抄録
We have carried out a surveillance study on the application of ultrasonic processes in industry, especially in the field of pharmaceutical processes, biotechnology, biomass and food industry. The surveillance study consisted of the three parts; the patent surveillance for 20 years using World Patent Index database, the literature surveillance using JST Plus database for 11 years, and the series of interviews with 6 private companies in Japan. In the patent surveillance, 932 patents on sonoprocessing have been found in relation to the pharmaceutical processes. 517 and 327 patents have been found in the biotechnology and the food industry, respectively. The surveillance study shows that the innovative design of sonochemical reactors and the rationale for the scale up of laboratory ultrasonic experiments are necessary for the industrial sonoprocessing. This involves the reduction in energy consumption through the design of reactors incorporating appropriate ultrasonic emitters.
