Monitoring of High­Shear Mixing and Granulation with Capacitive Measurements and Tomography

1. Rimpiläinen1, S. Poutiainen2, L. M. Heikkinen1, T. Savolainen1, M. Vauhkonen1 and J. Ketolainen2 1Department of Physics and Mathematics, University of Eastern Finland, P.O.B. 1627, FIN­70211,

   Kuopio, Finland, v ille. rim pil ai nen@ uef .f i

   2School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland, P.O.B. 1627, FIN­70211, Kuopio, Finland

ABSTRACT

Electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) was utilized for monitoring of the high­shear mixing and granulation processes. The tomograms of the end results of high­shear mixing processes were compared to corresponding photographs, and the mixing indexes were used to quantitatively compare the mixing processes. Furthermore, during the granulation process, the measured capacitance data showed clear changes that could be correlated with the changes in the particle size distribution and the power consumption of the mixer motor.

Keywords High­shear mixing, high­shear granulation, electrical capacitance tomography, pharmaceutical industry