and found that, regardless of synthesis technique, CNT manufacturing will become less energy intensive with increased levels of readiness. We examined the influence of production volume on LCA results using primary data from a commercial CNT manufacturer with approximately 100 grams per day production volume and engineering design of a scaled‐up process with 1 tonne per day production capacity. The results show that scaling up could reduce 84% to 94% of its cradle‐to‐gate impacts, mainly as a result of the recycling of feedstock that becomes economically viable only beyond certain minimum production volume. This study shows that LCAs on emerging technologies based on immature data should be interpreted in conjunction with their technology and manufacturing readiness levels and reinforces the need of standardizing and communicating information on these readiness levels and scale of production in life cycle inventory practices.