Process modelling, simulation and technoeconomic evaluation of crystallisation antisolvents for the continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing of rufinamide

Antisolvent Precipitation for Metal Recovery from Citric Acid Solution in Recycling of NMC Cathode Materials

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are widely used everywhere today, and their recycling is very important. This paper addresses the recovery of metals from NMC111 (LiNi1/3Mn1/3Co1/3O2) cathodic materials by leaching followed by antisolvent precipitation. Ultrasound-assisted leaching of the cathodic material was performed in 1.5 mol L−1 citric acid at 50 °C and at a solid-to-liquid ratio of 20 g/L. Nickel(II), manganese(II) and cobalt(II) were precipitated from the leach liquor as citrates at 25 °C by adding an antisolvent (acetone or ethanol). No lithium(I) precipitation occurred under the experimental conditions, allowing for lithium separation. The precipitation efficiencies of manganese(II), cobalt(II) and nickel(II) decreased according to the order Mn > Co > Ni. The precipitation efficiency increased when a greater volume of antisolvent to the leachate was used. A smaller volume of acetone than ethanol was needed to reach the same precipitation efficiency in accordance with the difference in the dielectric constants of ethanol and acetone and their associated solubility constants. After adding two volumes of acetone into one volume of the leach liquor, 99.7% manganese, 97.0% cobalt and 86.9% nickel were recovered after 120 h, leaving lithium in the liquid phase. The metal citrates were converted into metal oxides by calcination at 900 °C.

Investigating the Trade-Off between Design and Operational Flexibility in Continuous Manufacturing of Pharmaceutical Tablets: A Case Study of the Fluid Bed Dryer

Market globalisation, shortened patent lifetimes and the ongoing shift towards personalised medicines exert unprecedented pressure on the pharmaceutical industry. In the push for continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing, processes need to be shown to be agile and robust enough to handle variations with respect to product demands and operating conditions. In this paper we examine the use of operational envelopes to study the trade-off between the design and operational flexibility of the fluid bed dryer at the heart of a tablet manufacturing process. The operating flexibility of this unit is key to the flexibility of the full process and its supply chain. The methodology shows that for the fluid bed dryer case study there is significant effect on flexibility of the process at different drying times with the optimal obtained at 700s. The flexibility is not affected by the change in volumetric flowrate, but only by the change in temperature. Here the method used a black box model to show how it could be done without access to the full model equation set, as this often needs to be the case in commercial settings.

ExtractionScore: A Quantitative Framework for Evaluating Synthetic Routes on Predicted Liquid-Liquid Extraction Performance

A multitude of metrics exist to assign scores to synthetic routes within computer-aided synthesis planning (CASP) tools. A quantitative scoring method is necessary to identify the most promising synthetic approaches to a molecule. However, current CASP tools are limited in their capacity to evaluate reaction selectivity and are unable to fully account for the effect of side products on the purification sequences associated with chemical syntheses. We develop a novel quantitative metric called ExtractionScore for evaluating synthetic routes based on the predicted identities of side products as well as the separability of major and side products by liquid-liquid extraction based on chemical property prediction. By comparing industrially practiced routes to a collection of 200 pharmaceutically relevant compounds with routes suggested by state-of-the-art CASP software, we show that ExtractionScore may improve retrosynthetic recommendations by incorporating information about the formation of side products.

Flow synthesis kinetics for lomustine, an anti-cancer active pharmaceutical ingredient

An original reaction mechanism and kinetic parameter estimation has been achieved for lomustine, an anti-cancer active pharmaceutical ingredient (API).

An automated modular assembly line for drugs in a miniaturized plant

We report here a fully automated, end-to-end, integrated continuous manufacturing process for a small-molecule generic medication with built-in quality assurance. The entire process fits into a box of 30.7 m2 modular footprint and a total residence time of less than 30 h, with a throughput up to 40.3 × 106 tablets per year.

Continuous reactive crystallization of an API in PFR-CSTR cascade with in-line PATs

The influence of PFR on crystal size distribution, reaction and crystallization yields, and supersaturation level was investigated.

Multistep Solvent-Free 3 m2 Footprint Pilot Miniplant for the Synthesis of Annual Half-Ton Rufinamide Precursor

The development of a pilot-scale synthesis of the rufinamide precursor in flow chemistry is reported. Complex steps such as Taylor-flow, segmented flow, and high-temperature processing at high pressure (high-p,T) are successfully combined, overcoming the mixing and heat transfer issues of the scale-up. The cascaded multistep process operates essentially solvent-free in just 3 m² giving a productivity of 47 g/h (>400 kg/year), which increases by a factor of 7 the lab-scale productivity previously reported as a scale-up proof-of-concept. This publication also includes an economic study of the feasible implementation of this technology for a possible manufacturer, as well as an outline on business development strategies of how to implement such a disruptive technology.

A perspective on Quality-by-Control (QbC) in pharmaceutical continuous manufacturing

The Quality-by-Design (QbD) guidance issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has catalyzed the modernization of pharmaceutical manufacturing practices including the adoption of continuous manufacturing. Active process control was highlighted recently as a means to improve the QbD implementation. This advance has since been evolving into the concept of Quality-by-Control (QbC). In this study, the concept of QbC is discussed, including a definition of QbC, a review of the recent developments towards the QbC, and a perspective on the challenges of QbC implementation in continuous manufacturing. The QbC concept is demonstrated using a rotary tablet press, integrated into a pilot scale continuous direct compaction process. The results conclusively showed that active process control, based on product and process knowledge and advanced model-based techniques, including data reconciliation, model predictive control (MPC), and risk analysis, is indispensable to comprehensive QbC implementation, and ensures robustness and efficiency.

Dynamic Modelling and Optimisation of the Batch Enzymatic Synthesis of Amoxicillin

Amoxicillin belongs to the β-lactam family of antibiotics, a class of highly consumed pharmaceutical products used for the treatment of respiratory and urinary tract infections, and is listed as a World Health Organisation (WHO) “Essential Medicine”. The demonstrated batch enzymatic synthesis of amoxicillin is composed of a desired synthesis and two undesired hydrolysis reactions of the main substrate (6-aminopenicillanic acid (6-APA)) and amoxicillin. Dynamic simulation and optimisation can be used to establish optimal control policies to attain target product specification objectives for bioprocesses. This work performed dynamic modelling, simulation and optimisation of the batch enzymatic synthesis of amoxicillin. First, kinetic parameter regression at different operating temperatures was performed, followed by Arrhenius parameter estimation to allow for non-isothermal modelling of the reaction network. Dynamic simulations were implemented to understand the behaviour of the design space, followed by the formulation and solution of a dynamic non-isothermal optimisation problem subject to various product specification constraints. Optimal reactor temperature (control) and species concentration (state) trajectories are presented for batch enzymatic amoxicillin synthesis.

Micro-electro-flow reactor (μ-EFR) system for ultra-fast arene synthesis and manufacture of daclatasvir

Electro-micro flow reactor containing Pt@Ni@Cu anode materials for reductant free biaryl synthesis, further extended to daclatasvir synthesis.

Second-order isothermal reaction in a semi-batch reactor: modeling, exact analytical solution, and experimental verification

Mathematical model of a semi-batch reactor (SBR) can be employed for tuning the concentration or flow rate of the external-feed of reactants, to control the reaction conditions and product properties.