Greg McMillan’s Thoughts on PAT and Advanced Control Technology

by | Apr 19, 2007 | Industry, Life Sciences & Medical

Jim Cahill

Jim Cahill

Chief Blogger, Social Marketing Leader

Recently I discovered in my PAT RSS persistent search feed an article in Pharmaceutical Processing magazine entitled, PAT Solutions-Eight advanced process control technologies worth considering. This article was written by Rick Rys, President, at R2 Controls, and Janice Abel, Director, Global Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industries, at Invensys.

Since ModelingAndControl.com‘s Greg McMillan recently co-authored a book New Directions in Bioprocess Modeling and Control-Maximizing Process Analytical Technology Benefits and recently had an article published entitled Maximizing PAT Benefits from Bioprocess Modeling and Control in the November 2006 issue of Pharmaceutical Technology IT Innovations, I had to ask for his thoughts.

Greg sent me a great email which I’ll pass along with my edits to insert hyperlinks:


The DeltaV systems offers the advanced control technologies mentioned in the PAT article, such as synthetic analyzers, feedforward and predictive control, dead time compensation, and model predictive control in its standard integrated graphical configuration studio that uses Fieldbus function blocks. The synthetic analyzers not only include online regression models such as Neural Networks but also embedded first principal models. Furthermore, innovative analytics, control systems, and models can be prototyped faster than real time in a virtual plant on a desktop or laptop PC anywhere. The virtual plant uses an exact duplicate rather than an emulation or simulation of the control system in the control room. Advanced technologies in the virtual plant can be developed and tested from the high speed play back of historical data from existing systems used to automate bench top fermentors. This includes a new adaptive control technology that identifies process dynamics and indicates the relative improvement possible from better control. The high speed virtual experimentation capability of the virtual plant is a key feature and may be the only way to provide enough historical data particularly on “what if’ scenarios since a fermentor batch for most new bioprocesses takes 14-17 days.

The same virtual plant can be used for education of operations and technical support by the dynamic restore and high speed playback of instructive periods of operation.

The technologies can be connected to the bench top system for evaluation, verification, and adaptation of models early on in the commercialization process.

The uses and advantages of the synergistic environment of the virtual plant are explored in the book New Directions in Bioprocess Modeling and Control, the article “Maximizing PAT Benefits from Bioprocess Modeling and Control” in the November 2006 issue of Pharmaceutical Technology IT Innovations, and in the lectures on the Modeling and Control.com blog. The important practical implications of the extremely slow one direction integrating response of biomass and product concentration on modeling and control are also discussed in the book, article, and website.

The integration and knowledge management of a diversity of technologies in DeltaV addresses the essence of the PAT initiative as expressed in the following statements by the FDA:

Process Analytical Technology:

  • It is important to note that the term analytical in PAT is viewed broadly to include chemical, physical, microbiological, mathematical, and risk analysis conducted in an integrated manner.

Process Analytical Technology Tools:

  • Multivariate data acquisition and analysis tools
  • Process and endpoint monitoring and control tools
  • Continuous improvement and knowledge management tools
  • An appropriate combination of some, or all, of these tools may be applicable to a single-unit operation, or to an entire manufacturing process and its quality assurance.

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The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of the authors. Content published here is not read or approved by Emerson before it is posted and does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Emerson.

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