6th International Granulation Workshop: Sheffield, UK

Members of the Department’s Particle Products Group are now recovering after a busy week hosting the 6th International Granulation Workshop in Sheffield. The Workshop consisted of two parts: a two day Granulation Course (24-25 June), and immediately followed by a Conference (26-28 June).

The Granulation Course was hosted at the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering in Sir Robert Hadfield Building, and provided a comprehensive introduction to granulation science. Participants were very diverse, from PhD students to industry members, from across the world, coming from as far as Brazil and New Zealand. The course consisted of a series of lectures from experts in academia and industry, including:

1. Introduction to Granulation, (James Cartwright, GSK)
2. Wet Shear Granulation Regime Map (Dr Ian Gabbott, AstraZeneca)
3. Batch Granulation: Process and Formulation Variables (Prof. Agba Salman, University of Sheffield)
4. Continuous Processing in the Pharmaceutical Industry (James Cartwright, GSK)
5. Powder Characterisation (Prof. Stefan Palzer, Nestle)
6. Mathematical Modeling of Granulation Processes (Prof. Jim Litster, Purdue University)
7. Troubleshooting in Granulation Processes, Mr Nigel Somerville Roberts (P&G)

The course also consisted of hands-on laboratory practical sessions:

1. Continuous Granulation (James Cartwright, GSK)
2. Roller compaction (Dr Bindhu Gururajan, Novartis)
3. Extrusion: Spheronisation (Dr Csaba Sinka, University of Leicester)
4. Batch Granulation (Dr Bob Sochon, GSK & James Osborne, Nestle Research)
5. Tabletting (Dr Vikram Chouk, Addivant Global Technology)
6. Finished product characterisation (Dr YuenSin Cheong, P&G)

The course was immediately followed by the Granulation Conference, which took place in Sheffield’s prestigious Cutlers’ Hall, located near the Cathedral. The event was a huge success with about 250 attendees from extremely various backgrounds. It was opened on the 26th by Sheffield’s Engineering Pro Vice Chancellor, Prof. Mike Hounslow, followed by a welcome by Sheffield Engineering’s Prof. Agba Salman.

Prof. Hounslow then proceeded to give the first plenary lecture: “It's not well mixed, and they don't all have the same composition: a multi-compartment, multi component model of high-shear granulation”.

The second plenary lecture was given by Prof. Stefan Palzer, a visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield, who currently serves as the Global R&D Director for Beverages at Nestle, based at the corporate headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland. His talk was entitled “Particle Technology Delivering Solutions for Nutrition, Health, and Wellness”, in the image to the left.

In addition to the plenary lectures, the Sheffield Particle Products Group had a very strong presence in the parallel sessions, which ranged in topics, including:

• Processing for Granulation
• Applications
• Mechanistic Description
• Micro-scale granules
• Modelling.

Presenting:

• Alessandra Alves Negreiros (PhD Student): Microscale study of particle agglomeration in fat-based food suspensions: The effect of binding liquid
• W. Robert Mitchell (PhD Student): Mapping the limiting regimes of food powder reconstitution in a standard mixing vessel
• Christine I. Haider (PhD Student): Elastic behaviour of glassy cohesive maltodextrin in particle contact experiments
• Riyadh Bakir Al-Asady (PhD Student): Roller compactor: The effect of mechanical properties of primary particles.
• Ei Leen Chan (PhD Student): DEM investigation of horizontal high shear mixer flow behaviour and implications for scale-up

In addition, several posters were presented by the group:

• Menan Balashanmugam: Evaluating the solid surface free energy of amorphous maltodextrin
• Chalak Omar: Roller compaction/ comparison of ribbon and granule properties using different types of lactose
• Syed Islam: Movement of secondary immiscible liquid into a suspension of hydrophilic particles in a continuous hydrophobic phase
• Alessandra Alves Negreiros: Agglomeration of particles in oil-continuous suspensions driven by liquid bridges
• Riyadh B. Al-Asady: Twin screw granulator: Effect of primary particle size
• Christine I. Haider: Assessment of single particle contact mechanisms and cohesion under controlled temperature and humidity
• W. Robert Mitchell: Glass transition temperature effects on the breakage and dissolution of single amorphous food particles
• Zhiyu Wang: A comparison of granule properties between impeller slash in high shear mixer and screw rotation in twin screw extruder
• Ei Leen Chan: Blade - granule bed stress in a cylindrical high shear granulator: Further characterisation with DEM
• Waleed Al Nasser: Comparison of the effect of ultrasound and an electronic anti fouling system on the aggregation and scaling behaviour of calcium carbonate by an inline technique
• Menan Balashanmugam: Semi-solid binder dispersion in detergent agglomeration

Two of our colleagues were even recognized for their outstanding posters.

• Ei Leen Chan was awarded 2nd Place for the “Best Poster” Award, sponsored by TTC, the Technology Training Center, Binzen, Germany:
• Riyadh Bakir was awarded 1st Place for the “Best Pharmaceutically Relevant Poster”, sponsored by GSK (image to the right).

During the awards ceremony, Prof. Salman recognized Dr. Kate Pitt (Post-Doc, University of Sheffield) for her outstanding contribution to the organisation of both the Granulation Course and the Conference. According to Prof. Salman, without Kate’s hard work and dedication, this workshop would not have been possible.

Finally, Prof. Salman also acknowledged the contribution of the PhD students in his group to helping make sure that the workshop ran smoothly.

Congrats for a job well done, PPG!

Additional information and pictures from the Course and Conference can be found at

www.sheffield.ac.uk/agglom/2013