Application Of Titanium in Pharmaceutical Industry

The pharmaceutical industry is an important industry related to people's physical and mental health, including many fields such as pharmaceuticals, medical machinery, and sanitary materials, and occupies an important position in the national economy. Because titanium is non-toxic and harmless, it has good compatibility with the human body and is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry.

In pharmaceutical production, since the production of drugs is inseparable from acids, alkalis, and salts, pharmaceutical equipment can easily be corroded and damaged. The use of steel equipment not only cannot solve the problem of serious equipment corrosion, but it will also cause a lot of loss of manpower, material and financial resources, affecting normal production. The use of titanium equipment solves this problem well.

In the production of several major commonly used medicines, equipment made of titanium has good corrosion resistance and has obtained considerable economic benefits.

1. Vitamin B1 Production

Our country uses the hydrogen chloride conversion method to produce vitamin B1, and the finished product is dried by whirlwind and separated by two cyclones. Its medium is thiamine hydrochloride, with a PH value of 2.5 and a temperature of 110℃, which is very corrosive. The original drying device was made of stainless steel, and the inner wall was corroded and perforated after more than a year of use, which seriously polluted the medicine.

After adopting titanium spiral feeder, cyclone separator, vortex body, hopper and discharge pipe and titanium lining of exhaust tank, the production pass rate of vitamin B1 has been increased from the highest 95% to 100%, and the equipment has been used for more than 7 years without corrosion, and the cost of titanium can be recovered in 3 months.

2. Vitamin C Production

Vitamin C is based on sorbitol as raw material, fermented into sorbitose by black vinegar bacteria, and then fermented with Pseudomonas to obtain a low concentration of colonic acid. After concentration, it is converted into a finished product by hydrogen chloride.

Titanium is very resistant to corrosion in high temperature colonic acid. In the production process of this product, a titanium tubular heat exchanger, a titanium DHC-500 butterfly sedimentation automatic slag discharge centrifuge, and a TC4 cast impeller are used. No corrosion has been found after many years of use.

3. Production of Antibiotics

The main raw material for the chemical synthesis of chloramphenicol (an antibiotic) is methyl dichloroacetate, which contains about 2% chlorinated alkene and trichloroethylene. Among them, if steel equipment is used in the refining process, it is prone to serious corrosion. After switching to titanium equipment, it is still intact.

4. Production of Narcotic Drugs

Procaine hydrochloride used in local anesthesia is produced from p-nitrotoluene as raw material. It is highly corrosive in the entire production process of oxidation to prepare p-nitrobenzoic acid, acetic acid washing, and mother liquor recovery. Therefore, the production equipment adopts titanium steel composite plate inner tube, titanium bubbling tube, glacial acetic acid circulating condenser and vapor-liquid separator, thereby solving the corrosion problem.

5. Production of Insect Repellents and Other Medicines

Roundworm repellent (tetraimidazole) is an efficient intestinal nematode insect repellent. Stainless steel equipment was originally used in the production of this product. Due to corrosion, the product was contaminated. Titanium was used as the feed pipe and the pump inlet pipe. The corrosion problem was successfully solved.

Nitrochlorophenol is a special veterinary medicine for the treatment of flukes in cattle and sheep liver tablets. It is produced with sulfuric acid, nitric acid, glacial acetic acid and chlorine-containing solutions. The titanium nitrification tank agitator is used, and it has been operating normally so far.In addition, activated carbon decolorization is generally used in pharmaceutical production, and after the stainless steel suction filter is changed to a titanium suction filter, it remains intact after 9 years of use.

In the production of brominated amino acids abroad, titanium reactors are used in the bromination, separation, salting, extraction, and steaming processes. Titanium-made equipment is also necessary for the preparation of malarial drugs, anti-schistosomiasis drugs exposed to chloride ions, contraceptives, and rheumatism drugs from quinoline derivatives in my country. Others such as penicillin esterification kettle, saccharification tank, chloramphenicol film evaporator, analgin reactor, Mitur filter, dimethyl sulfate cooler, liquid medicine filter, etc., have the feasibility and necessity of using titanium to manufacture.