Pharmaceutical Drying

What is Drying?

Drying is the process of removal of final moisture or

other solvent from the product usually by thermal
methods
Non thermal methods of drying are
 Desiccation
 Squeezing
 Applications of Drying in Pharmacy

During the preparation of tablets especially during

wet granulation method
 Wet granulation method
To prepare specialized excipients for direct
compression so that flow ability and compressibility
increases
 Spray dried lactose
To reduce bulkiness due to water and for easy
transport and storage
Applications of Drying in Pharmacy

It helps in easy preservation of certain products like

blood, platelets and plasma
Easy grinding of crude drugs
Improving the stability and prevention of
deterioration by microorganisms
It helps in purification of crystalline products
Spray Dried Lactose
Freeze dried Plasma
 Theory of Drying

Wet mass will have two types of moisture

 Bund Moisture
 Unbound moisture
 Desorption and Absorption

EMC is equilibrium Moisture Content

When air is continuously passed over the solid
containing moisture more than EMC, the solid loses
water till EMC is Reached
Desorption
When air is continuously passed over the solid
containing moisture less than EMC, the solid gains
water till EMC is Reached
Sorption
Drying equations
Rate of drying curve
 Initial Adjustment period

Solid absorbs moisture and the temperature

increases.
Moisture begins to evaporate
 Constant rate Period
Temperature remains constant
Moisture evaporating out side is balanced by moisture
diffusing from interior of the solid
At the end of this period moisture content is called as
CRITICAL MOISTURE CONTENT
 First falling period
Replacement of water is not fast to compensate the
moisture evaporating from surface.
The rate of drying starts falling down
The end point is called second critical point
At this point surface water is completely evaporated
 Second falling period
Replacement of water further slows down and is not
fast to compensate the moisture evaporating from
surface. The rate of drying further falls down
After this drying rate is zero. The end point is called
Equilibrium Moisture Content
 Drying Equipment

Tray Dryer
Spray Dryer
Fluidized Bed Dryer
Freeze Dryer
 Tray Dryer
Principle: Hot air is continuously passed over wet mass and drying takes
place due to forced convection
It consists of rectangular chamber with insulated walls
Trays are arranged inside the chamber
Wet solid is loaded in to trays
Fresh air is introduced in and it passes through heaters and is heated
up\with the help of fan (2-5rpm) the hot air is circulated inside
Water is picked up by air and moist air is removed from outlet
 Advantages, Disadvantages and Uses

Loading and Unloading is easy

Batch wise operation
Batch size can be 250kg-
1000kg
Wide varieties of materials can
be dried
It requires more labor
Time consuming
Thin layers of product is
poured in trays, otherwise heat
distribution is not Uniform
 Spray Dryer
Fluid is dried by atomization into fine droplets and
are thrown radially in to moving stream of hot gas
Due to the formation of fine droplets surface are
available for heat transfer is more
The temperature of the droplets is immediately
increased and fine droplets are dried instantly in the
form of spherical particles
 Spray Dryer

It consists large cylindrical drying chamber with

conical bottom (diameter= 2.5-9.0m and 25m length)
An inlet for hot air is provided at the roof and an
atomizer is also set at the roof
The spray disk atomizes at a speed of 3000-50000rpm
Bottom of the sprayer is connected to a cyclone
separator
Spray Drier
 Spray dryer- drying steps

Atomization of liquid
 Spray disk atomizes the liquid sample in to droplets
Drying of liquid droplets
 Circulating ho air dries the droplets
Recovery of the dried product-
 Centrifugal force drives the droplets in helical path. Particles
are dried and collected at the bottom
 Advantages, Disadvantages and Uses

Drying is done in few seconds (3-

30sec)
Particle size of 2-500mm is obtained
Product will have good flow ability
Large quantities can be dried
Labor cost is less
Efficient heat transfer due to
increased surface area
Solution/ suspension/ thin paste can
be dried
Suitable for sterile drying
Very bulky and expensive equipment
 Fluidized Bed Dryer

It contains vertical/ horizontal SS/

plastic cylinder
Detachable perforated bowl is
present at the bottom. Material to
be dried is loaded here
Fresh air inlet, pre filter and heating
coil are arranged at the bottom
Fan is mounted in the upper part of
cylinder to facilitate uniform
circulation of hot air
Bag filters are arranged at the top to
recover the fines
 Fluidized Bed Dryer

Hot air is passed at high pressure from the bottom

of dryer
Because of the pressure the material to be dried is
lifted from the bottom and suspended in the
stream of air, this is called as fluidized state
The hot air surround the material will completely
dry them. Air leaves from bag filters arranged at
the top
FBD
 Advantages, Disadvantages and Uses

It can be used for Drying, Mixing and

granulation
20-40 minutes is required for drying
Can handle 5-200kg material
Thermal efficiency is more
No hot spots
Thermolabile materials can be dried
Requires small floor space
Electrostatic charge development
chances are more
Attrition is likely
 Freeze dryer

Water is removed from the frozen state by

sublimation (direct conversion of water from solid to
vapor)
It consists of
Drying chamber
Heat supplying element
Vapor condensing system
Vacuum pump
Freeze Dryer
 Steps in freeze drying

Preparation of pretreatment
Pre freezing for solidifying water
Primary drying
Secondary drying
Packing
 Preparation of pretreatment

 Beyond certain liquid depth , freezing drying is not

possible.
 Material to be dried is pre dried.

 This makes the material porous.

 Liquid desiccants can be used for this

 This reduces the actual drying by 8-10 times

 Pre freezing for solidifying water

 Material is put in to ampoules/ vials / bottles and

are frozen in cold shelves at -50C
 Cabinet is maintained at low temperature and
atmospheric pressure
 Slowly at a rate of 3 kelvin/ minute the material
is cooled
 Ice crystals with relatively large holes are formed
 Primary drying

In this step, the temperature and pressure are

maintained below triple point (0.0098 0C and
4.58mmHg pressure)
Vacuum is applied about 3mmHg on frozen sample
Temperature is raised to 30C for a span of 2 hours
This supplies around 2900kJ/kg of heat and this
sublimes the ice directly to vapor
Primary drying removes almost 98-99% of moisture
from sample
 Secondary drying and packing

During this, traces of moisture is removed

Temperature of solid is raised to 50-60 0C by
lowering the vacuum to 50mmHg for 10-20 hours
Here rate of drying is very slow
Vacuum is replaced by inert gas and the product is
packed in vials/ ampoules or bottles
 Advantages, Disadvantages and Uses

Used for blood products,

microbial cultures, human
tissues, antibiotics and
vitamins etc.
Thermo-labile materials are
suitable
No denaturation
Product may undergo
oxidation
Cost is high
Period of drying is more