Dr.-Ing. Claas Steenweg

For the paradigm shift from batch to continuous operation in pharmaceutical industry, innovative process solutions are required to extend unit operations that have historically been batch operations, such as crystallization. Different concepts for continuous crystallization are present to improve the product qualities such as crystal size, shape, and purity. However, crystallization needs additional downstream processes as filtration, washing and drying to obtain the final product.

These continuous isolation techniques are relatively rare in the pharmaceutical industry and specialty chemical industry, because of relatively low production capacities. The lack of commercial laboratory and manufacturing continuous filtration units leads to a significant gap in the development of full continuous manufacturing processes. Thus, a continuous small-scale solid/liquid filtration device will be developed and characterized. Subsequently, the device will be connected to different continuous crystallizers to enable a full continuous process.
Funding: This research work is funded by the state of North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW) and the European Regional Development Fund (EFRE), Project “NRW Patent Validation Program” (Grant EFRE-0400357)

Patent

• Claas Steenweg, Gerhard Schembecker, Kerstin Wohlgemuth
  Rotating-Screw Drying Reactor – Schneckenfördertrocknungsreaktor
  WO 2021/148108 A1

Dissertation

• C. Steenweg
  Design, Characterization, and Operation of a Modular Continuous Vacuum Screw Filter
  TU Dortmund, 2022, Verlag Dr. Hut, München ISBN 978-3-8439-5050-3

Paper

• Claas Steenweg, Jonas Habicht, Kerstin Wohlgemuth
  Continuous Isolation of Particles with Varying Aspect Ratios up to Thin Needles Achieving Free-Flowing Products
  Crystals 12 (2) (2022) 137, Crystals 12 (2) (2022) 137, doi.org/10.3390/cryst12020137
   
• Claas Steenweg, Anne Cathrine Kufner, Jonas Habicht, Kerstin Wohlgemuth
  Towards Continuous Primary Manufacturing Processes - Particle Design through Combined Crystallization and Particle Isolation
  Processes (2021), 9, 2187, doi.org/10.3390/pr9122187
   
• Claas Steenweg, Astrid Ina Seifert, Nils Böttger, Kerstin Wohlgemuth
  Process Intensification enabling Continuous Manufacturing Processes using Modular Continuous Vacuum Screw Filter
  Org. Process Res. Dev. (2021) 25, 11, 2525–2536, doi.org/10.1021/acs.oprd.1c00294
   
• Claas Steenweg, Astrid Ina Seifert, Gerhard Schembecker, Kerstin Wohlgemuth
  Characterization of a Modular Continuous Vacuum Screw Filter for Small-Scale Solid-Liquid Separation of Suspensions
  Org. Process Res. Dev. (2021) 25, 4, 926–940, doi.org/10.1021/acs.oprd.0c00550
   
• Claas Steenweg, Kerstin Wohlgemuth
  Von der Suspension zum getrockneten Produkt mittels neuartigem Vakuumschraubenfilter
  Filtrieren & Separieren 2021, 4, 4-11

Oral presentations

• A.C. Kufner, C. Steenweg, J. Habicht, K. Wohlgemuth     
  Process integration of continuous Slug Flow Crystallization and product isolation using Modular Continuous Vacuum Screw Filter     
  Jahrestreffen der ProcessNet-Fachgruppe “Kristallisation”, Dortmund, Germany (2022)
   
• A.C. Kufner, C. Steenweg, J. Habicht, K. Wohlgemuth
  Towards a continuous crystal process chain of high quality products 
  CKB-Symposium, Düsseldorf, Germany (2021)

• C. Steenweg, J. Habicht, K. Wohlgemuth
  Continuous Particle Isolation by Solid-Liquid Separation, Washing, and Drying using the Small-Scale Continuous Vacuum Screw Filter
  3th European Congress of Chemical Engineering and 6th European Congress of Applied Biotechnology (2021)
   
• C. Steenweg, J. Habicht, G. Schembecker, K. Wohlgemuth
  Integrated Process Design of Continuous Solid-Liquid Separation, Washing, and Drying for Crystal Suspensions with Varying Crystal Shapes
  21st ISIC - International Symposium on Industrial Crystallization (2021)
   
• C. Steenweg, A. Seifert, G. Schembecker, K. Wohlgemuth
  Characterization of a Continuous Small-Scale Solid-Liquid Separator for Filtration, Washing, and Drying of Pharmaceutical Suspensions
  12th PBP World Meeting on Pharmaceutics, Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology (2021)
   
• C. Steenweg, N. Böttger, A. Seifert, G. Schembecker, K. Wohlgemuth
  Holistic product quality control throughout the crystallization process chain focusing on continuous crystal isolation
  Jahrestreffen der ProcessNet-Fachgruppe Kristallisation (2021)
   
• C. Steenweg, N. Böttger, G. Schembecker, K. Wohlgemuth
  Characterizing the Residence Time Distribution and Washing Zone within an Innovative Continuous Small-Scale Solid-Liquid Separator
  Jahrestreffen der ProcessNet-Fachgruppe Mechanische Flüssigkeitsabtrennung (2021)
   
• Claas Steenweg, Gerhard Schembecker, Kerstin Wohlgemuth
  Crystal Product Design of Amino- and Dicarboxylic Acids
  CKB-Symposium, Düsseldorf (2019)