Scale up of pharmaceutical fluidised beds from lab­scale to production­scale by ECT and validated by CFD

Haigang Wang1, Wuqiang Yang1, Julian Taylor2, Trevor Page2, and Ian Proctor3

1. School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Manchester, Sackville Street, Manchester M60 1QD, UK, haigang.wang@manchester.ac.uk, w.yang@manchester.ac.uk

2. GEA Pharma Systems Ltd, School Lane, Chandlers Ford, Eastleigh, Hampshire SO53 4DG, UK

3. University of Manchester Intellectual Property Ltd, B15 Sackville Street Building, Manchester M60 1QD, UK

   
   

ABSTRACT

The aim of this research is to apply ECT in pharmaceutical fluidised bed processes and scale up the application of ECT from lab­scale fluidised beds to production­scale fluidised beds and optimize the production­scale fluidised bed design and improve process operation. This is the first time that ECT was applied in a real industrial process and on a production­scale fluidised bed. The mean diameter of fluidised bed used in this research is in the range of 10cm to 1.5m and process capacity in the range of 0.5kg up to 100kg for each batch, i.e., from lab­scale fluidised bed to production­scale fluidised bed. Key issues on ECT sensor design for large­scale fluidised bed with industrial environment will be addressed. Due to large stray capacitance and high signal to noise ratio with big electrode and long ECT cable, optimism calibration procedure will be given and discussed to achieve the best operation parameters for ECT measurement with difficult size of ECT sensor. To validate ECT measurement results, a two­phase flow model has been used to simulate the process in lab­scale and pilot­scale fluidised bed. Comparing results will be given in this paper.

Keywords scale up, fluidised bed, pharmaceutical industry, ECT, optimum calibration, CFD