Recent developments in electrical resistance tomography for the pharmaceutical industries

Although process tomography is still in its infancy, the capability to image the interior of process units in 3D is expected to become an important component in PAT in the future. Some recent developments in electrical resistance tomography (ERT) are reviewed. Illustrative images of mixing in stirred vessels and conductivity distributions in wet filter cakes are presented in various computer graphic formats. The potential of process tomography to promote innovation from the conventional stirred batch reactor is highlighted. In future improved process imaging will result from combining more than a single modality, for example ERT combined with x-rays, t-rays, optics, acoustics, or MRI.