The Centre for Process Innovation The Centre for Process Innovation From innovation to commercialisation The future inspired...
The High Value Manufacturing Catapult is a partnership between industry and government, which is a catalyst for the future growth and success of manufacturing in the UK. Its long-term goal is to stimulate growth in the manufacturing sector and grow the sector s contribution to UK GDP to a level more commensurate with that of competitor economies. It does this by helping businesses accelerate new concepts (often started in research institutions) to commercial reality (where they can be funded through market sources). In doing so, the Catapult reduces companies risk in innovation, and it enables the UK to address market needs in key areas, making the country more competitive on the global stage. The High Value Manufacturing Catapult combines the strengths of seven UK technology and innovation centres, each focusing on major underpinning manufacturing technologies. The Catapult brings these centres together to develop cross sector manufacturing capabilities, which can span from raw materials to finished processes. It also enables innovation to cut across sectors by bringing together businesses from diverse industries and giving them access to a pool of world-class expertise, equipment and processes invested and supported by UK government.
The Centre for Process Innovation From innovation to commercialisation The Centre for Process Innovation is the UK s national technology and innovation centre to serve and support the process manufacturing industries. We are chosen by key industry leaders and SMEs to develop, prove, prototype and scale up the next generation of products and processes. We work across a range of technology platforms, each of which have the potential to generate a substantial impact on the future of manufacturing. We provide product and process development facilities and expertise in industrial biotechnology and biorefining, formulation and flexible manufacturing, printable electronics and biologics with the overall aim of creating less waste, cleaner, more efficient and more economic products and processes. Our open innovation model enables our clients to develop products and prove processes with minimal risk. We provide assets and expertise so our customers can demonstrate the process and prove it is feasible before investing substantial amounts of money in capital equipment and training. New products and processes can be proven; on paper, in the lab and in the plant before being manufactured at an industrial scale. By utilising our proven assets and expertise companies can take their products and processes to market faster. There is no down time in production as all of the process development is completed off-line. Better Products, Faster We help our clients to produce better products with increased quality and performance. We can create processes with higher yields and reduced manufacturing time with faster conversion of raw materials or feedstock to product. Low Cost, Low Waste Manufacturing We enable companies to decrease capital and manufacturing costs by facilitating batch to continuous processes, increased automation and reduced manufacturing time. We help reduce and reuse wastes, utilise natural materials and decrease reliance on fossil fuels.
Our Services What we offer CPI s experienced team will help guide you from concept to finished product. Our scientists, engineers and business managers are able to trial clients processes in CPI s state of the art facilities, taking projects from early concept work through to robust manufacturing process packages and products. We are delighted to work side by side with our clients to help them overcome the challenges of commercialising their products and processes.
Product and Process Development CPI helps organisations of all sizes to develop products and processes quickly and cost effectively with minimal risk. Clients can work with CPI s specialist teams in our open access facilities to test, develop and prove products and processes. Our rapidly reconfigurable facilities enable the design of bespoke projects to suit clients needs. With significant investments made into process, analytical, development and prototyping facilities we offer a range of custom packages for companies looking to develop or improve products and processes. We understand that embarking on process or technology development can be a significant commitment and we work closely with clients to maximise the opportunity of technical and economic success. Prototyping, Demonstration and Scale Up At CPI we have the ability to scale a range of products and processes across our core technology platforms. We understand scaling factors and discrete activities are minimised and managed to de-risk the process to deliver a fully proven system, with robust cost effective manufacturing the goal. CPI combines unique testing and scale-up facilities with practical experience and applied knowledge of science, engineering and economics. Our facilities contain flexible lab to pilot scale equipment sets and allow clients to integrate their own apparatus to evaluate and develop products and processes. Our scale up activities allow the best routes to be identified before making significant investment in equipment.
