A hybrid of a pan with a fan

Novosibirsk innovations will fly into space

Nina Pashkova, Сибкрай.гиTen years ago, the European Space Agency allocated 25 million euros for the development of a bioreactor that could work in zero gravity.

So far, the ESA has not coped with this task. The Koltsov company "Center of Vortex Technologies" invented and created a prototype of such a device for Russian cosmonautics completely free of charge, on pure innovative enthusiasm.

The authors of this development jokingly say that they just "crossed a pan with a fan." When they tell specialists and colleagues from other regions and countries about their technology, they do not believe: this cannot be, because it can never be. When they show it, colleagues and specialists are surprised: wow, it's so simple, how we didn't think of it ourselves!

Vortex technologies are really very simple at first glance. And they are also very cheap and allow you to reduce energy costs for production by five to ten times. At the same time, they can be used in almost all industries, from petrochemicals to biomedicine, and now they are also preparing to fly into space. In general, perhaps it would not be an exaggeration to say that the company "Center of Vortex Technologies" from the science city of Koltsovo really made a kind of revolution. A revolution in one of the most important and fundamental processes, without which almost no modern production can do.

How to tame a tornadoYuri Ramazanov is sure that as manuscripts do not burn, so good developments do not disappear.

Many of his colleagues could argue with this – especially since history gives us a lot of reverse examples. But the director's own experience of the Center of Vortex Technologies LLC proves that he is still right.

The idea that formed the basis for the creation of a gas-vortex bioreactor appeared twenty years ago. Scientists of the SSC VB "Vector" are faced with the problem of cultivating living cells. Their growth and reproduction in the fermenter occur only during the mixing process. The absolute majority of available devices either operate on the principle of a mixer, or use air blown through the liquid. Both methods are too traumatic for delicate cells. The Vector development team offered biologists a fundamentally different technology.

"The best processes have already been invented by nature," explains Yuri Ramazanov. – It is enough to "spy" and use. We have adopted the tornado principle. This is a powerful vortex that has tremendous energy and unique properties – it can lift ships and demolish houses, or it can gently mix. We also create a controlled vortex over the surface of the liquid – and we can set any force and speed."

Vector scientists did not have to use the new device at that time: research on this topic, as well as on many others, practically ceased. With the belief that manuscripts do not burn, and good developments do not disappear, the authors of the gas-vortex bioreactor decided to take their idea and create a private company.

It was 1994, one of the most difficult years for Russian science. And no one knew how many more such years were ahead. Ramazanov and his associates produced their devices at their own expense and ... distributed them to institutions, mainly Moscow. However, they did not give it away for good, but so to speak, "to play". The researchers had no money, but they wanted to work on new equipment. So for several years, private traders literally sponsored domestic science.

However, there was still a return from such unilateral cooperation. Vortex reactors have been tested, as they say, "in the field" and gradually gained recognition. There were publications in scientific journals, a monograph was published. But at first no one even believed that it was seriously possible to mix something with air…

The period from laboratory testing to industrial implementation in an innovative business is called the "valley of death": nine out of ten projects simply do not survive to implementation. The developers of the gas-vortex bioreactor have been overcoming this "valley" for almost ten years. In 2003, the Tomsk NGO "Virion" ordered a 300-liter device for Ramazanov's team to produce a vaccine against tick-borne encephalitis.

Here, perhaps, it is worth making a small digression so that the essence of the matter is clear. At the moment, for the manufacture of many vaccines, rollers are used – glass bottles with a volume of five to seven liters. In a sterile room at a specially maintained temperature, the rollers – no, do not stand, but constantly move, rotate, as on a Ferris wheel, so that the mixing process takes place inside. Cells "mature" in the rollers, which will then be infected with the virus. And what exactly has grown there, in the rollers – we still need to check. Therefore, the contents of each bottle should be carefully examined. Studies are conducted on mice…

In general, the process is long, complex, painstaking, and the result is very expensive. The gas-vortex bioreactor allows you to work with a volume of not five, but three hundred liters, and at the same time maintain the conditions necessary for cell growth not worse, but even better than in rollers. The cost of the drug is immediately reduced several times.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the NGO "Virion" has seized on this technology. And in principle, equipped with gas-vortex bioreactors, the Tomsk enterprise could provide all Siberia and the entire Far East with its vaccine. Moreover, there is not enough domestic drug and it is necessary to buy it abroad. But there was no re-equipment, and the problem with the domestic anti-tick vaccine has remained until now.

