untangle.bio
Process scheme Illustrative layout
Downstream process designBuilt for biotech engineers

Separate
the broth.
Rank the
routes.

Define a feed — or ferment it first. The generator lays out every viable downstream train and reports yield, purity and COGS for each route, streaming results as it finds them.

Try it free → no install · runs in the browser
72
unit operations
Any
molecule you can run
NPV
IRR · payback · MSP on any route you open
Fig. 1 — Lysozyme · fermentation broth separating
Route
#01 / 8,412
Yield
100.0%
Purity
14.0%
CAPEX
$12.3M
Fig. 2 — Generated route · Lysozyme DSP route #01 / 8,412 · drag →
Yield87.4%
Purity96.2%
CAPEX$12.3M
Feed
Lysozyme · HCP
salts · debris
120 L/hr
Centrifuge
UF 10k
IEX
Spray dry
Lysozyme
Waste
Waste
01
Route generation

Thousands of processes, ranked

A diversity-preserving genetic search proposes downstream trains; a rules engine drops the ones that would never run in a plant.

Ranked, not just generated

Every candidate scored on recovery, purity and cost. Sort or filter on any of them.

  • Genetic search tuned for breadth over one optimum
  • 62 engineering constraints reject infeasible trains
  • Filter by yield, purity or cost
  • Streaming output, routes land as found
01Centrifuge → UF 10k → IEX → Spray dry94
02MF → ED → IEX → UF 10k → Spray dry88
03MF → Affinity → UF 10k → Spray dry82
04MF → HIC → IEX → UF 10k → Tray dry77
05Centrifuge → UF 10k → Spray dry71
02
Fermentation

Ferment first, then separate

The bioreactor is a dynamic Monod/OTR integrator, not a yield spreadsheet: growth, oxygen transfer, heat duty and titer come out of the kinetics, hour by hour.

Broth in, physics out

Pick an organism from the library or set your own kinetics. The broth the fermenter produces is the real feed the downstream search starts from.

  • Batch, fed-batch, chemostat and air-lift
  • Oxygen-transfer limit and cooling duty resolved in time
  • Fed-batch feed is a declared, billed inlet
  • Multi-product broths with per-product yields and titers
t=0Inoculate · Monod growthDCW ↑
t+8hOxygen transfer limits (kLa)OTR
t+16hFed-batch feed startsfeed
t+36hHarvest at peak productivitytiter
→Broth → downstream feedDSP
03
Techno-economics

Traceable numbers on every option

An industry-standard capital ladder with per-item installation, itemised operating cost, and a year-by-year cash flow behind every headline number — benchmarked against 61 published TEAs, replicated and costed.

Price it before you build it

Capital · DFC ladder
Equipment purchase$7,020,000
Installation + facility build-up$5,280,000
Direct fixed capital$12,300,000
Cash flow · 10 yr
COGS$8.40 / kg
NPV @ 12% · IRR$6.1M · 18%
Minimum selling price$11.20 / kg
Illustrative summary · not the full model

Defensible, not just detailed

One economic basis feeds every tier. NPV, IRR, payback and MSP come from the same year-by-year schedule, so NPV at the MSP is zero by construction.

  • 72 operations with industry cost curves
  • Literature scaling exponents, conservative on vessel sizing
  • Facility grade and labor profiles per region
  • Printable dossier with AACE class band and assumptions register
04
The workspace

Everything in one place

A

Any molecule

300+ curated molecules with full properties (MW, pKa, solubility, pI, diffusion), or define your own. Run essentially anything.

B

Live mass balance

Stream-level concentrations, flow and pH update as you build the train — and the plant boundary closes to under 1%.

C

Multi-product trains

Co-purify several targets with branching outlets and per-product yields and titers.

D

Expert rules

62 constraints block infeasible designs: chromatography prereqs, fouling, drying order — and models refuse rather than guess when data is missing.

E

3D trade-off plot

Every route in yield × purity × cost space. Pick the corner you want to live in.

F

The dossier

A printable report: AACE class band, MSP headline, capital ladder, itemised opex, year-by-year cash flow, assumptions register and warnings.

G

Ask your AI

The same engine, called from your assistant. Example workflows below.

05
AI workflows

Run it from your assistant

untangle ships an MCP server, so Claude or any MCP-capable assistant can call the engine the canvas runs: route generation, fermentation, simulation and TEA. You authorise it once with OAuth; inference runs on your own model and the connector only answers tool calls. Before it generates routes or prices anything, the server has your assistant confirm the inputs (molecule, scale, titer and yield, facility grade, cost basis) rather than fill in defaults. The connector comes with the Academic and Pro plans; setup is in the docs.

01

“Find routes to 95% pure lysozyme from this broth.”

Ranked routes with yield, purity and CAPEX, the best one drawn as a flowsheet, and a link that opens your pick on the canvas.

02

“Simulate this fed-batch and tell me when oxygen runs out.”

The broth it makes, with concentration, oxygen and heat-duty charts over the run.

03

“Can this route reach $20/kg? If not, what titer would it take?”

The operating settings that get there or, failing that, the titer at which the target becomes reachable.

04

“Run a Monte Carlo on COGS, show the tornado, then export it.”

P10, P50 and P90 COGS, a tornado of the inputs that move it, and a CSV of the balance and costs.

06
The method

Three moves

1

Define the feed

Flow, pH and components — or simulate the fermentation and start from the broth it actually makes.

2

Generate routes

Set yield and purity targets, then explore thousands of priced downstream sequences.

3

Pick, price, export

Compare by yield, purity, COGS and MSP. Drop the winner onto the canvas and print the dossier.

Point it at your
hardest separation.

no install · no spreadsheets · runs in the browser

Open the app →