Bluemel O, Pavlišič A, Likozar B, Rodrigues MA, Geraldes V, Bechtold-Peters K, Friess W. Computational Fluid Dynamic Simulations of Temperature,
Cryoconcentration, and Stress Time during Large-Scale Freezing and Thawing of Monoclonal Antibody Solutions.
Eur J Pharm Biopharm 2022;
177:107-112. [PMID:
35764219 DOI:
10.1016/j.ejpb.2022.06.007]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2022] [Revised: 05/24/2022] [Accepted: 06/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE
Large-scale freezing and thawing experiments of monoclonal antibody (mAb) solutions are time and material consuming. Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) modeling of temperature, solute composition as well as the stress time, defined as the time between start of freezing and reaching Tg' at any point in the container, could be a promising approach to ease and speed up process development.
METHODS
Temperature profiles at six positions were recorded during freezing and thawing of a 2L rectangular bottle and compared to CFD simulations via OpenFOAM. Furthermore, cryoconcentration upon freezing and concentration gradients upon thawing of a mAb solution were predicted and the stress time calculated.
RESULTS
Temperature profiles during freezing were accurately matched by the CFD simulation. Thawing time was only 45min to 60 min longer in the model. The macroscopic cryoconcentration of the mAb was also matched by the simulation; only a highly concentrated region in the top and a diluted core in the geometrical centre of the 2 L bottle were not well reflected in the simulation. The concentration gradient after thawing obtained by simulation as well agreed with the experimental result. In addition, CFD simulations allowed to extract the global temperature distribution, the formation of ice, and thus the distribution of stress in the freezing liquid.
CONCLUSION
CFD simulations via OpenFOAM are a promising tool to describe large-scale freezing and thawing of mAb solutions and can help to generate a deeper understanding and to improve testing of the robustness of the processes.
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