Process and arrangement for producing particles utilizing subcritical fluids

1. A method for controlling size and/or morphology characteristics of particles when producing a batch of particles of a substance in a production arrangement, said particles having predetermined sizes and/or morphology, comprising the steps of:

i) mixing within a spray nozzle and under flow conditions a stream of a liquid solution in which the substance is dissolved or dispersed with a stream of a fluid, the kind of solvent in the solution, the kind of fluid and the proportion of the volume of the solution relative to the volume of the fluid being selected to promote nucleation and particle formation of the substance in the mixture,

ii) passing said mixture in the form of a spray through a spray outlet of the nozzle into a particle collecting chamber, and

iii) separating and collecting within said chamber said particles from said mixture, wherein

the solvent is a liquid and the fluid is an aqueous liquid in a subcritical state,

the pressure upstream and downstream of the spray nozzle is >1 bar and ≦30 bar, and

the pressure drop across the spray nozzle is ≦30 bar.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said fluid and said solvent are miscible with each other causing no phase separation into liquid/fluid phases upon mixing.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the concentration of the particle-forming substance in the solution is below the saturation concentration of the substance at the pressures and temperature applied at mixing.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein steps (i) and (ii) are performed simultaneously in two or more separate and essentially identical spray nozzles of the same production arrangement containing at least one particle collecting chamber, with at least two of the nozzles being in spray communication with the same particle collecting chamber.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined mean diameter of the particles of the batch is selected to be ≦20 μm.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mixing is initiated by merging the fluid stream and the solution stream at an angle selected in the interval of 30° -150° .

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein

A) said nozzle comprises

a) two internal transport conduits for the solution and the fluid, respectively, which conduits are coaxial at least in their upstream parts, and in their downstream ends are merging with each other into

b) a mixing arrangement followed by and/or coinciding with

c) a spray outlet, where

a1) the downstream part of one of the two internal transport conduits is cylindrical providing for cylindrical flow at the position of merging with the other conduit, and the downstream part of the other one of the conduits is disc-shaped providing an annular flow that is directed radially outwards from a centre which coincides with the axis of the cylindrical flow, the merging angle between the two conduits being selected in the interval of 30° -150° ,

b1) the mixing arrangement is annular comprising an annular upstream end at the merging of the two internal transport conduits and an annular downstream end, and

c1) the spray outlet is annular and communicates in the upstream direction with the annular downstream end of the mixing arrangement, and

B) performing step (i) in said mixing arrangement and step (ii) in said spray outlet.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the inner one of the two coaxial internal transport conduits is cylindrical in its downstream end and the outer one is disc-shaped in its downstream end.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the two internal coaxial transport conduits are coaxial to their point of merging.

10. The method of claim 7 , comprising passing the solution stream through the inner one of the internal transport conduits that are coaxial in their upstream end and the fluid stream through the outer one of these conduits.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particles obtained in step (iii) are incorporated as an ingredient into a pharmaceutical formulation containing a therapeutically active substance possibly combined with other ingredients.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fluid has a water content of≧50% (v/v).

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the fluid has a water content of≧90% (v/v).

14. The method of claim 3 , wherein the concentration of the particle-forming substance in the solution is ≧1% and ≦80% of the saturation concentration at the pressures and temperature applied at mixing.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein steps (i) and (ii) are performed simultaneously in two or more separate and essentially identical spray nozzles of the same production arrangement containing at least one particle collecting chamber, with every one of the particle collecting chambers containing at least one nozzle.

16. The method of claim 5 , wherein the predetermined mean diameter of the particles of the batch is selected to be ≦10 μm.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the size distribution of the particles in the batch is that 80% of the particles have sizes of ≦20 μm.

18. The method of claim 6 , wherein the mixing is initiated by merging the fluid stream and the solution stream at an angle of 90° .

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mixing is initiated by merging the fluid stream and the solution stream at an angle of 0° .

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pressure drop across the spray nozzle is ≧1.25 bar.