Our car versus an imported cartAnyway, for the company, cooperation with Virion was the first real success, the first experience of industrial implementation.

And in the innovation market, this is the most important thing.

"No matter who you turn to, they tell you: show me where it works for you," Ramazanov explains. – And they can be understood. No one wants to be the first and take risks. But if you have already tried it somewhere and got the result, then it's another matter."

And another important point: for the production of the vaccine at NPO Virion, chicken embryo fibroblast cells were used, which means that Novosibirsk innovators have touched new cellular technologies.

"It turned out that we immediately entered a breakthrough direction," says Yuri Ramazanov. – On our devices, they began to work industrially with embryonic cells, even if only birds, not humans, so far."

Gradually, one by one, Ramazanov's team began to have customers – the Armavir Biofactory, the St. Petersburg enterprise Biotrof, LLC Gelenpol in Obninsk, LLC Agrovet in Belgorod. And finally, the Novosibirsk development was interested abroad.

It would seem that Belarus is not much of a foreign country. Meanwhile, a small Novosibirsk company had to face very tough competition from foreign market leaders.

"It was an epic in general, how the imported guys strangled us," Ramazanov recalls. – Vitebsk Biofactory is one of the largest biotechnological enterprises in Europe. We were invited there, we worked out their production program on our devices – and immediately showed results much better than the factory had received before. In addition, Belarusians were very pleased that our bioreactors could now be used instead of rollers. But it was not there. Large foreign suppliers undertook to prevent us from winning the tender at all costs. Then some competitors tried to pass off their equipment as gas-vortex bioreactors – although only we produce such devices all over the world. Then others sent fake reviews on fake forms – about the allegedly negative results of our installations. This almost detective story lasted two years. But in the end, the victory was ours: despite all the external opposition, the Vitebsk biofactory was equipped with our devices."

Such a nervous reaction to the appearance of potential competitors from large foreign companies is quite understandable. The creation of new, cheaper, more economical and efficient technologies is perceived by existing players as a threat. After all, we are no longer talking about a lost momentary benefit, not about one unsigned contract, but in the future about the loss of sales markets.

"Our devices are really head and shoulders higher than the competitors. Higher in terms of the totality of technical characteristics, in terms of its capabilities. It's just a different class, a different type of equipment," Ramazanov explains. – It's like comparing a cart and a car: we already have a car, they still have a cart. It turns out that we have entered the market, a very serious, very close, long-divided market with a fundamentally new product. The gas-vortex bioreactor beats the installations of the previous design in all parameters. At the same time, our device is also universal – any types of cells and microorganisms can be grown in it equally successfully. Other designs of industrial bioreactors are mainly specialized for individual crops."

Collection of sensationsThe Center of Vortex Technologies company became a resident of Skolkovo in January of this year.

I could have become a resident twice – but more on that later. In the meantime, the project of creating a software and hardware complex for the preparative development of stem and other autologous human cells has already passed two examinations, and the Skolkovo Foundation is ready to finance it, however, only partially - according to the Skolkovo rules, the project needs a co–investor.

Yes, that very first, long-standing experience of the company with cellular technologies finally fired. Once at one of the exhibitions – and the team of the Vortex Technology Center participates in many innovation forums, both in Russia and abroad – Novosibirsk innovators were asked: can human stem cells be grown on your device? "Why not? Everything is growing here! There has never been such a thing that something has not grown," Yuri Ramazanov answered with enviable self-confidence.

Actually, cellular technologies are the cutting edge of medical science today. The ability to treat a person instead of chemicals that have a bunch of contraindications and side effects, with his own, native cells solves a lot of problems. Cell therapy is one of the main components of the personalized medicine that everyone is talking about today. And some people are already doing it. However, these methods are very, very expensive. Mainly because getting the right cells in the right amount is an extremely difficult task. Now they are grown in tiny bottles of 5-10 milliliters. For experiments, this may be enough, but for mass treatment of people, completely different volumes are required.

And so Moscow biologists from the Institute of General Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, with whom the director of the Center for Vortex Technologies met at that very exhibition, Doctors of Sciences Sergey Kiselyov and Maria Lagarkova, tried to grow human stem cells on a gas-vortex bioreactor. More precisely, embryoid corpuscles from the culture of embryonic stem cells of the hESM03 line. The result exceeded all expectations. Then, on the basis of the Meshalkin Clinic, a mononuclear fraction was grown on carriers – autologous bone marrow cells taken from a donor. Any expert will tell you that this is aerobatics in general.

