Activated Carbon Cartridges Evaluation & Scale-Up For Pharmaceutical Applications

By Thomas O'Brien, Ph.D., 3M Purification

Activated carbon in the pharmaceutical industry has been used for many years to reduce impurities derived from the reactions that create active pharmaceutical ingredients (API’s). The adsorptive properties and very large surface area of activated carbon make it ideal for filtering impurities from API’s, with de-colorization being the most common pharmaceutical application.

3M Purification Inc.’s (3M PI) Zeta Plus™ Activated Carbon cartridge series immobilizes the activated carbon within a resin-cellulose matrix to alleviate the disadvantages of bulk activated carbon usage in granulated or powdered form. These disadvantages include:

• Operator exposure to carbon dust
• High cost of maintaining and cleaning process equipment
• Inefficient removal of the carbon from the process stream
• Costs associated with batch and solvent re-work.