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Closed-loop feedback control of a continuous pharmaceutical tablet manufacturing process via wet granulation

By Singh, Ravendra; Barrasso, Dana Chaudhury, Anwesha Sen, Maitraye Ierapetritou, Marianthi Ramachandran, Rohit

Published on

Abstract

The wet granulation route of tablet manufacturing in a pharmaceutical manufacturing process is very common due to its numerous processing advantages such as enhanced powder flow and decreased segregation. However, this route is still operated in batch mode with little (if any) usage of an automatic control system. Tablet manufacturing via wet granulation, integrated with online/inline real time sensors and coupled with an automatic feedback control system, is highly desired for the transition of the pharmaceutical industry toward quality by design as opposed to quality by testing. In this manuscript, an efficient, plant-wide control strategy for an integrated continuous pharmaceutical tablet manufacturing process via wet granulation has been designed in silico. An effective controller parameter tuning strategy involving an integral of time absolute error method coupled with an optimization strategy has been used. The designed control system has been implemented in a flowsheet model that was simulated in gPROMS (Process System Enterprise) to evaluate its performance. The ability of the control system to reject the unknown disturbances and track the set point has been analyzed. Advanced techniques such as anti-windup and scale-up factor have been used to improve controller performance. Results demonstrate enhanced achievement of critical quality attributes under closed-loop operation, thus illustrating the potential of closed-loop feedback control in improving pharmaceutical tablet manufacturing operations.

Journal

Journal of Pharmaceutical Innovation. Volume 9, 2014, 16-37

DOI

10.1007/s12247-014-9170-9

Type of publication

Peer-reviewed journal

Affiliations

  • Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Article Classification

Research article

Classification Areas

  • Oral doses
  • Modeling

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