And although these were just experiments and the grown cells could not be used for treatment, but the very possibility of standard production of human stem cells in preparative quantities is already a worldwide sensation without minutes.

And here's sensation number two. And if it seems to you that there is an excess of sensations in our history, then be patient – this is the case when you can't get the words out of the song. Yuri Ramazanov recalls: "Back in 2002, we conducted an experiment: we tried to mix 75 liters of liquid with a 17-watt microdrive. And surprisingly, we succeeded! Then we did not advertise these figures – you never know what can happen in the laboratory. It was necessary to repeat the experiment on a larger volume. And this summer we made a device for 10 cubes. Together with the specialists of the NGO "Vector" and an independent expert, they took readings of power costs. It turned out that an engine with a capacity of only one (!) kilowatt is enough to mix ten cubic meters of water on a gas-vortex bioreactor."

For those who do not know: it is believed that about 1 watt is required for mechanical mixing of one liter. The most modern and energy-efficient devices spend 0.5 watts. In any case, it turns out that gas-vortex installations provide energy savings of five to ten times. Not by percentages, not by tens of percent (the dream of any production worker) – but by an order of magnitude! What a reduction in the cost of production, what a saving of resources and what a reduction in the burden on the environment it can give – let the experts consider.

Bill Gates won't catch upWhere can vortex technologies be applied?

Wherever there are mixing processes. It's easier to say where they don't apply. Novosibirsk innovators simply do not get around to trying and offering their installations in various fields of science and technology. But, for example, the oil industry or petrochemistry is generally a Klondike.

"But," smiles Yuri Ramazanov, "Kozma Prutkov also said: you can't embrace the immensity. We would like to finish the projects that we have already undertaken."

And there are really enough projects. And some, no worse than the oil industry, may well become a new Klondike. Well, for example, industrial cultivation of microalgae. The topic, which, according to the director of the Center for Vortex Technologies, will become one of the key ones in the new economy in the near future. The topic in which hundreds of millions of dollars are invested today by the richest companies in the world – Boeing, De Beers, Nestle and Bill Gates himself. Because microalgae is, firstly, protein, that is, food, and secondly– biofuels, that is, energy. Two whales on which modern civilization rests.

"Microalgae have the highest rate of biomass growth," Ramazanov says. – Moreover, all they need for reproduction is carbon dioxide, sunlight and water, preferably even polluted. That is, all resources are virtually free and inexhaustible. And microalgae emit pure oxygen – we all remember the process of photosynthesis from the school curriculum. After all, in fact, the "light planets" are not the Amazon jungle, but the world ocean."

It is clear that everyone dreams of growing microalgae not for the sake of oxygen. Chlorella, spirulina and other types of phytoplankton are raw materials for obtaining a huge number of various products, from cosmetics to fertilizers. You can even add it to sausage as a vegetable protein – which, by the way, is much more useful than genetically modified soy. Now we buy the same spirulina in pharmacies as a dietary supplement, and in the near future we will use it as a component of ordinary food products.

The problem is that so far no one – neither De Beers, nor Boeing, nor the rest – has created a sufficiently cheap industrial technology for growing microalgae. In nature, phytoplankton lives and reproduces only on the surface of water – because it needs sunlight. The microalgae layer cannot exceed 4 centimeters – photons simply do not penetrate deeper. But you can't build a production facility with an area the size of the world ocean. So, we need to look for other solutions. Until now, no design of the microalgae growing apparatus could cope with this problem. But the gas-vortex bioreactor copes easily. Moreover, these devices can be made floating and installed in the bays of large cities, then the production costs will generally be negligible.

In laboratory conditions, the 500-liter device met all expectations. Now the team of the Vortex Technology Center wants to try out a large installation – for 10 cubes, but has not yet decided where. Best of all, of course, in Southeast Asia, where the conditions in terms of climate are optimal. Negotiations on this with Singapore are already underway. However, there are other options – closer. For example, you can try to grow microalgae at Novosibirsk thermal power plants, there is water, heat, and light – no worse than in Singapore.

Another direction for the development of vortex technologies – albeit not so dazzling and brilliant in the future, but already applicable in the present – is the deep processing of grain.

"We drive raw grain abroad in the same way as we drive crude oil. But it is much more profitable to sell products with high added value," complains Yuri Ramazanov.

Today in Russia there is not a single modern plant for deep processing of wheat. Meanwhile, such production could be based on the cavitation-vortex technology of enzymatic hydrolysis of starch. Ramazanov's team created it together with Candidate of Chemical Sciences Vladimir Aksenov and Sibniptype with RAS. This technology allows you to get molasses, glucose, glucose-fructose syrup from starch, but we haven't tried fructose yet, but in principle it is also possible.

