Year: 2022-23

Company: Boehringer Ingelheim

Liaison(s): Benjamin Ko, Loleta Chung

Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), founded by Albert Boehringer in 1885, is the largest privately owned pharmaceutical company in the world. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, BI is widely known for creating pharmaceutical products for application in both humans and animals, including a focus on critical cardiometabolic, respiratory, nervous, and oncology diseases. BI prides itself on revolutionizing medicine by developing novel therapies and treatments for these conditions, as well as collaborating with an extensive network of partnerships. The BI TMP team was tasked with investigating the mixing of portable hold tanks used in various stages of the downstream manufacturing process through computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The CFD software, Ansys, was used to build geometries for different hold tanks. Additionally, Ansys was used to construct and assess the quality of meshes for each tank, analyze flow patterns and velocity profiles, and run mixing time studies within each tank. In addition, Ansys was used to characterize a scale-down model for BI’s mixing tanks and assess whether it could be improved. The models will ultimately allow for the characterization of mixing in all tanks, which is vital in ensuring that pool homogeneity is achieved. Completion of this project will allow BI to understand tank mixing behavior better. In the case of deviations, these studies will enable BI to take the appropriate troubleshooting steps to ensure high-quality production.