See Engineering for a comprehensive overview of our capabilities.

Our core expertise is the development and troubleshooting of crystallization processes across the range of chemical industries from fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals to bulk inorganics, harnessing the power of acoustic cavitation.

Hitherto the phenomenon of using ultrasound to influence nucleation had been used to build a strong base of research knowledge. Traditional probe-based technology, used as the method of delivery for ultrasound, was the key limiting factor to its application at process scale. Probe systems are power inefficient, and do not transmit the ultrasonic energy uniformly, leading to non-standard nucleation. Further, transmission of the ultrasonic field to bulk volumes is precluded as the acoustic field emanating from a probe suffers geometric losses (attenuation) restricting the distance over which the field may be transmitted. As such probes are not practical for commercial scale production.

To address this, Prosonix has designed its piezoelectric-based Prosonitron^TM equipment high throughput ultrasonic flow cell device where the application of ultrasound occurs in a cylindrical duct. The transducers supplying the ultrasound are mounted on the outer wall of the vessel and are not in direct contact with the products being processed. Arrays of transducers around the central duct focus the acoustic field into the centre, ensuring that an appropriate power density is achieved in the process fluid.

The cell modules can be operated in batch (e.g. to generate in-situ seed crystals), continuous recirculation or continuous once-through mode. Cell modules can be combined together to increase residence time and allow large volumes to be insonated at process scale. The material of construction is matched to reaction duty and the device is self cleaning, working with equal performance over a range of product loading and viscosities.

The Prosonotron equipment uses a number of low-power transducers (now 21 in a 5 litre flow-cell and 42 in a 7.5 L flow-cell) bonded to the outside of a cylindrical duct as shown for Prosonitrons P500HD and P750HD. One of our newest cells, with one row of 7 transducers, the SL250HD, has been designed specifically for kilo-lab and pilot plant use, either as a recirculation or continuous mode.

The equipment is modular and easily cleaned for cGMP production. It can be ATEX-approved where required and, because of its design, it can be steam-sterilized and is therefore useful for the aseptic manufacture of, for example, antibiotics.

For manufacturing operations, it is more usual to configure a smaller ultrasonic flow-cell into recirculation loop, as shown for the SL250HD and larger devices as shown in the photograph and for DISCUS^TM, with a larger and existing reactor, crystallizer, bioreactor or fermenter.

It certainly seems more sensible to use this ‘retro-fit’ option and to be able to wheel the ultrasonic module from vessel to vessel or plant to plant than to build larger ultrasonic reactors. This configuration can also be modified easily to incorporate a secondary feed stream of solute solution or anti-solvent directly into the intense ultrasonic field as shown for DISCUS.

Prosonitron combines:

• * Low surface intensity to avoid surface erosion.
• * Moderate power input focused into the heart of the process liquid to avoid over processing.
• * Residence time of several seconds to allow time for process kinetics, heat transfer and mixing to keep  pace.
• * No internal moving parts and easy clean polished surfaces.

Depending upon your requirements and scale-up our engineering team can custom design ATEX Prosonitron equipment to your specification. The Prosonitron design benefits include the ease of maintaining specific power input to the process liquid and surface intensity at all scales, coupled with the ability to reproduce flow regime and residence time by configuration choice. This results in a system that can deliver consistent processing throughout scale-up from pilot to production. The equipment can be provided with a skid / trolley mounting and comes with purged cabinet and purged Prosonitron enclosures.

The P500 or P750 skid mounted systems allows mounting of between 1 and 4 flow-cells with a processing power ranging from 500 to 5000 W. A parallel mode design is arranged so as to optimise flow regime to suit steady ultrasonic input. Provision can be made for the inclusion of pipe reducers in order to smooth flow streamlines into and out of the cells. With typically 2 inch (50 mm) ANSI end fittings and a compact vertical orientation, most manufacturing systems have a foot print less than 2 m ².

Prosonix systems are used worldwide at commercial scale in the pharmaceutical and minerals industries. Join the Sonocrystallization revolution today with easy retro-fit equipment or superior primary and secondary product API manufactured on your behalf.