A near-infrared spectroscopy-based end-point determination method for the blending process of Dahuang soda tablets

Objectives:This study is aimed to explore the blending process of Dahuang soda tablets.These are composed of two active pharmaceutical ingredients(APIs,emodin and emodin methyl ether)and four kinds of excipients(sodium bicarbonate,starch,sucrose,and magnesium stearate).Also,the objective is to develop a more robust model to determine the blending end-point.Methods:Qualitative and quantitative methods based on near-infrared(NIR)spectroscopy were established to monitor the homogeneity of the powder during the blending process.A calibration set consisting of samples from 15 batches was used to develop two types of calibration models with the partial least squares regression(PLSR)method to explore the influence of density on the model robustness.The principal component analysis-moving block standard deviation(PCA-MBSD)method was used for the end-point determination of the blending with the process spectra.Results:The model with different densities showed better prediction performance and robustness than the model with fixed powder density.In addition,the blending end-points of APIs and excipients were inconsistent because of the differences in the physical properties and chemical contents among the materials of the design batches.For the complex systems of multi-components,using the PCA-MBSD method to determine the blending end-point of each component is difficult.In these conditions,a quantitative method is a more suitable alternative.Conclusions:Our results demonstrated that the effect of density plays an important role in improving the performance of the model,and a robust modeling method has been developed.

Multi-objective intelligent coordinating optimization blending system based on qualitative and quantitative synthetic model

A multi-objective intelligent coordinating optimization strategy based on qualitative and quantitative synthetic model for Pb-Zn sintering blending process was proposed to obtain optimal mixture ratio. The mechanism and neural network quantitative models for predicting compositions and rule models for expert reasoning were constructed based on statistical data and empirical knowledge. An expert reasoning method based on these models were proposed to solve blending optimization problem, including multi-objective optimization for the first blending process and area optimization for the second blending process, and to determine optimal mixture ratio which will meet the requirement of intelligent coordination. The results show that the qualified rates of agglomerate Pb, Zn and S compositions are increased by 7.1%, 6.5% and 6.9%, respectively, and the fluctuation of sintering permeability is reduced by 7.0%, which effectively stabilizes the agglomerate compositions and the permeability.

Commercial Case Study on Processing Tahe Medium Gravity Crude

Based on the petroleum processing units of a certain domestic refinery, the authors studied the appropriate cases for processing of Tahe medium gravity crude. The influence of three crude processing cases, including the case for processing of crude slate blended with Tahe medium gravity crude, the case for separate processing and storing of individual crude oils, and the case for flash distillation of Tahe medium gravity crude coupled with separated processing of crude oils, on the products quality, stability of production operation and the overall techno-economic parameters was investigated. The study results have shown that the case for processing crude slate blended with Tahe medium gravity crude could lead to deterioration of the FCC products distribution, dramatic reduction of light distillates, significant surge of sulfur content in FCC naphtha, and increased specific consumption of FCC catalyst, indicating that this case was obviously not suited for processing the Tahe medium gravity crude. The case for separate processing and storing of individual crude oils, however, could increase the aggregate salable products ratio, but the frequent switchover of process streams could cause difficulty and hazards to the stabilization of refining operations, which could not be an ideal processing case. The case for flash distillation of Tahe medium gravity crude coupled with separate processing of crude oils featured the simplicity of process scheme, easiness for modification of process units, easy operation and a slight increase in the aggregate salable products ratio, making itself a suitable case for processing the Tahe medium gravity crude.

Production of Cocoa Butter Substitute from Extra Virgin Olive Oil Rich in Omega-9 and Polyphenols

The objective of this study was to produce healthy cocoa butter substitutes from extra virgin olive oil rich in omega-9 and polyphenols by blending process with palm oil avoiding hydrogenation and esterification processes. Oil blends, formulated by binary blends of palm oil and extra virgin olive oil at different ratios (90:10, 80:20 and 70:30) compared with commercial cocoa butter. The physicochemical properties (refractive index, melting and slip point, color index, acidity, peroxide value, iodine number and induction period by Rancimat method) have been determined for palm and olive oils and the produced cocoa butter substitute. Also, fatty acid composition was identified by gas liquid chromatography and solid fat content of the produced cocoa butter substitute was measured by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and total polyphenols of oils and produced cocoa butter substitute were determined. The results indicated that all the values of melting and slip point were about the human body temperature (37°C), also results show a high content of cocoa butter produced from oleic acid, as well as phenolic compounds, and this leads to an increase in oxidative stability.