The company driving sustainability in pharma

In recent years, the topic of sustainable practices in the pharmaceutical industry has become more prevalent, whether that be through discussions on how to affect change, or through strategies designed to reduce carbon emissions.

One of the best gauges for judging progress in an industry is through the introduction of new technologies. Here we speak to, Tsyplakov Vladyslav, development director at Mirai Intex about how the company’s air refrigeration technologies could help the pharmaceutical industry become more environmentally friendly.

Mirai Intex specialises in the development and manufacture of turbo compression equipment, which has led the company to develop “the safest, most reliable and most environmentally friendly air refrigeration machines,” Vladyslav says.

The technology used by Mirai Intex, Air Cycle, works by heating air during the compression stage and cooling down during the expansion process. By repeating this process Mirai Intex’s technology is able to reach and maintain ultralow temperatures to as low as -160°C.

Also known as the reverse Brayton cycle, air cycle technology was developed in the mid 1800s by John Gorrie and is used on aeroplanes for cabin climatisation and ventilation.

Mirai Intex’s expertise translates into the field of refrigeration across a number of industries, with its products being suitable for storage applications for biological materials, pharmaceuticals or vaccines and more.

The company’s Mirai Cold products come in two configurations - open and closed cycle.

Open cycle machines are suitable for storage and cryotherapy applications, coming with a unique humidity extraction device, which ensures great temperature uniformity and allows the customers to forget about defrost procedures.

Closed cycle units are equipped with an additional heat exchanger for the secondary working fluid (eg. silicone oil), and are more suitable for process cooling applications such as freeze-drying or solvent recovery.

The company’s cooling technology is made sustainable through the fact it uses air as a refrigerant to reach ultra low temperatures. Vapour compression technologies, Vladyslav says, typically use cascade stages to reach lower temperature levels, during which environmentally harmful refrigerants are used.

Vladyslav clarifies that vapour compression is a refrigeration technology in which the refrigerant undergoes a phase change (from gas to liquid) mostly F-gases or burnable refrigerant, whereas in air cycle technology, air doesn’t change its phase.

“These refrigerants (R404A & R23) are really spread out in the industry, huge volumes are being used but the problem with them is they have a very high global warming potential (GWP),” Vladyslav mentions.

The emissions from one single gram of R23 in particular is equivalent to 15kg of CO2 being let out into the atmosphere, Vladyslav says, going on to explain how new revisions to the EU’s F-Gas regulation are aiming to ban the use of high GWP refrigerants. 

With regulatory changes in tow, you’d think that industry would be more open to the idea of innovations that can help push pharma in a more sustainable direction. Vladyslav however says that the uptake of new technologies is slow.

“We see a lot of resistance in the market towards new technologies,” Vladyslav says, explaining how in pharma, there can often be a reluctance to change technologies that already work, despite it having problems.

“Of course, there has to be change if we’re driving innovation and we’re striving for a better future. We have to change the old technologies we use. So, we have to push for this.”

It’s a vital part of Mirai Intex’s company culture, according to Vladyslav, who believes advances in technology are the right way to go about causing change for the better.

“It’s not that we’re only passionate about the environment and sustainability, we’re also passionate about innovation and technology. We believe that through innovation this is the right way to drive change. It’s not about protesting, you need to propose the solution to change the world. So that is what we’re doing. We’re proposing the solution to the market that will help drive change for the better,” he says.

Mirai Intex is a fairly young company, launching in 2015 - though Vladyslav does mention that its technology was in development for much longer. Coming into the pharma market is never easy, especially with a new approach to sustainability, an area where Vladyslav would like to see a lot more being done.

“To be honest I would like to see even more being done. Sometimes the choices that are made within pharmaceutical companies don’t always favour sustainability and they don’t always prioritise,” he says.

Whilst big pharma companies are starting to tackle sustainability, through yearly reporting, packaging initiatives and logistical changes, education around regulatory changes is key. For example, Vladyslav mentions that “many people in the pharma industry don’t know about the F gas regulation or what a refrigerant is, what they should and should not be using.”

That’s why Mirai Intex is wanting to push its technology onto the market, so pharmaceutical companies know that sustainable options exist for things like freeze drying and lyophilisation, and that they’re nothing to be wary of.

Vladyslav hopes the industry listens. Within five years, he says, Mirai Intex would love to be supplying to most of the pharma companies that require ultralow temperatures between minus 70°-90°. The reason for this Vladyslav says, is “because we already know we are the best in this segment.”