BASF automates bulk pharmaceuticals production: beginning with a SCADA system to improve purine production at its Minden, Germany, pharmaceuticals plant, BASF has expanded use of batch software to respond to daily market demands and unexpected plant-floor events.(INSIDE PHARMA)

Control Engineering, February, 2006

Demand for bulk pharmaceutical products, such as caffeine, theophylline, ephedrine, and pseudoephedrine, has grown so consistently that BASF's Minden, Germany, pharmaceutical plant existed in a near-continual state of expansion to meet production requirements. By the mid-1990s, however, the site near Mittelland Canal had grown about as large as it could.

BASF's Minden plant handles liquid extraction, salt formation, distillation, hydrogenation, gas liquid reactions in loop reactors, and catalyst separation and regeneration. Facilities include a range of mixing reactors, 500-4,000-liter enameled-reactors and 500-10,000-liter stainless-steel reactors.

Stainless-steel distillation columns with 500-3,000-liter capacities have up to 36 theoretical...

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