Pilot Production CPI s facilities often offer the option of small scale pilot production allowing our customers to produce a volume of product for investment and demonstration purposes. CPI offers proof of concept programmes resulting in small scale production, along with economic assessment and scale up packages. Our technology transfer teams can assist in transferring new technologies and processes into existing or new manufacturing plants. Feedstock and Materials Investigation CPI can assess feedstock and materials to see how they can be utilised to create new products. We can also perform the upfront engineering to have a handle on final operational costs and through the use of life cycle assessments we can confirm the benefits of using these new materials. CPI has the resources to confirm the volumes and amounts of material globally available for use and assess the long term security of that supply. CPI can provide analysis of: Security of supply Closed loop systems Alternative feedstock Novel process technologies Use of by/co products Supply chain assessment
Manufacturability, Process Modelling and Simulation Using state of the art tools and techniques, our experienced engineers will provide quantitative estimates of your product or process costs. We identify scale-up issues very early using your experimental data, and can suggest alternatives which may change the direction of fundamental research programmes. We estimate economic viability and calculate if yield improvements from process improvements and optimisation are likely. This makes the money you spend on R&D work harder, and helps you and your investors commercialise your process and realise returns faster. CPI has extensive knowledge and experience in strategic assessment and vision of future product and process technologies. We can help to guide your development programmes into a long term strategic direction keeping you ahead of the competition and secure strong IP positions. Economic Evaluation, Life Cycle Analysis and Process Economics Getting the business case correct can be the most challenging part of beginning any new project. Our team is here to assist you in evaluating the techno-economics of a programme, from the identification of a costeffective starting material, to the most efficient process route, cost of operation and an estimate of capital expenditure required. Life cycle analysis can be carried out to determine the environmental impact throughout the lifetime of a product; from starting raw material, right through to eventual disposal and recycling. A life cycle analysis provides a valuable input into process design optimisation, help you to reduce costs and support your business strategy effectively.
Identification and Engagement of Key Collaborators With an in-depth understanding and knowledge of the current UK political and technological landscape, CPI is well placed to identify and approach key collaborators or help secure a place within a consortium to work on innovative projects. Collaboration can have numerous benefits for your program, including access to technology, licensing of IP, increasing know-how and decreasing time to market. Our national and international network of companies can be harnessed to find you the best partners and collaborators to add value to your projects. Commercialisation Support and Incubator Space CPI offers business support services aimed at addressing issues faced by early-stage companies and SMEs wishing to develop new products and access new markets. We are able to assist with identifying funding from a range of sources, including UK government, European Union and other grants and voucher schemes. CPI houses a number of cutting edge fully integrated technology incubators. We offer pilot plants, specialist laboratories and office space to enable fledgling companies to develop new products and processes while reducing peripheral start-up costs, such as provision of industrial services and purchase of general laboratory equipment and raw materials.
Technologies Our areas of expertise We work across a range of technology platforms, each of which have the potential to generate a substantial impact on the future of manufacturing. We provide product and process development facilities and expertise in; Industrial Biotechnology and Biorefining Formulation and Flexible Manufacturing Printable Electronics Biologics Our work in these key focus areas have the overall aim of creating less waste, cleaner, more efficient and more economic products and processes.
Industrial Biotechnology and Biorefining Enabling new bio-based products CPI provides assets and resources to support innovation in Industrial Biotechnology and Biorefining. Through our range of technology development services and our Industrial Biotechnology facilities, we help our clients to derisk process development and provide proof-of-concept testing at scale. Our core competency lies in assisting in the development of novel bio-based concepts into robust and economic processes using our stateof-the-art industrial biotechnology facility. From initial program scoping and planning through to techno-economic modeling, process demonstration and scale-up, we have a range of services to help you commercialise your ideas and bring them to market faster. To date we have received significant investments to develop assets and resources. This ongoing financial commitment has resulted in an innovative and fast growing organisation with the international reach, operational capabilities and financial stability to give our clients confidence and security. We have the capability to deliver both in-depth development programmes using our range of technology development services as well as less complex projects with a simple goal. CPI is currently working with world leading companies in utilising waste streams for the production of chemicals and energy. These technologies have the potential to transform the economic landscape of chemical manufacture both in the UK and further afield. CPI has on-going programs within the following four biorefining themes, the aim of which is to produce chemicals from renewable sources, in turn reducing reliance on fossil fuel feedstocks.
