Understanding Process Intensification

In biomanufacturing, innovation isn’t just about creating new therapies—it’s about delivering them faster, smarter, and more sustainably.

As demand grows for diverse biologic products, from mRNA vaccines to cell therapies, the biotech industry faces a pivotal challenge: scaling production without inflating costs or compromising quality.

Enter process intensification (PI), an approach that enhances efficiency, minimizes resource use, and reduces environmental impact (Ramírez-Márquez et al., 2023).

What is Process Intensification (PI)?

Process Intensification (PI) is an engineering strategy for enhancing manufacturing processes. By redesigning equipment and workflows, PI seeks to increase energy efficiency, optimize resource use, and reduce costs while maintaining or improving product quality. According to Stankiewicz and Moulijn (2000), it involves developing novel apparatus and techniques that significantly reduce equipment size, energy consumption, and waste generation.

Originally developed in the chemical industry, PI has become essential in the biomanufacturing industry.

At Stämm, we view PI as a concept and a guiding principle, driving innovations like the Bioprocessor, a continuous bioreactor for scaling biologics and cell therapies. Let’s dive into three key pillars of PI and how we apply them to reshape biomanufacturing.

How PI cuts timelines in biomanufacturing

Speed is critical in biomanufacturing, especially when producing life-saving therapies for rare diseases. Process intensification accelerates timelines by reimagining traditional workflows. High-throughput tools, such as our multi-parallel bioreactor systems, drastically reduce R&D timelines by optimizing conditions faster.

Microfluidic systems with industrial applications also play a role in shrinking timelines. These systems streamline production while reducing energy demands by offering precise control over conditions and achieving higher reaction efficiencies (Keil, 2018). By enabling faster reaction times and better resource management, microfluidic systems encapsulate the essence of PI: achieving more with less. Their ability to streamline production aligns with PI’s goal of making processes not only quicker but also more sustainable and adaptable.

For example, single-use technologies, such as our bubble-free bioreactors inside the Bioprocessor, further aid process intensification by eliminating the cleaning requirements of stainless-steel systems, enabling rapid changeovers and shorter production cycles.

PI’s ability to combine increased throughput with reduced resource use creates a compelling case for adoption. By reducing the use of natural resources and increasing efficiency, these strategies help meet market needs without sacrificing the sustainability focus needed today.

Increasing biomanufacturing output with fewer resources

Traditional processes in biomanufacturing often reach efficiency limits. PI aims to break these barriers by combining innovative systems with engineering practices that reduce resource consumption while maximizing throughput. This in turn makes the processes more sustainable.

There are different approaches to achieving PI, it can be anything from partial process improvements to new methods and technology. Stämm’s Bioprocessors combine advanced technologies, process integrations, and bioprocess understanding to serve the industry with a new approach to biomanufacturing. Some key process intensification strategies applied are:

• A 3D-printed bioreactor in single-use biocompatible resin replaces the traditional bioreactor stirred tank. This allows the size and surface-to-volume ratio of the device to be customized according to production needs.
• This also eliminates the need for sparging systems and oxygen introduction as oxygen distributes and removes carbon dioxide without spargers. This enables process intensification by providing a stress-free, bubble-free environment for cell growth with improved cell line stability.
• Turbulent flow is replaced by a steady laminar continuous flow with uniform velocity and nutrient distribution, resulting in a more predictable and homogenized fluid movement.
• Stamm’s Bioprocessor integrates multiple bioprocess steps into an integrated unit, reducing footprint and human dependency.

All of these factors improve productivity in the processing of biologics and cell therapies by reducing overall application costs, speeding deployment and production, increasing productivity, and reducing time to market.

The future of biomanufacturing: smarter, scalable, sustainable

Process intensification isn’t just about innovation—it’s about creating smarter, more sustainable biomanufacturing solutions. By combining efficiency with environmental responsibility, PI improves how therapies are produced, delivering benefits across productivity, timelines, resource use, and footprints.

At Stämm, we view process intensification as a pillar for reshaping biotech. Our Bioprocessor exemplifies how PI principles can transform biomanufacturing. 

We are transforming biomanufacturing to accelerate life-changing therapies, with flexible, future-ready facilities that meet the evolving needs of our clients and improve global health.

References

– Keil, F. J. (2018). Process intensification. Reviews in Chemical Engineering, 34(2), 135–200. https://doi.org/10.1515/revce-2017-0085

– Segovia-Hernández, J. G., Hernández, S., Cossío-Vargas, E., & Sánchez-Ramírez, E. (2023). Challenges and opportunities in process intensification to achieve the UN’s 2030 agenda: Goals 6, 7, 9, 12, and 13. -Chemical Engineering and Processing – Process Intensification, 192, 109507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cep.2023.109507

– Ramírez-Márquez, C., Al-Thubaiti, M. M., Martín, M., El-Halwagi, M. M., & Ponce-Ortega, J. M. (2023). Process intensification for sustainability and innovation. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 62(6), 2428–2443. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.2c04305

– Sartorius. (n.d.). Process intensification: Key considerations and expert insights. Retrieved from https://www.sartorius.com/en/knowledge/science-snippets/reducing-footprint-with-bioprocess-intensification-929698

– Stankiewicz, A., & Moulijn, J. A. (2000). Process intensification: Transforming chemical engineering. Chemical Engineering Progress, 96(1), 22–33.