This year EmulTech will start the realization of the first microparticle production plant for its industrial partner Fortified Food Coatings. Multiple customers have confirmed the feasibility of the INFINITY platform for their application, mainly polymer microspheres eg. PLGA. The next step requires larger volumes for clinical testing and market relevant volumes. Fortified Food Coatings has recognized the strong capabilities of EmulTech and selected the technology to strengthen its gelatine coating products.

Microparticle technologies require being scalable to be market relevant. Depending on the application, scale up to kilograms or even multi metric tons per year needs to be available. In order to answer to these customer demands EmulTech started already in 2009 to scale its technology from a single channel to hundreds of channels at the same time. Over the last three years, the key development requirements have been set and confirmed. EmulTech’s scale up strategy based on process intensification and numbering out has proven to be feasible. Scale up by using mass parallel channels ensures high reproducibility during scale up since particles are formed individually in separate channels. This will be realized with the industry to realize a world premiere: the first microfluidic production plant.

The first micro particle production plant will be developed in close collaboration with Fortified Food Coatings. This market leading company in gelatine based food coatings aims to use EmulTech equipment in the production of its coating for multiple applications. Together with the regional development partner SRE and the engineering company Flowid, the companies have set out the strategic development plan for a multi ton volume production plant.

The microencapsulation markets are huge and growing; the encapsulation of ingredients in (biomaterial) carriers has many application areas. In the food industry taste masking and protection of ingredients in the GI tract show high potential added value. Cosmetic applications aim for product stability and sustained release of fragrances. EmulTech has a lot of experience in pharmaceutical and medical markets, where the technology is used to formulate micro particlebased sustained release products to improve efficacy and reduce side effects. Major products, such as Lupron Depot or Risperidal Consta have annual turnovers of over a billion dollar each, but are very difficult to manufacture.

There are multiple technologies for micro encapsulation ranging from the conventional methods such as milling, spray drying and mixing – to more elegant microfluidic technologies, such as EmulTech’s INFINITY platform. The INFINITY platform excels in process control; ensured by the model-based technology. The technology ensures high reproducibility between batches and in future scale up. In general, the Emulsion Technology for Micro Encapsulation is very well suited for any kind of polymer microparticle designed to encapsulate a wide range of molecules for demanding applications in life sciences and material sciences.

In case you would like to join in the development of the microparticle production plant, please contact EmulTech on info@EmulTech.nl or visit www.emultech.nl.