Generation and Delivery of C1 Gases into Fermentation Systems Gas fermentation is of increasing commercial interest as a process technology. It offers a novel approach to the conversion of biomass to biofuels and bio-based chemicals. Generation and Delivery of Sugars into Fermentation Systems Fermentation of sugars is a key technology in the production of liquid biofuels such as ethanol and butanol plus a large number of platform and specialty chemicals. Fractionation and Extraction of Products from Renewable Resources Biomass extraction offers considerable potential for the future as biorefining technology, providing higher added values for each of the components in the new and emerging bioeconomy markets. Process Development in Anaerobic Digestion Many forms of biomass are suitable for conversion to energy using anaerobic digestion; biogenic wastes such as food waste, animal slurries and manures, energy crops and a wide variety of food crop residues.
Printable Electronics New, innovative electronic applications of the future CPI offers world class, open access capability for the scale up and commercialisation of new, innovative printed electronic products and applications. Our facilities and expertise provide clients with the environment to understand how their products and processes perform under manufacturing conditions, accelerating their commercial realisation. CPI focuses on the integration and manufacturing of new innovative electronic devices, developing the technologies that will drive the manufacturing process forward. These new processes, including the printing of electronic functionality open up a host of design opportunities and will lead to the creation of a range of future electronic applications in key market sectors such as print and packaging, healthcare, built environment, automotive and aerospace. The integration of electronics with flexible form factors increases the freedom for product designers to embed technology and functionality into their designs, creating the opportunity for new, innovative components that are wireless, smarter, interactive, conformable, thinner, lightweight, rugged and able to blend into our surrounding environment. These new ways of manufacturing electronics will give rise to a wide range of new, novel applications such as flexible displays for mobile devices, smart therapeutic bandages for managing and monitoring recovery of wounds, wearable electronics for monitoring and improving performance, wireless medical devices for rapid diagnostics using printed sensors, conformable lighting and intelligent packaging for consumer goods and industrial products, to name but a few. CPI is also working with its extensive networks of partners to develop new techniques and processes that will overcome some of the innovation challenges in printable electronics such as the need for low cost ultra barriers.
Ink Formulation and Integration CPI have significant experience in developing formulations of active materials for solution processed organic thin film transistor (OTFT) arrays. This technology has the potential to make very thin and ultra-flexible display backplanes, capable of driving reflective or emissive e-paper or OLED displays and other components. Our trained staff and advanced facilities are ideal for prototyping display backplanes at up to 370 x 470 mm substrate size. CPI has also developed high performance OSC formulations for use in OTFT devices. Integrated Smart Systems Integrated smart systems are intelligent circuits produced by the integration of traditional printing processes and electronic functionality. CPI s open access facilities allow clients to print intelligent circuits in a standard print environment with the ability to trial, validate and optimise speciality and conductive inks. Barrier and Vacuum Processing CPI has extensive experience in the deposition and characterisation of barrier layers. It offers access to a wide variety of thin-film deposition systems; including batch and continuous atomic layer deposition (ALD), roll to roll sputtering and a range of other sputtering and vacuum coating technologies. Optoelectronics CPI has comprehensive capability to support the development and production of both organic light emitting diode (OLED) and organic photovoltaic (OPV) technologies. Offering a versatile equipment set, CPI allows customers to scale up their products and processes from feasibility proof of concepts at small scale, through to batch pilot production and finally to roll to roll pilot manufacturing.
