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

Data Publications

Oral presentations

• M. P. Meier, C. I. Eicken, D. A. Rysch, J. Marschner, K. Wohlgemuth
  Process Performance Optimization of the Continuous Vacuum Screw Filter for Varying Suspensions
  6^th Braunschweig International Symposium on Pharmaceutical Engineering Research (SPhERe), Braunschweig, Germany, 2025
   
• M. P. Meier, H. J. F. Bettin, J.Marschner, D. Rysch, K. Wohlgemuth
  Transformation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing of Drug Substances
  with the Continuous Vacuum Screw Filter (CVSF)
  International Congress on Particle Technology (PARTEC), Nuremberg, Germany, 2025
   
• M. P. Meier, H. J. F. Bettin, L. Schoo, K. Wohlgemuth
  High Performance Continuous Small-Scale Particle Isolation using Integrated Continuous Vacuum Screw Filter
  ECCE & ECAB & CIBIQ, Lisbon, Portugal, 2025
   
• M. P. Meier, J. Marschner, K. Wohlgemuth
  Enabling High Process Performance of the Continuous Vacuum Screw Filter by Smaller Particles by Variation of Screw Design
  Jahrestreffen der DECHEMA / VDI Fachgruppe „Kristallisation“, Winterthur, Switzerland, 2025
   
• M. P. Meier, D. Rysch, K. Wohlgemuth
  Optimizing Washing Performance within the Continuous Vacuum Screw Filter
  Jahrestreffen der DECHEMA / VDI Fachgruppe „Mechanische Flüssigkeitsabtrennung“, Frankfurt, Germany, 2025
   
• M. P. Meier, H.J.F. Bettin, K. Wohlgemuth
  Understanding the Effect of Screw Design on Continuous Particle Isolation Performance within the Continuous Vacuum Screw Filter
  29^th BIWIC – International Workshop on Industrial Crystallization, Delft, Netherlands, 2024

Poster

• M. P. Meier, L. Schoo, H.J.F. 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