Autochem has released a white paper entitled 'Advance beyond turbidity: selecting appropriate technology for in-situ monitoring and control of complex particle and droplet systems'.
The technical review details the significant advantages in product quality and yield gained when using advanced inline monitoring technology that measures more than turbidity alone.
'Advance beyond turbidity' details how accurate, real-time assessment of particle and droplet size, shape and count can help improve crystallisation (bigger, more uniform crystals), suspension flocculation (better solid-liquid separation and filtration), emulsion (more stable droplet distribution) and fermentation (more accurate cell count and cell dimension for batch repeatability).
Better crystallisation, suspension flocculation, emulsion and fermentation promote more efficient separation and/or removal of solid particles and liquid droplets in suspension.
Overall, production efficiency is improved, costs are reduced and more uniform, higher-quality results are obtained.
Two technologies that can provide detailed analysis of particle dimension, shape and number in the manufacturing process are Mettler Toledo Focused Beam Reflectance Measurement (FBRM) and Particle Video Microscopy (PVM).
FBRM, applied inline, allows for easy interpretation of complex particle systems to gauge process-efficiency parameters, such as batch endpoint or filtration rates, or product-quality parameters, such as bulk density, flowability or bioavailability.
In-process PVM imaging can provide understanding of how particles behave in situ.
As 'Advance beyond turbidity' shows, detailed in-situ monitoring often achieves a much higher degree of accuracy than testing samples that have been separated from their primary manufacturing environment.
