Product category:
Manufacturing Machinery and Plant Equipment
News Release from: Biopharma Process Systems | Subject: LN2
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 30 March 2005
50% savings with new liquid nitrogen
technique
Freeze-drying experts Usifroid, in collaboration with Air Liquide, the cryogenic applications firm, have developed and optimised a design to apply liquid nitrogen technology to freeze dryers.
Freeze-drying experts Usifroid, in collaboration with Air Liquide, the cryogenic applications firm, have developed and optimised a design to apply liquid nitrogen technology to freeze dryers In a freeze dryer, liquid nitrogen, or LN2, is used in two places - in a cryogenic heat exchanger, to cool down the silicone oil circulated in the shelves and in the condenser coils, to trap the vapour in to ice
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 25 May 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Cooling energy comes from both a change of state, as liquid nitrogen evaporates in to gas, and a change of temperature, as the gas nitrogen's temperature rises.
The combination of those two changes gives claimed savings of over 50 per cent of the LN2 consumption compared to systems with temperature change alone.
LN2 offers many benefits to lyophilisation process and production.
Cooling power is almost constant throughout the temperature range and is available instantly, with a lower minimum temperature that allows for specific recipe or organic solvent trapping.
Temperature and power control is more accurate and more flexible for better product quality and reproducibility.
A much simpler system offers ease of operation, with increased flexibility and better reliability claimed the company.
In the company's opinion, compared with conventional systems using reciprocal compressors, LN2 systems offer much greater reliability while requiring much less maintenance.
Compared with screw compressors, which are more reliable than reciprocating compressors, LN2 systems are still superior, offering space savings, a reduction in noise level, and requiring no particular expertise to maintain.
Usifroid started developing LN2 systems in collaboration with Air Liquide Advanced Technology Centre in 1991, and believes it was the first to deliver a large industrial lyophiliser using liquid nitrogen only.
LN2 has been increasingly the chosen option and today, over 60 per cent of Usifroid's production-scale freeze dryers are equipped with LN2 systems.
Usifroid has also developed an evaluation programme to compare LN2 with reciprocating compressors and screw compressors with non-CFC refrigerant, helping users engineer the most suitable system for different projects. Request a free brochure from Biopharma Process Systems ...
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