Formulation and Flexible Manufacturing Superior product performance with reduced raw materials CPI provides expertise to support and develop innovations in formulation and flexible manufacturing. Our skilled team of scientists and sector specialists help companies of all sizes to develop and improve their formulation offer. We can also explore alternatives to traditional processing techniques to deliver precisely controlled, resource-efficient manufacturing processes. CPI combines unique open access facilities with practical experience to enable companies to develop and optimise their products. Our services are customised to meet your needs wherever you are in the development process. We work side by side with our clients to help overcome challenges faced in current formulation development. Our extensive industry experience means that we are able to make recommendations accordingly in order to achieve the best possible outcome. CPI delivers optimised dispersion of active ingredients in liquids, films and bulk solids via fundamental understanding of the underlying chemistry together with the application of innovative mix technology and minimised inventory reaction processing. Precise reaction control and optimised dispersion enables superior product performance and reduced raw material usage. Formulation CPI has improved customer formulations in applications ranging from coatings and inks and heat transfer fluids, to pharmaceuticals, especially
those products containing nano and meso scale particulate active species. With a range of mix environments which are customised to purpose, we have delivered exceptionally stable monodisperse particles with controlled morphology. Low shear oscillatory baffle technology has successfully grown crystals of controlled morphology and size including co-crystals. Unique ultra high shear stator rotor technology has been used to create optimised dispersions of metal particulates such as silver and gold, as well as organic and inorganic nano-pigments for application in coatings and inks as well as personal care products. Precision Processing have been proved using advanced flow micro reactor technology which have been proven to reduce capital costs and waste while improving efficiency by up to 60%. In addition, unique in-line process control has been applied to pharmaceutical intermediate reactions to deliver precise control within the micro reactor environment. Integrated Approach Operating on an open access basis, CPI takes an integrated approach to product development. We provide access to both applications and leading edge characterisation resource to help our clients better understand their products and improve performance in application. CPI has successfully assisted customers to convert their processes from batch to continuous operation. Processes as complex as three phase hydrogenation within fine chemical manufacture
Biologics Enabling innovation in biologics CPI provides assets and resources to support innovations in biologics. By utilising our state of the art facilities and in house biologics expertise, we help our clients to de-risk process development and provide proof of concept testing at scale to fast-track the commercialisation of new products, and process technologies. Our skilled team of scientists, engineers and sector specialists can help companies of all sizes to develop, demonstrate, prototype and scale up innovations that could be beneficial to biologics manufacture and provision. From initial programme scoping and planning through to process demonstration and scale-up we have a range of services which can be tailored to meet your needs. Collaboration with CPI will enable the biopharmaceutical industry to capitalise on its strong research and development pipeline and make more therapies available for unmet clinical needs. We support the commercialisation of research by promoting collaboration with industry across the supply chain from research through to manufacture and clinic. CPI can help commercialise your ideas and take them to market faster and with minimal risk. Our services are built around each of the following themes: Developing and de-risking new process technologies CPI can help organisations to adopt innovative technologies by demonstrating they are fit for purpose and benchmark performance against existing technologies on live process streams.
Rapid process development tools and techniques for current and next generation biologics Determination of manufacturability at an early stage is an important step in selecting clinical candidates. CPI uses existing analytical and robotic technologies to enable rapid process development. Formulation, fill and finish Formulation of drug substance, filling into vials and lyophilisation can be problematic leading to quality failures. CPI is developing rapid formability screens using current and next generation analytical technologies that will enable analysis much earlier in the development process. In addition, we have the facilities to assess new and innovative filling process technologies on site. Process Analytical Technologies in down stream processing of biologics. CPI has the facilities and expertise to develop and de-risk these technologies. Supply chain alignment with the future needs of healthcare providers The provision of medicines is changing from one size fits all therapies to a personalised approach. The current supply chain is not aligned with these changing needs, however CPI is equipped to help organisations to develop process technologies and facilities to meet the needs of the new supply chain. Workforce training and development CPI supports training initiatives being developed by external organisations, but specifically we are equipped to train manufacturing personnel in hands on process operations as well as providing training for users of newly developed technologies. Whilst there have been advances in bench top analytical technologies there has been little development in on line measurements, particularly
To find out more about our full range of services visit: www.uk-cpi.com call: +44 (0)1642 455 340 Industrial Biotechnology and Biorefining Printable Electronics Formulation and Flexible Manufacturing Biologics Centre for Process Innovation Wilton Centre, Wilton, Redcar, Cleveland, United Kingdom, TS10 4RF T: +44 (0)1642 455 340 F: +44 (0)1642 447 298 E: info@uk-cpi.com W: www.uk-cpi.com