Wednesday 26th June – 9.30 – 13.00

Hot Melt Extrusion (HME) and process analytical technique (PAT)

HME is a common manufacturing operation in the food and polymer industries, and it is also becoming increasingly popular in the pharmaceutical industry.  For example HME can be used to mix several food materials or polymers with drugs, and for these applications it is used to manufacture large and expensive batches of extruded material.  Therefore, it is vital that composition of the product is monitored and uniformity ensured throughout the batch.  Traditionally this is achieved by off-line techniques, such as chromatography but this is not ideal as for example the nature of the polymer extrudate and drug extraction often makes sample preparation difficult and time consuming.  This workshop aims to demonstrate the application of near-infrared (NIR) as a PAT tool to optimize the R&D process, to eliminate the need for sample preparation and time consuming off-line analyses, plus allow easy transfer of this monitoring method to production.

 
Sonochemistry and nanoparticles

Sonochemistry entails application of ultrasound waves to affect chemical/physical reactions as well as to develop polymeric nanoparticles.  Sonochemistry has numerous applications in chemical synthesis, electrochemistry, environmental protection, food technology and material science.  It is very well known that this method can produce particles in nanometre range with narrow particle size distribution and high zeta potential values, essential for the long term stability of nanodispersions.  The aim of this workshop is to demonstrate the application of low frequency ultrasonic waves in the formulation of nanodispersions after a pre-emulsification step.