Selection of process scheme and conditions for drying of pharmaceutical materials

Abstract The work presents the method and tool for reuse of experimental data in the selection of dryer and its operating conditions for drying pharmaceutical materials. The method involves 3 stages: screening, retrieval, and refining. First stage includes screening of materials on the basis of their toxicity and other critical properties for the selection according to the proposed classification. In second stage, the materials with the most similar properties to the material under consideration are found. The process data such as dryer design, operating conditions and process parameters, which is used for drying of corresponding similar materials, are retrieved and provided as a preliminary solution for the drying problem. Third stage can be used in two ways: to refine the obtained solutions based on comparison with the proposed classifications, and to derive new solution based on method of decision trees. The tool, proposed to find the appropriate drying system and its specifications, is developed as script in Microsoft Excel. It consists of the case-based reasoning routine and the rule-based reasoning one based on constructed decision trees. It is implemented as a macrocode and questionnaires. The developed tool has been used to select the drying process requirements for few materials used in pharmaceutical industry. The paper includes example of drying of barium titanate.