Real-Time Temperature and Heat Flux Measurements for Lyophilization Process Design and Monitoring: Part 2

Lyophilization is a sublimation drying process that is often used in the pharmaceutical and food industry to make products more stable and increase shelf life [1]. The lyophilization process is very temperature and pressure sensitive so close monitoring is required to ensure the final product quality. New wireless temperature sensors are designed to monitor the product’s temperature in situ effectively to ensure cake stability. The sensors were tested in Wheaton 6R vials simultaneously with the wired thermocouples using solutions of 5% w/v sucrose in ultra-pure water. The data collected from each of the experiments were used to model the heat flux through the vials. We intend to compare the experimentally determined data with results produced by the numerical model, in order to gauge the accuracy of the numerical model. We also aim to evaluate whether the wireless temperature sensors can accurately and reliably monitor the product temperature and develop approaches for sensor applications in lyophilization process research