Development of characterization methods for the mixing of pharmaceutical powders

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The mixing of powders and granular materials is a topic of great relevance to the Canadian pharmaceutical industry. It is known, for example, that the process operating conditions for the manufacturing of a drug may be highly sensitive to its ingredient properties. This fact and the importance of manufacturing high-efficiency and low-risk pharmaceutical products validates research initiatives that investigate the physical phenomena governing the flow and the mixing of the solid ingredients involved in the formulation and production of such drugs. The reality is that, despite a growing interest in the dynamics of powders, little is known in this field as compared to the state of the art in fluid mechanics. This work concerns the development and improvement of experimental and computational methods for the characterization of the flow behavior of powders in blending equipment. At the experimental level, an innovative radioactive particle tracking well-suited for low concentration of small particles will be devised. At the computational level, models that we have developed in recent years, which are based on the discrete element method, will be improved and extended so that they can deal with particulate systems closer to those found in the pharmaceutical industry. The benefits to the Canadian pharmaceutical industry will include a better understanding of powder technology and the development of more efficient and controllable blending processes for the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products. Finally, this project will enable the training of highly qualified chemical engineers for the design and operation of chemical processes involving powders of all kinds.