A Pharmaceutical Mixture Case Study.
Granular/particulate materials are common in our everyday lives, and their processing consumes ~10% of the world’s energy.Â
Despite their extensive use as well as economic and environmental impacts, far fewer engineering and design principles exist for particulates than for their liquid and gas counterparts. Many industries, including pharmaceuticals, food, agricultural chemicals, detergents, catalysts, and consumer products, manufacture a variety of products from particulate materials. Product or intermediate specifications may include size, size distribution, shape, strength, porosity, and content uniformity of particles or of particulate-based delivery forms.Â
The aim of this work is to design particulate products and processes through the study of fundamental phenomena involved in particle-particle, particle-fluid, and particle-equipment interactions to produce required product specifications.Â
By working backward from the desired end product attributes, this multiscale design approach covers the entire sequence of raw feed formulation handling through equipment processing to the final granular product.Â
This talk will highlight a pharmaceutical mixture case study involving particulate process and product design.Â
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Assistant Professor at Arizona State University
Dr. Heather Emady joined Arizona State University as an assistant professor in Chemical Engineering in January 2015, and has since established a growing research program in particulate process and product design. Her current research efforts include particle wettability, granule formation, bulk particle flowability, granular heat transfer in rotary drums, and discrete element method simulations. Dr. Emady has won prestigious early career grants including the Bisgrove Scholar Award from Science Foundation Arizona and the NSF CAREER Award. She holds B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arizona and Purdue University, respectively. She did postdoctoral work in Procter & Gamble’s Microstructured Fluids group, as well as in Rutgers University’s Catalyst Manufacturing Science and Engineering Consortium (CMSEC) and Engineering Research Center for Structured Organic Particulate Systems (ERC-SOPS).
