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Energieeffiziente Herstellung von Pharmawasser

Christian Graf

PAC Pharma-Anlagen-Consult GmbH

Korrespondenz: Christian Graf, Dipl. Ing. (FH) Biotechnologie, PAC Pharma-Anlagen-Consult GmbH, Am Flachmoor 7, 90475 Nürnberg (Germany), e-mail: christian.graf@pacgmbh.de

Energy efficient production of pharmaceutical grade water

The costs for the production of Water for Injection (WFI) by distillation in the pharmaceutical industry are classified far the highest compared to other qualities of water. The energyintensive process step of evaporation is one reason for the high costs. Alternatively, it is possible, according to the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), to produce WFI by membrane processes. As a decisive argument for this lower production costs are mentioned.
For the production of Purified Water (PW) and Highly Purified Water (HPW), however, there is no discussion about an alternative technique. In this area, the membrane technologies have been established. In principle the plants differ only in the combination of reverse osmosis (RO), degassing, electrochemicaldeionization (continuous electro-deionization CEDI) and ultrafiltration (UF). Energy savings in the production of cold pharmaceutical water are seen only in the improvement of membrane technology and process control. Alternative, equivalent methods, are apparently not available.
The following report analyses the manufacturing costs of the different pharmaceutical water qualities using case studies. As these examples show, distillation is not only the most economical method of producing WFI, but also for PW and HPW.

Key words Energieeffizienz • Destillation • Herstellkosten • Pharmawasser • Thermokompression • WFI