Live: ACHEMA Opening Day Report

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The majority of the PTE team is in attendance at ACHEMA. Our editor, Dr Jo Watts, gives her opinion on how the first day of the show went and what her expectations are for the rest of the week.

In 2009 there were 3767 exhibitors and more than 173000 visitors to ACHEMA in Frankfurt. The 2012 event looks to be even bigger. The hot topics for this year are energy and resources, while congress topics will address process engineering, pharmaceutical production and biotechnology. On the opening day, I saw a variety of new technologies for the pharma industry.

Lock showcased a gravity fall metal detection system that promises a greater product integrity for API manufacturers. They also have a bottlecheck system that incorporates an 'OPTIX' detector that inspects bottles of tablets and capsules at the end of the packaging line.

Thomas Homann of GEA showed me a separator for the recovery of vaccines and pharmaceutical proteins in lab scale and pilot plant applications. It operates at 20000G, which is unique worldwide. There are three bowl sizes, 15-30 L/h up to 150-300L/h. Of course, it is a sterile system that meets GMP requirements.

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More news to come soon!