Research Projects

Objective: Process development at bench scale (1 kg per batch) for production of Hydroxypropyl Methyl Cellulose / Hypromellose (HPMC) of low viscosity pharmaceutical grade with high purity (Grades E5 LV)

Summary: This proposal aims at development to process for production of HPMC or Hypromellose of pharmaceutical grade, which has high market value. These cellulose ether derivatives are very verasatile and find application in number of industries such as, pharmaceutical, food, cosmetic and construction chemicals. To name a few, HPMC E5 is used in applications such as controlled or modified release fomulations, while K 100 LV is used as a soft gelatin capsule alternate to the animal based product used in gelatin capsules, K 100 M used in construction industry. This proposal is expected to lead to a process with minimum number of operations, minimum energy utilization as well as high purity product for import sustitute chemicals, to yeild product of low viscosity pharmaceutical grade. Project delivery plan includes the bench scale technology (1 Kg) for the Hpmc of E5 LV grade. EXpected outcomes will be: Rector design and establishment of equipment and internals for process development of HPMC at a scale of 1 kg per batch; Efficient process with high purity HPMC product and optimum unit operations ; Possiblity of industrial interest for sponsorship to transfer technologies for the successful process developed; Building capablity to extend the developed methodologies to other research areas & products of industrial importance; Research publications / reports for knowledge transfer.