PhD Scientific Days 2023

Pharmaceutical Sciences - Posters E

Spray Drying Process Parameter Optimization for Co-processed Materials

Text of the abstract

Introduction
Spray drying is an inspiring bottom-up technique in particle engineering for the pharmaceutical and food industry. Spray drying transforms liquids into dry, generally amorphous or partly amorphous powder with spherical particles. The method generates powders with tailor-made characteristics depending on the process parameters, feed composition, and environmental conditions. Co-processing excipients with spray-drying can produce an excipient with optimized features compared to the individual ones.
Aim
The study aimed to optimize the spray drying process parameters for lactose, an important excipient as a drug carrier in dry powder inhalation (DPI) preparations and common filler in the tableting process. The production process parameters can produce the excipient with improved characteristics, such as flow properties, moisture content, and particle morphology.
Additionally, we added different drying aid to a sugar-based material to produce a co-processed excipient and decrease caking, stickiness, and deposition on the wall of the spray dryer.
Future aims will be spray-drying lactose with an active ingredient and co-processed excipients with different compositions.
Methods:
ProCepT Trix 4M8 Spray dryer was used with different cyclone sizes. We tested the influence of spray drying parameters such as inlet air temperature, pump speed, atomization air pressure, and nozzle size on the powder characteristics. We analyzed the morphology of the particles with Image analysis based on microscopic pictures taken with Keyence VHX 980 Digital Microscope and also tested moisture content. The powders’ rheology characteristics were tested. Glass transition temperature and crystallography of powders were also investigated.
Results:
The co-processed excipient minimized the stickiness of the sugar-based materials used in spray drying because the drying agent increased the low glass transition temperature of the sugars, which is the cause of caking and stickiness of sugars in spray drying. The influence of spray drying process parameters on the characteristics of the powder was analyzed.
Conclusion:
We have successfully produced spherically shaped carbohydrate-based micron-sized particles that can be used as excipients for drug delivery systems.
Funding:
Stipendium Hungaricum