Scale − Up and economic evaluation of the atomized rapid injection solvent extraction process

The Atomized Rapid Injection Solvent Extraction (ARISE) process is a new technique for the production of micron-size particles using a supercritical antisolvent. Scale-up of the process can be achieved simply by maintaining the antisolvent/solvent ratios and pressure differentials while increasing batch volumes. In this work, two model compounds, para-coumaric acid (PCA) and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HPβCD), were processed using ARISE at different operating scales. The batch size for PCA varied between 0.2 g/batch and 1.6 g/batch, while the batch size of HPβCD varied from 0.8 g/batch to 13.9 g/batch. The economic evaluation of the process was based on production rates between 2 and 10 t/a, which are typical for high-specialty grade chemicals. Capital investment and production costs were estimated using the scaling–exponential method. Investment costs were estimated between 190 and 950 US$/kg of product while production costs were calculated between 52 and 255 US$/kg of product (year 2015). The figures indicate that ARISE can be economically viable for the manufacturing of specialty chemicals as pharmaceuticals.