ABEC launches TFF system it says can triple productivity

ABEC claims its Tangential Flow Filtration (TFF) system offers the largest flow rates and filter areas in the industry in a single-use format.

ABEC’s Custom Single Run (CSR) Tangential Flow Filtration (TFF) systems were announced this week as an effort to increase downstream productivity for its bioprocess customers.

According to the firm, the CSR TFF achieves flow rates greater than 240 liters per minute across cassette-type filter areas up to 40m², effectively matching levels seen in stainless steel systems, tripling the levels currently available for single-use TFF.

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“Other single use TFF systems use flexible single use tubing, which is inherently restricted to lower flow rates in order to avoid bursting,” Brady Cole, VP of Equipment Solutions at ABEC told this publication.

“The high flow rates result in much shorter process times to achieve high product concentrations, so batch turnaround is faster and productivity is higher.”

The systems, which are being marketed for the commercial-scale ultrafiltration/diafiltration (UF/DF) of monoclonal antibody manufacturing specifically, are the latest offerings from the bioprocess vendor, which has often gone beyond the expected productivity limits within the industry. For example, the firm offers a range of single-use bioreactors beyond the standard 2,000 L upper limit with its largest – the 7,500 L Custom Single Run (CSR) bioreactor – boasting working volumes up to 6,000 L.

“It is consistent with ABEC’s leadership in bringing productivity and economies of scale to single use processing,” said Cole.

“Similar to our CSR bioreactors and fermenters, we identified large-scale single use TFF as a market need for next generation manufacturing facilities that are leveraging the cost and flexibility benefits of single use while also achieving high productivity (metric tons of annual output) and low cost of goods.”

In related news, ABEC will design, manufacture, and install CSR single-use microbial fermentation systems with working volumes up to 1,000 liters at contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Biovectra’s facility in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada. The equipment is expected to be operational by the second quarter next year.