Richardson Bursar Ali Saleemi reports on BIWIC 2010, which was held at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany, on 8-10 September 2010.
At the International Workshop on Industrial Crystallization I gave an oral presentation ‘Application of Direct Nucleation Control approach on laboratory and pilot plant scale, using FBRM’ and a poster presentation ‘Separation and Monitoring of the crystallization of mixture of aminobenzoic acid isomers using ATR UV/Vis and FBRM’ based on my research.
The primary focus of the work was to show the usefulness and importance of process analytical technology (PAT) in crystallization processes. My lecture was aimed at using focused beam reflectance measurement for obtaining desired crystal size distribution and scale up using feedback control and its comparison with other control strategies. The talk was well received by the audience, especially people from industry, and I had some very useful discussions with them on different issues related to scale up and application of PAT. It also helped me to realize the difficulties one faces at industrial level and how to address them. I believe that the work related to obtaining uniform and desired crystal size distribution and scale up attracted the engineers/scientists from industry as there are not frequently discussed together in academia. The poster topic was about using crystallization as a separation technique for isomers when they are present together in the solution and development of a calibration model for a multi-component mixture. I had some useful discussions with people who have been researching in similar area.
Approximately 125 people from 30 different countries participated in the conference with 20 oral and 51 poster presentations. The main topics covered were: molecular modeling, fundamentals of crystallization, product and process design (polymorphism, salvation, stability, chiral separation, fine chemicals, and pharmaceuticals), industrial process technologies, intensified processes and equipment (external fields, micro technology, hybrid processes).
The conference helped me to understand the ongoing research in the field and also to broaden my vision about the possible applications of my work on the industrial scale. All this will enable me to devise a research plan for my future work.
During the conference I met Professor Joachim Ulrich a very well know figure in the crystallization community and some experts from the industry.
Ali N Saleemi
Loughborough University
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