Technology
Continuous Flow
Continuous Flow is an advanced manufacturing method that lowers costs, increases speed, and improves safety and quality.
The continuous flow process allows materials to seamlessly move through linked reactors, as the output from one step flows into the input of the next. As materials mix in the reactor, components can be repeatedly added without disrupting the sustained production of a high-quality final product. This versatile, reliable, and scalable design allows for large quantities of products to be produced in small spaces and in rapid time.
“The age of batch manufacturing is over.”
The pharmaceutical industry has been wed to batch techniques for far too long. The batch approach requires large vats to languidly stir materials for hours or days in massive facilities. Due to high costs and mounting environmental impacts, batch manufacturers have turned to foreign countries for cheap land, cost-effective labor, and minimal regulatory oversight. Our collective reliance on batch manufacturing has had harmful consequences on the environment and has entrenched our reliance on China and India. Continuous flow platforms allow Bright Path to reshore America’s pharmaceutical manufacturing.
STT Reactor™
Our patented Spinning-Tube-in-Tube (STT) Reactor lies at the heart of our manufacturing process.
The STT is compact, scalable, and can produce large quantities of material in short time intervals. As materials flow through our production platform, the STT reactor synthesizes them into usable molecules.
The STT is composed of a center cylinder that sits snugly in an outer tube, much like a pen and its cap. As materials continuously flow through a small fluid gap between the cylinder and the outer tube, the cylinder rapidly spins. This increases mass and heat transfer and allows the chemicals to mix incredibly efficiently, resulting in greater active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) quality and purity.
- Artificial-intelligence-enabled in-line infrared spectroscopy allows for the collection of valuable, real-time data that improves reaction efficiency. This enables our scientists to exercise tight control over reactions from start to finish.
- The heightened efficiency of the STT reactor permits Bright Path’s scientists to circumvent the inclusion of harmful additives – mainly toxic catalysts and hazardous solvents – that are commonplace in batch approaches.
Sustainability
Since our beginnings, Bright Path has been guided by an approach that safeguards, rather than denigrates, the environment.
Our advanced continuous flow technology has its roots in a collaborative Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) research project that aimed to align artificial chemical synthesis with the principles of “Green Chemistry.” The primary goal of Green Chemistry is to develop chemical pathways that are efficient, direct, and sustainable.
At Bright Path, we implement Green Chemistry strategies and techniques wherever possible:
- We carefully design our chemical pathways to use only essential materials
- We implement rigorous process intensification to reduce steps
- We proactively avoid the inclusion of dangerous additives
- We always mitigate the generation of excess waste
To quantitatively assess our sustainability, Bright Path utilizes the EPA’s GREENSCOPE (Gauging Reaction Effectiveness for the Environmental Sustainability of Chemistries with a multi- Objective Process Evaluator) assessment tool to evaluate our chemical processes and designs.
Our commitment to the environment extends far beyond the molecular level.
While Green Chemistry is focused on chemical pollution prevention, Bright Path’s approach has several sustainable impacts throughout the material life cycle and supply chain.
- Smaller Physical Footprint
By performing manufacturing in small facilities, we vastly reduce our physical and carbon footprints. For each unit of machinery we eliminate, we slash emissions, reduce overall cost, decrease utility, energy, and water needs, and lessen the likelihood of hazardous spillover into the environment. - Less Strain When Sourcing Materials
By carefully designing direct chemical processes through process intensification, we exert less demand on sourcing materials. - Less Treatment and Remediation
By preventing pollution, we avoid the need to perform costly and environmentally detrimental waste treatment and remediation.
Bright Path is pioneering a way to make medicine while respecting our planet.
