To expand its penicillin production capacities, our customer was looking for a technology that would minimize heating of the product during the wetting and dispersing process, ensure trouble-free powder addition and an exact solids-to-water mixing ratio while taking up as little space as possible and minimizing foaming in the product.The customer opted for the continuous powder wetting and dispersing system YSTRAL Coflow and now has three identical Coflow dispersers in operation, each mixing a solid (API) into water.
Process plant for precursors in penicillin production
- Industry:
- Pharmaceutical industry
- End product:
- Penicillin
- Application:
- Wetting and dispersing solids (API) in water
The customer requirements:
- Capacity: approx. 4.5 t / h
- Batch size: approx. 20 t
- Space requirement: 1.6 m x 0.8 m x 1.3 m
- Degree of automation: high
- Powder feed: from storage container
- Cleanability: automated
- Solids content: approx. 44 %
- Liquid supply: automatically
Advantages of the ystral process plant
- The YSTRAL Coflow enables powder wetting and dispersion in one passage without a mixing tank.
- The powdered solids are fed into the water feed, mixed and dispersed in controlled quantities by means of a differential scale.
- The solids and water are combined in a premixing zone and fine dispersion then takes place via a rotor-stator system, whereby the dispersion tools can be designed with different slot widths depending on the application.
- The energy input of the YSTRAL Coflow is very low due to the short dwell time in the mixing chamber. Due to the dispersion in the continuous process, the product is heated less with the Coflow in contrast to a batch process with conventional agitating tools and the raw materials can therefore be processed more gently.
- An inducer integrated between the premixing zone and the rotor-stator zone increases the pressure of the product. This change in pressure separates the air carried in with the powder, which is pressed upwards against the product movement and separated.
- The solids content of approx. 44 % can be easily realized by the YSTRAL Coflow. Depending on the application, solids concentrations of up to 80 % are possible with the Coflow. The integrated inducer serves as an axial pumping stage to process even highly viscous products and pump them out of the dispersing stage.
- The addition of the powder is trouble-free, i.e. without blockages or splashing back of water, which can lead to build-up in the discharge chute.
- Cleaning the system is simple and time-saving due to the small surface area in contact with the product.
- With dimensions of just 1.6 m x 0.8 m x 1.3 m per Coflow, the three dispersion systems could be easily accommodated in the customer's existing premises.
