Greening the production of polymeric submicron particles by membrane-based manufacturing processes: A comparative analysis

Abstract

The production of polymeric particles is the subject of extensive research in various fields and the interest in this area extends to the development of new sustainable production processes. The use of membrane technology has enabled the redesign of many traditional production processes with enormous impact in terms of product quality, reduction of energy consumption, high efficiency, productivity and reproducibility. In the present work, two alternative methodologies for the production of polycaprolactone (PCL) particles based on the use of membrane processes were investigated: i) membrane emulsification (ME) combined with solvent diffusion and ii) membrane nanoprecipitation (MN). ME/solvent diffusion is a widely applied technique for the production of microparticles, but its use for nanosized particles is still limited. On the other hand, MN is currently being investigated for its potentiality in the production of nanoparticles.In the present work, the performance of the two processes is compared in terms of: i) product quality (highly monodisperse particles in the nanometers range of size, ii) maximum productivity (expressed as mass of particles produced over time) under mild operating conditions (reduced mechanical stress), iii) environmental impact (assessed on the basis of the metrics established by the Green Aspiration Level (GAL)).