"Moreover, all our processes are much faster, more technologically advanced, and energy costs are several times less than at similar production facilities abroad," says the director of the company.

The fact is that in devices with mechanical devices like a mixer, the mixing of the starch suspension goes gradually, from the center to the edges, the enzyme does not have time to be distributed throughout the container, and at some point the starch may simply freeze and seize like cement. When using vortex technologies, such unpleasant incidents are excluded: a man-made "tornado" captures the entire volume at once and mixing occurs quickly and evenly.

The technology seems to be so efficient and economical that RUSNANO became interested in it. And they were even ready to finance half of the implementation of a large-capacity pilot plant if some large grain processor took over the other half.

Now small devices – for 200 liters – operate in the Novosibirsk region at the Irmen breeding plant. A little larger – by 2.5 cubic meters – was installed last year at a mini-plant for the production of feed molasses in the Republic of Tatarstan.

"But for an enterprise to have a good economy, it needs to have modules with a volume of at least 20-25 cubic meters and produce 130-150 tons of finished products per day. Less is just not interesting," Yuri Ramazanov believes.

However, so far there have been no manufacturers ready to install and test such a module.

Beer for astronautsHow many awards, medals and victories in all kinds of innovative competitions do the Center of Vortex Technologies LLC have – probably, even in the company itself, they won't tell you offhand.

But there are some among them that it's not a sin to brag about. Last year, for example, they received a gold medal and a diploma "For the best innovation" at the International Exhibition of Inventions "GENEVA" in Geneva. This is one of the most reputable and representative innovative salons in Europe. In November, they plan to present their project of a complex for developing stem cells at the First International Forum of Technological Development "TECHNOPROM–2013" in Novosibirsk.

By the way, participation in such events brings the company not only prizes, but also useful contacts, business proposals, and new interesting ideas. For example, the idea to work for... Russian space.

And it was like this. At one of the exhibitions "World of Biotechnology" in Moscow, our innovators were approached by employees of the Institute of Biomedical Problems - the same one that works with the Cosmonaut Training Center. "Tell me, can your device work in zero gravity?" - "We need to think..."

We didn't think for long. Just a week later, the chief designer of the company, Andrey Repkov, has already proposed an ingenious solution. To begin with, the new design was tested on the ground. Muscovites liked it…

To the question of what vortex technologies in space may be needed for, the authors of the development answer – for everything. For life. For work. For scientific experiments.

Want an example? You are welcome. From the field of purely domestic problems. Astronauts at the station use paper and gauze napkins for hygiene purposes. And where to put the used napkins then? Now, for lack of a better one, they are simply being shot into orbit. And it is possible to decompose, microbiologically process, getting different products from cellulose, including food products. And here reactors capable of mixing liquid in zero gravity are simply irreplaceable.

From the field of medical problems. Astronauts during their work at the station begin to suffer from dysbiosis: the air is sterile, the food is sterile, where do microorganisms come from? And the doctors had the idea that, in fact, fresh beer could help a lot from dysbiosis. It is clear that it will not be possible to capture it from earth, it will have to be cooked directly in orbit. However, they decided to abandon the idea of beer, but the option with kvass turned out to be quite acceptable. And there is no way to do without mixing processes.

Yes, in fact, the cultivation of microalgae as a source of oxygen and protein is also a very urgent task for space. And as for space scientific research, there are simply no boundaries for the use of vortex technologies.

Novosibirsk innovators created a prototype of a space reactor for free, on pure enthusiasm, and in further work they were financially supported by JSC Tatneftekhiminvest-Holding and the leadership of the Republic of Tatarstan. And by the way, it was with this development that the Vortex Technology Center almost became a resident of Skolkovo for the second time. The space cluster is very interested in the device for working in zero gravity. But Yuri Ramazanov's team had to refuse a flattering invitation – they had already chosen a biomedical direction.

A month ago, a new space reactor was sent to the Cosmonaut Training Center for flight tests.

"We were asked – will you accompany your installation on board? We answered in a hurry – yes! But the wives were not allowed in, – Yuri Ramazanov admits. – They say, there is nothing for you to do in the sky..."

And the wives are probably right. Developers of a gas-vortex bioreactor have something to do on earth. There are still so many industries, enterprises, regions where vortex technologies can be introduced and bring their benefits, production results and economic effect. And it is possible that someday the "pan-fan hybrid" will have to change the world.…

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru25.10.2013