Pharmaceutical Process Engineering

Citation

Rigelsford, J. (2002), "Pharmaceutical Process Engineering", Industrial Robot, Vol. 29 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2002.04929aae.003

Pharmaceutical Process Engineering

A. J. Hickey and D. GandertonMarcel Dekker2001268 pp.ISBN 0-8247-0298-0US$135 Hardback

Keywords: Pharmaceutical, Engineering

Pharmaceutical Process Engineering is suitable for a wide range of people from various scientific and engineering disciplines who are new to the field of pharmaceutical manufacturing. It summarises the fundamental engineering principles and operations that are required for converting bulk pharmaceutical products into appropriate drug delivery dosage forms.

The book is divided into two main parts, Fundamentals and Processes. The first part comprises four chapters which discuss the Principles of Fluid Flow, Heat Transfer, Mass Transfer, and Powders, respectively.

The second part of the book contains the remaining eleven chapters. Chapter 5 discusses Air Conditioning and Humidification, while Drying (the vaporisation and removed of water or liquid from a solid-liquid mixture to form a dry solid) is comprehensively covered in chapter 6. Chapters 7 and 8 discuss Solid-Liquid Extraction, and Crystallisation, respectively. Processes for Evaporation and Distillation, Filtration, Size reduction and Classification, and mixing are presented in chapters 9 to 12.

The three remaining chapters of the book address Solid Dosage Forms, Sterilisation, and Bioprocessing. topics covered within these sections include hard capsules and tablets, sterile filtration, and protein purification.

This is a superbly written reference text which presents a variety of daunting process engineering subjects in a clear, consistent and reader-friendly manner. The book's coverage of the practical aspects of drug production make it suitable for students and professionals in the fields of chemistry, chemical engineering, pharmaceutical manufacture and process engineering.

John Rigelsford