Lyophilization:

Working Principle, as I understand it currently:

• The product is placed in a well-sealed 'Chamber'. Each chamber has varied number of shelves, upon which the products are placed.
• Pipes are embedded in shelves or surrounding them, and these pipes contain a certain type of oil with some special characteristics flowing through it - (i) Viscosity: Should easily flow throught the pipes. (ii) Has freezing point well below the freezing point of the product[Lest the oil gets frozen, and does not flow.]
• Adjacent to the chamber lies 'Condenser'. The Condenser and The Chamber are isolated by an isolation valve.
• The Condenser has pipes attached to its walls[Just like in in rocket engines]. Inside these pipes, we inject cool refrigerant liquid. The condenser also has a vaccum pump attached to it.
• There are 3 stages in a standard lyophilization process:
  • Freezing
  • Primary Drying
  • Secondary Drying

• Freezing:

  Before the oil in the container enters the chamber, we cool it down using the same refrigerant liquid used in the condenser. Typically, we cool it down to -60C. Thus, freezing the product, and any water content present in it.

• Primary Drying:

  Keeping in mind the thermal characteristics of the product[This is part of the initial R&D Process.], we raise the temperature of the chamber a little bit[-40C]. At the same time, the vaccum pump is started in the condenser, and the isolation valve is opened. This step sublimates bulk ice to watervapour.
  My sources differed on what pulls the watervapour down to the condenser: Some say Temperature Differential. Some say Pressure Differential.
  Once the generated watervapour is pulled down into the condenser, it liquiefies because of the cool refrigerant liquid contained in the condensor's pipes.

• Secondary Drying:

  All the water content that was missed in the "Primary Drying", will be removed here.

Electrical Architecture used by Lyophilization Systems of India:

• Opto22-Snap-Pac Package:

• Input Devices:

  • Platinum-Based, 3-Wiring, Temperature Sensor:
  • Pressure Sensor:

• Output Devices:

  • Vaccum Pump:

• Networking & Communications:

  • Ethernet: