Continuous particle isolation by a modular continuous vacuum screw filter (CVSF)

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. A small-scale continuous particle isolation device is being developed and characterized combining the process steps of filtration, washing and drying in a modular apparatus. Subsequently, the device is connected to various continuous crystallizers to enable a fully continuous crystal process chain.

Paper

• Anne Cathrine Kufner, Marc Meier, Kerstin Wohlgemuth
  End-to-End Continuous Small-Scale Drug Substance Manufacturing: From a Continuous In Situ Nucleator to Free-Flowing Crystalline Particles
  Crystals 2023, 13(12), 1675, doi.org/10.3390/cryst13121675

Poster presentations

• M. Meier, L. Schoo, H. Bettin, K. Wohlgemuth
  Technical Improvements to the Continuous Vacuum Screw Filter (CVSF) for improved and sustainable particle isolation
  Jahrestreffen der DECHEMA / VDI Fachgruppe “Kristallisation”, Frankfurt, Germany (2024)