Technology

CO₂ technology offers a wide range of potential applications, making it an attractive method for the production of high quality products. CO₂ can serve as an alternative to conventional organic solvents, as well provide an entirely new route to existing or new products. Our customers are saving time, money and the environment along the way. Here are some of the options our team of experts can provide to you.

EXTRACTION - Difficult to isolate your
valuable compound?
Many non-polar and slightly polar components exhibit high solubility in CO₂. Extraction of these components from a (complex) mixture can be achieved with high yield and purity at relatively low processing temperatures.

PURIFICATION - Undesired monomers, oligomers or residual solvents in your product?
Removal of these impurities is straightforward using CO₂ purification. The process is very similar to extraction with the difference that the extracted materials with our methods are the impurities.

PARTICLE DESIGN - MICRONIZATION - Can’t get a powder from your ductile material?
Ductile materials are hard to process into a micron sized powder. By dissolving carbon dioxide in the material in question, the material can be easily micronized over a nozzle. By varying the process conditions and nozzle configuration, the size and morphology of the powder can be varied to meet your specific requirements.

PARTICLE DESIGN - ENCAPSULATION
Heat degrades your important compounds?
The unique qualities of CO₂ allow for the encapsulation of compounds using a process similar to spray drying. The main difference, and also the big advantage, is that drying temperature can be as low as room temperature, preventing thermal degradation of your compounds.

PARTICLE DESIGN - DRYING - Need a better method to dry your compound?
Drying with CO₂ is faster than lyophilization and much cheaper. Also freeze damage, which often occurs in lyophilization, does not occur with CO₂ drying. The low processing temperature is especially suitable for delicate and/or heat-sensitive materials.

PARTICLE DESIGN - MORPHOLOGY CONTROL - Can’t get the structure you need?
Mixed morphologies are highly undesired in pharmaceutical products, as they give rise to different solubility and therapeutic values. Rapid Expansion of a Supercritical Solution (RESS) and Supercritical AntiSolvent (SAS) precipitation in supercritical CO₂ provide unique tools to get control over the morphology of drugs. These techniques may even give rise to the establishment of new polymorphs, opening ways to circumvent intractable patents of competitors. The process is fast, continuous and leaves no solvent residues.

PARTICLE DESIGN – BUOYANCY CONTROL
Need to get your particles airborne?
For pulmonary drug delivery we have developed a novel method to create hollow carriers. The extraordinarily large aerodynamic diameter of the hollow particle makes them more airborne compared to particles with comparable geometric diameters.