ABSTRACT
Computer Aided Process Design (CAPD) and simulation tools are used to debottleneck an integrated pharmaceutical production producing a liquid medicine, LIQMED. The process is comprised of several sections: 3 pre-blending sections A, B and C, a syrup making section, a main blending section, an intermediate storage and a packaging section. The bottleneck was found to be the cartoning process in the packaging section. Eight equipment alternatives were proposed to remove this bottleneck and were evaluated based on the process throughput and economic criteria such as Cost Benefit Ratio (CBR) and cost of investment. The best debottlenecking alternative was found to have the highest cost benefit ratio of 1.4 and the lowest cost of investment of $1.2 M.
