What is the fuss about continuous crystallisation?
Professor Xiongwei Ni, BSc, PhD, CEng, CSci, FIChemE, FRSCHeriot-Watt University
80% pharmaceutical active ingredients
(APIs) and ~60% of fine/specialty compounds are produced in crystalline form.
Traditional stirred tank vessels have been the workhorse since the industrial
revolution. So why and what is the fuss about continuous crystallisation? In
this presentation, Prof Ni shall explain why flow is important and illustrate
how plug flow can be achieved and implemented in crystallisation; will use real
industrial cease studies to demonstrate that significant step change benefits
can be achieved using this type of plug flow technology in lab, pilot and
industrial scales. The presentation will simulate interesting discussion, promote
innovation and renew confidence in identifying new, useful and perhaps
unexpected applications using plug flow reactors.
Biography
Professor Xiongwei Ni was involved in the
development of oscillatory flow technology at its inception in 1988 at the
University of Cambridge, UK. He has over 20 years’ research experience and the
world expert in the science and technological applications of oscillatory
baffled reactors (OBR). Xiongwei has been a Full Professor in Chemical
Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh since 1999, is the lead author
or principal co-author of over 180 scientific papers on OBR related research as
well as 8 patents. He was the keynote speaker at American Institute of Chemical
Engineering Annual Meetings, Process Intensification Conferences, Scientific
Update Conferences, Industrial Seminars of Process Engineering, Society of
Chemical Industry Symposium and the Royal Society of Chemistry Symposiums;
delivered invited seminars at Universities in the USA, Europe, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, UK, China and Japan. A chartered Chemical Engineer, a
Fellow of IChemE and a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry, he is the UK
representative in Process Intensification in the European Federation of
Chemical Engineering. He span off a company, NiTech Solutions Ltd
(www.nitechsolutions.co.uk), in 2005 specializing continuous flow technology
that handles solids including crystallization, has directly involved in a large
number of continuous crystallization of APIs, fine chemicals and food products,
and has gained significant insight into this type of operation.