che_november-2023 - 6

Precise degradation control is key to
advanced bioresorbable polymers
Ashland
B
ioresorbable polymers - those that degrade
naturally over time and can be absorbed by the
body - are essential for delivering a number of
advanced biomedical technologies to patients,
including long-acting injectable or implanted products,
regenerative scaffolds, degradable medical devices, dermal
fillers and drug products with highly sensitive ingredients,
such as mRNA. Ashland Inc. (Wilmington, Del.;
www.ashland.com) has developed proprietary production
and purification processes for a new line of bioresorbable
polymers (photo), Viatel ultrapure (poly-D,L-lactide-coglycolide/poly-D,L-lactide).
This scalable process enables
a more neutral pH environment during production when
compared to traditional Viatel grades, which significantly
decreases the amount of residual acidic monomers and
overall acidity over time, a significant benefit for the production
of acid-sensitive drug ingredients. The removal
of residual monomers results in a more consistent rate
of water uptake and improved degradation kinetics. Furthermore,
the neutralized production environment means
that polymer-degradation behavior - crucial to the performance
of bioresorbable products - is more consistent
and controllable.
According to Ashland, the higher purity achieved by the
new Viatel ultrapure process, when compared to other
bioresorbable products, leads to a prolonged structural
integrity, meaning that products formulated with the materials
exhibit more consistent drug-release profiles as the
polymer breaks down. " This means that chemists can
tested a wide variety of methods from filters
to absorbers to exotic systems involving
plasma, a practical solution to managing
these tars has remained elusive.
Last month, Frontline BioEnergy LLC
(Nevada, Iowa; frontlinebioenergy.com)
said that it achieved a breakthrough in syngas
quality for biomass gasification at its
new pilot facility located in Nevada, Iowa.
The company's TarFreeGas technology
achieved the ultimate goal of biomass gasification:
ultra-clean biomass-derived syngas.
" We were thrilled when our results began to
show non-detectable levels of all tars leaving
the catalytic gas converter, " says T. J. Paskach,
Frontline's chief technology officer.
TarFreeGas utilizes a pressurized (up to
10 bars) reactor containing a fluidized bed
of sand and can operate with either air and
steam or pure oxygen and steam. TarFreeGas
causes tar levels up to 99% lower
than traditional fluidized-bed gasifiers, the
company says.
MEMBRANES
Osmoses (osmoses.com), a spinoff of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT;
both Cambridge, Mass.; www.mit.edu), has
raised an oversubscribed $11-million seed
round led by Energy Capital Ventures. Os(Continues
on p. 8)
6
predict or program the
chemistry to degrade
and break down over
a set period of time.
This set of properties
allows formulators
to take their drug
molecule, incorporate
it within a polymer
depot, deliver that
depot into the patient
and then allow the
depot to slowly break
down over time. The
advantage is that you
can sustain release
over several weeks or
months, based on the
programmable polymer
chemistry that
Ashland provides, " says Sean McMahon, business development
manager at Ashland. A particular area where this
type of tunability is especially advantageous is in treating
tumors, because the treatment must be potent enough
to destroy or disrupt the tumor site, but precisely targeted
so that it does not cause adverse effects to nearby tissues.
The Viatel ultrapure technology was introduced in
October at the American Association of Pharmaceutical
Scientists' PharmaSci 360 event in Orlando, Fla.
Closed-loop CO2-based energy-storage
system slated for Wisconsin
A
lliant Energy (Madison, Wis.;
www.alliantenergy.com) was
recently selected to receive
a $30-million grant from
the U.S. Dept. of Energy's Office of
Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED;
Washington, D.C.; www.energy.gov/
oced) for a proposed 200-MWh energy
storage system. Alliant Energy's
new battery system, known as the Columbia
Energy Storage Project, would
be the first-of-its-kind in the U.S.
The Columbia Energy Storage
Project would utilize an innovative
design by Energy Dome S.p.A.
(Milan, Italy; www.energydome.
com) to deliver 10 h of energy-storage
capacity by compressing carbon
dioxide gas into a liquid. When
that energy is needed, the system
converts the liquid CO2 back to a
gas, which powers a turbine to create
electricity. By storing the CO2
in the liquid phase at ambient temperature,
Energy Dome is able to reduce
the typical storage costs associated
with compressed-air energy
storage, without having to deal with
cryogenic temperatures associated
with liquid-air energy storage, the
company says. The first commercial
demonstration facility of the CO2
Battery - a 4-MWh system located
in Sardinia, Italy - was launched in
June 2022.
Development of the Columbia Energy
Storage Project is being led by
Alliant Energy in partnership with
WEC Energy Group, Madison Gas
and Electric, Shell Global Solutions
U.S., the Electric Power Research
Institute, the University of Wisconsin
at Madison and Madison College.
The facility will be built south of
Portage, Wis. in the town of Pacific,
near the current Columbia Energy
Center. Alliant Energy expects to
submit project plans to the Wisconsin
Public Service Commission in the
first half of 2024. Pending approval,
project construction could begin in
2025 with completion in 2026.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
NOVEMBER 2023
http://www.ashland.com http://www.alliantenergy.com http://www.frontlinebioenergy.com http://www.energy.gov/ http://www.energydome.com http://www.osmoses.com http://www.mit.edu http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
che_november-2023

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