For Pharmaceutical Applications
There are numerous needs in the pharmaceutical industry to use and recover high purity solvents. In the pharmaceutical industry, it is especially important to minimize or eliminate any extractables and leachables that could be introduced by processing equipment. The NIH grant will support CMS’s development of a novel membrane module that can lead to extremely high dehydration rates with high separation capabilities based totally on perfluoropolymer components. This program aims to reduce contaminates in the solvent systems by 90%.
This module is designed to be highly chemically resistant to virtually all solvents including harsh pH’s, aprotics, alcohols, organic acids, ketones, and amines to name a few. This technology will also be developed with flow chemistry applications in mind. The use of flow chemistry allows for greener, more efficient, production of new and established pharmaceutical ingredients. Unlike traditional separation technology, membranes are ideal for continuous processes, and CMS believes that they are an enabling technology for the development of flow chemistry.
Green Implications: The EPA has established new safeguards for hazardous secondary materials recycling. The objectives of these new safeguards are to promote the economic, environmental, and public health benefits of recycling waste, with an emphasis on several industrial sectors, including the pharmaceutical industry. On average, pharmaceutical manufacturers use at least 100 kg of solvents to produce 1 kg of active pharmaceutical ingredient. The EPA has determined that the environmental impacts from the solvents used as manufacturing and processing aids could be significantly reduced if the product life of solvents for these purposes were extended to more than a single use.
