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Imperial Insulin Co.

1
London
A business of the Imperial Chemicals Company

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING


FINAL YEAR DESIGN – 2013
INSULIN PROJECT

To: Design Teams 7 and 8, Facilitator: Prof. D. Stuckey

From: Prof. Sandro Macchietto, Strategic Development

Re: Preliminary Design of an Insulin Production Plant


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Diabetes is a syndrome of disordered metabolism, in


which blood sugar levels are abnormally high. There
are two types: type 1 where the pancreas produces
little or no insulin and Type 2 where the pancreas
produces insulin, but it is inadequate for the body’s
needs and its effectiveness is reduced. Described as
the epidemic of the 21st century, diabetes is expanding
at a rate of one new diagnosis every 5 seconds and is
expected to grow to over 380 million by 2030. In the
U.K., overall rates for diabetes increased from 5.8% of
the population to 8.4% between 1998 and 2004, while
the last 30 years has seen a threefold increase in the
number of cases of childhood diabetes. Obesity levels
have also risen and this has led to Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to diet, being seen
for the first time in young people in Europe and America. Insulin therapy is a critical,
often life-saving, treatment in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Due to increased
knowledge regarding improved therapy with insulin, physicians are steadily
recommending such treatment, thus increasing the total insulin market, the value of
which currently exceeds $7billion.
Your team has decided to start a spin-out company to exploit the increasing demand
for insulin production. There is flexibility in locating the new biopharma start-up
company, however, access to utilities, including ultrapure water supply may need to
be considered. It is envisaged that the plant’s projected output will be in the range
1000-5000 kg of purified insulin per year. The most favourable size of your plant
should be established in your initial assessment and agreed with me, as part of
finalising the brief at our meeting on January 16th. If your initial assessment
indicates there are compelling reasons for changing some other of the preliminary
specifications in the enclosed Technical Notes, please also bring up with me on that
occasion.
The final insulin product will be of human injectable grade.
Imperial Insulin Co. 2
London
A business of the Imperial Chemicals Company

TECHNICAL NOTE 1

PRELIMINARY SPECIFICATIONS AND COST DATA

1.1 Materials and Utilities Costs

The cost of materials and utilities will vary and the choice will affect the
design, therefore no tentative cost can be provided. Some up to date cost
information can be accessed via.
http://www.icis.com/StaticPages/a-e.htm and

Contracts for long term supply need to be negotiated and signed with Alpay
Chemicals plc.

1.2 Other Materials and Services

For the purposes of this preliminary design, it may be assumed that utilities
and other materials can be made available at battery limits (provided
that choice of location is commensurate with this) at costs to be negotiated
with Alpay Utilities plc. All such contracts need to be made available in the
final report (forming part of the business plan).

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