Orbit-simulator for downstream processes

Abstract: In an ever more digitilized society, the transition is palpable also in the pharmaceutical industry. The control system Orbit was developed at the department of chemical engineering at Lund University, to be able to automate downstream processes based on the ÄKTA-system. The control system has a built-in simulator, enabling the user to run simulated experiments instead of actual physical experiments. The aim of this master thesis was to extend the amount of models within the simulator, allowing for more chromatography types and membranes, but also processes with multiple unit operations to be simulated. Models for IEX, SEC, HIC, and AC were implemented into the simulator. Also, a LRMFT modeling approach was added and compared to the already implemented LRM approach. An attempt to implement a UFDF model was also made, but with no success. Further on, a two column process was simulated. Lastly, a calibration method was developed and a parameter estimation for a single column, and a multiple column process was conducted. The results suggest it to be possible to simulate the added models. The LRMFT modeling approach was, however, found to overestimate the adsorption, and no reason to why was found within the time frame of this master thesis. Further on, it was not possible to simulate membranes, due to every connected stream being interpreted as an outgoing stream by the simulator. The results from the two column process suggest it to be possible to simulate multiple columns within the same process. The parameter estimation indicated it to be possible to estimate parameters in single and multiple columns within the same process, however the robustness of the calibration method should be increased. For any future work, the models should be validated against experimental data.