Topic 3 Flashcards
Define equilibrium moisture content
The portion of water in a wet solid that cannot be removed by inlet air because of the humidity of the inlet air.
Define free water
The difference between total water content of the solid and emc
Define bound moisture
- exerts and equilibbrium vapour pressure less than that of free water at the same temperature
- how this moisture is retained depends on nature of solid, it may be retained in fine capillaries, adsorbed onto surfaces or within a cell or fibre walls, or in physical/chemical combination with the solid
Define unbound moisture
exerts an equilibrium vapour pressure equal to water at same temperature. This water is retained in the voids of solids
Why don’t we dry beyond emc?
Solid cannot be dried past emc as materials exposed to humid conditions will regain moisture, the solid will regain moisture from the inlet air. there is no advantage in drying to moisture content lower than that which material will have under conditions of use
2 mechanisms of moisture movement + dedscribe?
- Diffusion theory - rate of movement of water to the air interface is governed by rate transfer
- Capillary theory - the forces controlling the movemt of water are capillary arising from the minute pore spaces between the individual particles
Describe rate of drying w/ ref to graph (in slides)
AB: constant drying rate
- drying takes place by evaporation of moisture from a saturated surface
- involves diffusion of water vapour through a ‘stationary’ air film and into bulk of the air
BC: 1st falling rate period
- Point B - critical moisture content
- at this point, surface of the solid is no longer saturated and ‘dry spots’ appear
- the outside wet area may reduce progressively and rate of drying falls off
- Point C - original surface film has evaporated completely
- Beyond this point, rate of drying is controlled by rate of moisture movement through the solid
CD: second falling rate period
- drying rate largely independent of conditions outside solid
- for example, if moisture transfer from within solid to surface is by vapour diffusion, the forces which control this diffusion determine drying rate
- Point D - end of drying where moisture content of solid is at it’s emc
Types of drying methods?
Convective drying
- tray dryers
- fluid bed dryers
Conductive drying
- vacuumn oven
- vacuum tumble dryers
Radiation drying
- microwave dryers
Dryers for dilute solutions and suspensions
- drum dryers
- spray dryers
Freeze drying - lyophilization
Key considerations for drying?
- heat sensitivity of powder
- powder physical characteristics like particle size, distribution
- nature of liquid to be removed
- scale of opoeration
- necessity for aseptic operation
- heat sources (steal, electrical)
General principles for efficient drying?
- large surface area for heat transfer
- efficient heat transfer per unit area
- efficient mass transfer of evaporated water through any surrounding boundary layers i.e. sufficient turbulence to minimize boundary layer thickness
- efficient vapour removal i.e. low relative humidity air at adequate velocity
Describe tray dryers + considerations
Convective dryer
- consists of a cabinet containing trays connected to hot air or nitrogen source. powder to be dried is placed on these trays
- air temperature controlled by thermostat usually between 60-8-degc
- air enters bottom of chamber below trays and rises through the trays of powder being dried, then exits from an opeoning at top of chamber
- trays designed to force air to follow a longer zigzag route which increases air/powder contact time -> allowing efficient drying
Considerations:
- provide large surface area to drying powder for effction moisture removal by convection
- relative humidity of drying air must be much below its saturation point
- maintain turbulent airflow over powder surface
- constant air temperature
- suitable for friable material
Describe Fluid bed dryer +
Describe spray dryers + adv and disadv
Dryer for dilute solutions and suspensions
- large surface area for heat and mass trasnfer by atomizing the liquid or slurry to small droplets
- droplets sprayed into stream of hot air so each droplet dries to an individual solid particle
- particle size controlled by type of Atomiizer hence choice is critical
- jet atomizers easy blocked by rapid evaporation and deposition of solid particles on nozzle and droplet size likey to vary, hence rotary type atomizers overcome this problem
- air enters chamber tangentially and rotates drying powder droplets to increase their residence time. Dust carried over in air outlet stream recovered by cyclone separator or filter bag
Adv:
- suitable for heat sensitive products (can be spray dried easily at relatively high temps), temperature at droplet kept low due to evaporative cooling
- fast drying due to millions of small droplets -> large surface area for heat/mass transfer
- high bulk density product achieved -> hence rapid dissolutino
- free flowing product with spherical particles achieved
- uniform size due to atomization
- minimize product handling (dry powder from dilute suspension achieved -> filtration NOT REQUIRED)
- can be operated aseptically by using sterile air filtered by HEPA
Disadv:
- bulky equipment with anciallry equipment (requires more space)
- high equipment cost
- low thermal efficiency as hot exaust air required to prevent condensation of moisture
- high maintenance cost on bag filters/atomizers/sterile filters/HEPA
Need for milling and size control?
- particle size of ingredients in a formulation, especially API greatly impacts bioperformance and process capability
- produce consistent results in vivo and can be manufactureed reporducibly
- milling increases surface area of solids -> increase dissolution rate -> affects bioavailability of drug
- dissolution rate directly proportional to particle size
- mean size and particle size distribution of API relative to excipients to be mixed with can influence tendency of API to segregate/not mix uniformly with other ingredients
What is segregation
the tendency of particles to separate according to their physical properties
- occurs due to difference in particle size, shape, density etc
- particle size plays the most important role in segregation