(139b) On the Applications of Pervaporation in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Pervaporation is a tried and tested membrane technology in the chemical industry. However, the applications of pervaporation have been seldomly practiced in the pharmaceutical industry.

The use of either hydrophilic or hydrophobic membranes in pervaporation can allow for the selective removal of solvent/s from a mixture of solvents. Several unit processes in the manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are sensitive to the presence of water, and hence removal of water is a ubiquitous operation in the pharmaceutical industry. It is typically achieved through distillations, commonly known as chase or azeo-distillations. These distillations could use exorbitant amounts of organic solvents to achieve the desired water content. Hydrophilic pervaporation membranes that can selectively remove water out of a solution, can be very effective at addressing this problem.

In this work, we will present case studies depicting use of pervaporation to optimize several standard unit operations in the pharmaceutical industry such as chemical reaction, distillation, and crystallization. We will highlight how pervaporation can help to design alternate processes that are greener and robust.

Disclosure:

Akshay Korde, Sharad Maheshwari, Manish Kelkar, Shashank Shekhar, Ryan Ellis, Sarah Co, Eric Moschetta, Harsit Patel, and Nandkishor Nere are employees of AbbVie. Moussa Boukerche is a former AbbVie employee. All authors may own AbbVie stock. AbbVie sponsored and funded the study; contributed to the design; participated in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, and in writing, reviewing, and approval of the final publication.