Drying of Pharmaceutical Compounds - Predicting and Reducing Undesired Agglomeration

药品（如片剂）的生产和工艺工程涉及一系列复杂的单独工艺，以产生最终的口服固体剂型（片剂或胶囊）。这些基本过程之一是活性药物成分（API）颗粒的干燥。API颗粒通常使用各种搅拌干燥器干燥，除了干燥之外，搅拌干燥器还执行混合颗粒、增强传热和传质的必要任务。干燥过程中的这种搅拌过程在粉末物质内产生剪切和应力场，促进颗粒的团聚。搅拌干燥器中的不期望的团聚导致这些过程的故障排除和控制的显著成本，并且增加了制造过程规模化的经济压力。本研究项目的目的是识别和研究搅拌干燥机中结块形成的主要机理，并利用这些知识开发有用的工具来描述和预测搅拌干燥机中的结块。学生将进行实验研究，以发展机理的理解，并将应用计算方法开发预测模型，用于搅拌干燥机中不希望的结块。成功的学生将加入谢菲尔德大学的粒子技术研究小组（https：//www.ptgsheffield.com/），并将与全球制药公司阿斯利康合作。

The manufacturing and process engineering of medicines such as tablets involves a complex sequence of individual processes, to generate the final oral solid dosage form (tablets or capsules). One of these essential processes is the drying of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) particles. API particles are commonly dried using a variety of agitated dryers, which in addition to drying perform the necessary task of mixing the particles, enhancing heat and mass transfer. This process of agitation during drying creates shear and stress fields within the powder mass, promoting agglomeration of particles. Undesired agglomeration in agitated dryers contributes to significant costs in troubleshooting and control of these processes, and adds to the economic strain of manufacturing process scale up. The aims of this research project are to identify and study the primary mechanisms of agglomerate formation in agitated dryers, and use this knowledge to develop useful tools to describe and predict agglomeration in agitated dryers.The student will conduct experimental investigations to develop mechanistic understanding, and will also apply computational methods to develop predictive models for undesired agglomeration in agitated dryers. The successful student will join the particle technology research group at the University of Sheffield (https://www.ptgsheffield.com/), and will also collaborate with the global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.