Flexible metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) exhibit stepwise adsorption behavior, so-called gate adsorption, and are expected to bring dramatic advances in adsorption separation processes. Since flexible MOFs are obtained in powder form, molding is required for their use in industrial applications. However, the gate adsorption is accompanied by non-negligible volume expansion, which makes it difficult to balance durability and adsorption performance in the molded form: pellets are crushed with low binder content, while the gate adsorption is smeared with high binder content. In this study, core-shell-like pellets of elastic layer-structured MOF-11 (ELM-11) were formed by a newly developed method mimicking the artificial caviar production process. The obtained pellets achieved both the robustness and sharpness of gate adsorption, which resulted from a rational design of the pellets that the shell ensured the durability of the pellet, while in the core part, ELM-11 particles were not tightly bound to allow the structural deformation.

This study proposed a sulfidation process as a practical approach for recovering Ni from the acidic spent catalyst. Ni can be obtained by a precipitate as NiS particle by adding Na₂S in the acidic media (pH 3). In the presence of chelate agents, 2,2’-bipyridine (bpy), the percentage value of Ni recovery by a hydroxylation process was only 46%, and the recovery value improved to 88% by the sulfidation. XAFS analyses for the precipitates showed that more than 60% of NiS from chelate-free media was oxidized to NiSO₄; while about 80% of Ni remained as NiS when it was generated in the bpy-containing condition. However, Ni was also bound with bpy in the NiS particle, revealed by FT-IR spectra. From these results, , in the spent catalyst, Ni would be precipitated as an S-Ni-bpy cluster by the sulfidation process.

Suspensions of monodisperse spherical particles under shear flow were simulated using a solid-liquid two-phase model based on coupled lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) and discrete element method (DEM). Evaluating the shear stresses due to the viscous behavior of the bulk fluid, the hydrodynamic interaction between particles and fluid, and the physical contact between particles, the contribution of each factor to the suspension viscosity was investigated. The results showed that in the range of low to moderate particle volume fractions, the viscosity of suspensions is mainly determined by the action of the fluid, and that the contribution of particle contact increases with increasing particle volume fraction. In particular, the flow behavior of dense suspensions should be viewed not as a fluid motion but as the motion of a group of particles. From these results, in order to predict and control the rheological properties of particle suspensions, it is important to understand that the main factors increasing viscosity vary with the concentration range of interest.

This paper described a review of solventless pelletization using a high shear granulator to produce drug-layered pellets by simply mixing drug crystals and inactive spheres without using solvents and heating. High shear mixing of acetaminophen crystals and microcrystalline cellulose spheres resulted in pulverization of the drug particles due to collisions with the spherical cellulose in the granulator (i.e. ball-milling action) and the micronized drug particles were deposited on the spheres. High shear mixing of crystalline indomethacin and cellulose spheres led to mechanical activation of the drug due to ball-milling actions of the spheres, as well as pelletization, yielding amorphous drug-layered pellets. The pellets exhibited supersaturation characteristics. The amorphous drug deposited on the pellets exhibited a low physical stability but recrystallization could be inhibited by co-processing with amorphous stabilizers including polymer and amino acids. This technique contributes to simplification and cost reduction of pharmaceutical manufacturing processes.

The wrapping technology is one of the novel coating technologies to solute problems related to conventional pan coating. The wrapping technology will be expected to develop higher valuable drug products and to shorten development period by using special wrapping machine and function of wrapping film.