Technoeconomic optimisation and comparative environmental impact evaluation of continuous crystallisation and antisolvent selection for artemisinin recovery

Hikaru G. Jolliffe, Dimitrios I. Gerogiorgis*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Systematic nonlinear optimisation is a valuable tool towards evaluating the performance of conceptual Continuous Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (CPM) flowsheets. This study considers total cost minimisation of multiple plausible design choices and eight candidate antisolvents for the continuous recovery of artemisinin (a potent antimalarial Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient/API) via continuous crystallisation, with simultaneous evaluation of process mass and environmental efficiency via the E-factor (an established green chemistry metric). Essential design variables include the crystallisation cooling temperature, the antisolvent requirements and the use of multiple crystallisers in series. Acetonitrile achieves the minimum total cost for one crystalliser (761 · 103 GBP, for a crystallisation at 5 °C, with 80% antisolvent addition and an E-factor of 29.1). The use of a second crystalliser in series allows for further total cost savings for all antisolvents; E-factors continue to decrease accordingly, albeit with very limited scope for each successive crystalliser due to negligible productivity improvements.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)218-232
Number of pages15
JournalComputers and Chemical Engineering
Volume103
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Aug 2017

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Artemisinin
  • Continuous Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (CPM)
  • Crystallisation
  • Nonlinear Programming (NLP)
  • Optimisation
  • Solvent selection

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