Returnable Palletank® Service for Custom buffers

Sustainable Outsourcing for Biomanufacturing

Sartorius provides biopharmaceutical manufacturers with a sustainable, secure, and scalable buffer supply through the Returnable Palletank^® Service. This service reduces the operational burden of in-house preparation and de-risks large-volume custom buffer supply while improving manufacturing flexibility, supply security, and ease of use. To ensure maximum security and product integrity, the custom buffers are aseptically filled into Flexsafe^® 3D bags, which are specifically engineered to integrate perfectly with Palletank^® containers.

Key Benefits

•Sustainability: Utilizing the Returnable Palletank^® Service reduces the carbon footprint by up to 85% when compared to utilizing traditional single-use blue drums.

•Production Flexibility: Outsourcing ready-to-use buffer production allows facilities to dynamically adapt to shifting manufacturing demands.

•Space Optimization: Palletank^® containers are designed to be stackable when in use and fully collapsible when empty, significantly reducing the required facility footprint.

•Regulatory Compliance: The combined system of Flexsafe^® 3D bags and Palletank^® containers is fully compliant with ASTM D4169 shipping standards for secure transport.

•Ease of Use: To simplify handling and fluid transfer on the production floor, Palletank^® containers feature integrated wheels and a bottom drain mechanism.

Footprint and Storage Efficiency

By transitioning from traditional single-use drums to reusable Palletank^® containers, facilities significantly reduce secondary packaging waste.

• Footprint: When full, Palletank^® containers are fully stackable, saving up to 50% of the floor space required for standard cylindrical drums.
• Storage Efficiency: When empty, the Palletank^® containers can be completely collapsed to minimize storage footprint.

Carbon Footprint Reduction

A dedicated carbon footprint assessment demonstrated that replacing plastic single-use blue drums with reusable plastic Palletank^® containers reduces the carbon footprint of secondary packaging by up to 85%.

• Study Comparison: Plastic single-use blue drums versus reusable stainless steel and plastic Palletank^® containers.
• Volume and Duration: Based on the delivery of 5,000 liters of custom buffer per month over a five-year period.
• Assessment Scope: Cradle-to-grave system boundaries.
• Geography: Modeled using Sartorius plant and customer facility locations in Germany.