Project number
21087
Organization
Sandia National Laboratories
Academic year
2020-2021
Project Goal: Simulate on an industrial scale the manufacturing and distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Producing and distributing as many vaccine doses as possible is critical to ending the spread of the coronavirus. This project simulates the chemical engineering process for production and distribution of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine BNT162b2, which is produced by Pfizer and BioNTech, and suggests the best model for production configuration.
To determine the best configuration in terms of cost, safety and environmental impact, the project analyzed manufacturing information released by Pfizer. This resulted in a model for scaled-up industrial equipment such as bioreactors, filtration systems, storage tanks and freezers.
The team carefully considered benefits and drawbacks of multiple configurations and found that the optimal model involved fitting disposable bioreactors to the manufacturing process and having one centrally located plant.
Producing and distributing as many vaccine doses as possible is critical to ending the spread of the coronavirus. This project simulates the chemical engineering process for production and distribution of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine BNT162b2, which is produced by Pfizer and BioNTech, and suggests the best model for production configuration.
To determine the best configuration in terms of cost, safety and environmental impact, the project analyzed manufacturing information released by Pfizer. This resulted in a model for scaled-up industrial equipment such as bioreactors, filtration systems, storage tanks and freezers.
The team carefully considered benefits and drawbacks of multiple configurations and found that the optimal model involved fitting disposable bioreactors to the manufacturing process and having one centrally located plant.