Project, design, and use of a pilot plant for nanocapsule production.

The aim of this study was to find the scale-up parameters necessary for the preparation of nanocapsules (NCs) for pharmaceutical purposes. Starting from the laboratory scale (0.06 L), we designed and assembled a pilot plant (2 L) to produce NCs with the so-called emulsification-diffusion technique. We wanted to check if classical tools adequate for the pharmaceutical industry and for industrial scale-up purposes according to well-known chemical engineering technique could be used to perform the NC preparation. Experiments were carried out by varying some operative parameters, such as the impeller speed, the agitation duration for the emulsion preparation, and the reagent concentrations. As expected, good accordance between the NC produced at the laboratory scale and at the pilot plant scale was obtained. We conclude that the pilot plant can be used to perform a scale-up study of the industrial production of NC.