HEL recently assisted the Surface and Particle Engineering Laboratory (SPEL) at London’s Imperial College with the installation of 2 reaction systems. The first system, a simple and easy to use manual reactor with the ability to change reaction vessels in only a few minutes, is intended for open access use, accommodating a wide range of general applications. The second system is a fully automated reaction system offering capabilities such as crystallisation monitoring, automated solid dosing and pH monitoring.

With over 20 years of experience in the field of designing laboratory equipment for process, research and development applications, HEL have provided automated and manual tools to clients in academic research, and the pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals and petrochemical industries all over the world.

Dr Jerry Heng from the SPEL Group at Imperial College commented: “Having considered several relevant suppliers it became evident that HEL had the experience to provide a system that would meet all of our requirements and we have not been disappointed with our decision the attention to detail, consultation, communication and support whilst working with HEL have left us confident of the company’s capabilities.

The systems will be used to aid research in developing a fundamental understanding in the area of pharmaceutical particle engineering. A current focus of the SPEL group is seeding for crystallisation. This is widely used in industrial crystallisation to control crystal size distribution, crystal morphology (polymorphic) including crystal shapes. Often, the seed particle size and amount is controlled. Unexpected events, which may lead to variation in crystal size distribution, undesired polymorphic forms and/or products not meeting specification, still occur.

There remains a lack in understanding of the effects of seed shape and seed chemistry – particularly for nanometer sized seeds. With the use of the HEL systems we will be able to better examine the effect of seed properties and their influence in crystallisation and the resulting crystal properties. The overall aim is to deliver an improved fundamental understanding of the role of interfacial properties of seeds in crystallisation, which may result in the ability for improved and optimised control over crystallisation processes and crystal properties. The key hypothesis here is that the interface may be very important in governing a range of interactions occurring at the solid-solid, solid-liquid, solid-vapour phases.”

The Heng group studies the role of surface properties (and particle properties, eg. shape, size, porosity) in powder processing, particle handling and particle performance related to pharmaceutics, drug delivery, and/or the pharmaceutical technologies, engineering particle properties for optimised product performance.

Dr Gerard Gardner, HEL’s Sales & Marketing Director added: “Working with the SPEL group at Imperial further strengthens our standing in the field of crystallisation in the Pharmaceutical sector. Drawing on our expertise and the portfolio of tools we have developed for crystallisation applications we are able to provide solutions such as our Crystal Eyes unit, a simple portable turbidity analysis module, right through to a range of automated reaction systems with options to integrate Process Analytical Technologies with feedback control such as our superior LaserTrack&trade particle size analyser. It is this flexibility that has attracted many of our customers and has contributed to our continued success in the past 24 years”.