Monitoring and end-point prediction of a small scale wet granulation process using acoustic emission

Abstract

A study to establish if acoustic emission could be used to monitor a small scale (120 g batch size) high shear granulation process and predict the process end-point, is reported. The robustness of the prediction model was further assessed by changing process variables. It is demonstrated that the technique is capable of repeatedly producing granules with consistent physical characteristics, such as particle size distribution and bulk density, despite changes in batch size and liquid dose rates. It is demonstrated that the model was affected by changes in impeller speed such that it was unable to identify a process end-point.

Keywords::

• Acoustic emission
• high shear granulation
• small scale
• end-point prediction

Acknowledgments

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.