Sodium carboxymethylcellulose (Na-CMC) is a thickening agent commonly used in the food and cosmetic industry. Additionally, in the pharmaceutical industry uses include: natural tear products and use as a disintegrant. As the use of this compound becomes more prevalent in the pharmaceutical industry it falls under stricter filtration guidelines. Typical process development work involves small scale trials. These determine filter sizes to purify a given batch size within a certain time or at a certain flow rate. Modeling tools allow for the reasonably accurate prediction of filter sizing at the large scale with data from the small scale. These modeling tools work very well for Newtonian fluids, however non-Newtonian fluids require more advanced modeling. For example tools that account for velocity flow dependency can be applied to help accurately predict sizing for non-newtonian fluids. For Na-CMC both standard and advance modeling fail to be predictive of large scale performance behavior. This study empirically compares the filtration of Na-CMC at different scales using single layer and double layer filters, differentiating plugging effects from the rheology of filtration within a filtration train.

Complications of accurately sizing filtration trains for the purification of a sodium carboxymethylcellulose solution

251st National Meeting (2016)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.