Researchers, students and industry figures from across the globe came together in Switzerland and Sheffield for the international granulation workshop organised by the Department of Chemical and Biological Engienering (CBE). The three day granulation conference was hosted by Nestle, Switzerland and three day granulation course was hosted by the University of Sheffield.
The Conference was opened by Prof. Gerhard Niederreiter (Nestle Research), followed by a welcome speech from Prof. Stefan Palzer (Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Nestle) who then introduced the first speaker, “Powders and droplets: some reflections on quantifying nucleation” by Vice President and Head of Faculty of Engineering at Sheffield Prof. Mike Hounslow. The second lecture was then given by Prof. Frantisek Stepanek, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague.
The second day lectures were given by leading experts from both the food industry Prof. Gerhard Niederreiter (Department of technology, Nestle Research, Switzerland) and the pharmaceutical industry Dr. Richard Green (Senior Director in Drug Product Design group, Pfizer, UK).
In addition to the lectures CBE's Sheffield Particle Products Group had a presence in the parallel sessions, which ranged in topics, including: reconstitution/dissolution, mixing, compression as well as wet and dry granulation.
Poster prizes were also given by industry (GSK, AstraZeneca, Glatt & Alexanderwerk) for topics ranging from best pharmaceutically relevant poster to most innovative research. During the conference, the outstanding contributions to the granulation community of Prof Karl Sommer was also recognised.
The Granulation Course was held at the University of Sheffield in the Department as well as the Diamond Pilot Plant utilising the Continuous tabletting line ConsiGma25. This provided a broad introduction and hands on experience to granulation science in both batch and continuous processes. The course and practical sessions consisted of a series of lectures from experts in academia and global industry companies (Nestle, GSK, The University of Sheffield, Hallidex, NSR Innovation, AstraZeneca, Alexanderwerk, University of Leicester, EIRICH, Addivant Global Technology & Retsch technology).
Additional information and pictures from the Course and Conference
