(35f) Spherical Agglomeration as a Tool for Manufacturing of Formulated Products: Mechanistic Understanding and Mathematical Modelling

The micro-scale interactions between particles and fluids are fundamental to a wide range of industrial manufacturing processes, including granulation, coating, drying, and fluidized bed processes, and it is these interactions and processes which drive the Particle Technology Forum (PTF) of the AIChE. Substantial understanding of the nano- and micro- scale interactions between particles and fluids has been generated, however the ability to use this knowledge to predict process performance, design manufacturing processes, and to tailor formulated particulate products to give desired performance is underdeveloped, and industry is often still reliant on substantial experimental trial and error approaches to product and process design. These challenges are key to the PTF, which continues to further our fundamental knowledge of particle processing, and improve our ability to apply this knowledge to address industrial problems.

Spherical agglomeration is a size enlargement process which has recently gained interest in the pharmaceutical industry. It addresses followability and compressibility related problems of irregular platelet or needle like crystals, by forming spherical-shaped agglomerates. This process is achieved by the addition of a binder liquid into a slurry of primary crystals which is often produced by anti-solvent crystallization. Currently, there is poor mechanistic understanding of the rate processes occurring for formation of spherical agglomerates, and there is a lack of useful tools to predict final agglomerate properties or process performance. In this presentation, recent spherical agglomeration research informed and inspired by work presented through the PFT will be discussed, and research spanning experimental observation, development of mechanistic process understanding, and computational modelling will be presented.