VisiMix

In the fast expanding field of expensive life science and specialty chemicals, a significant percentage of the production spend is on the selection of mixing devices and regimes in reactors corresponding to requirements of the process. Since mixing underpins effective research and production, “If the mixing is not well understood, wrong choices could be adopted in the process development,” says Gad Amir, CEO at VisiMix. It is estimated that losses by poor mixing per year is $1 to $10 Bn in the U.S. chemical industry alone. (E.L. Paul, V.A. Atiemo- Obeng, and S.M. Kresta (Eds.), Handbook of Industrial Mixing, Wiley- Interscience, New York, 2004).

VisiMix provides chemical engineers at all stages of development and production with a simulation tool to understand the mixing process in an intuitive and reliable way—helping them to adopt the right choices in the process development.

This VisiMix application brings mixing into correspondence with the process requirements without consuming time or the expensive trial and error procedures, enabling chemical engineers to see the connection between process requirements and hydrodynamics. VisMix closes the gaps in the understanding of scale up process from lab to production, or scale down from production to lab.

Models and calculation methods used by VisiMix summarize results of 40 years of systematical research and practical experience in mixing, heat and mass transfer, designing and operation of industrial mixing equipment provided by group of top scientists, engineers, mathematicians and programmers, including Cofounders Dr. Y. Kokotov and E. Entin. The R&D Director and Co-founder of VisiMix, Dr. Leonid Braginsky is a world recognized authority in theory and practices of mixing and author of a number of books and hundreds of articles in the field.

The firm’s software products— VisiMix Turbulent, Laminar, Different Impellers, VisiXcel, RSDE (Rotor / Stator Disperser and Emulsifiers) and PL (PipeLine), provide process engineers not only with general information on power, flow velocities and shear rates, but also with mixing-dependent process parameters, such as distribution of solids or solutes, drop size, degree and duration of homogenization, and dissolution time etc.

The success story of a pharmaceutical API company is an interesting case in point of how VisiMix helped with their reaction of organic synthesis with gaseous reagent in a mixing tank. Using VisiMix Turbulent program, client was able to select a new reactor that could ensure gas-liquid mass transfer rate corresponding to the reaction requirements saving upto $1.6 Mn.

VisiMix has a loyal customer base that includes more than 200 customers, like Pfizer, GE Healthcare, BASF, Novartis, Teva, Eli Lilly, Lubrizol and SABIC. “We have received nine customer success stories where application of the VisiMix program saved them more than $1 Mn in a year,” affirms Amir. In an instance, application of VisiMix allowed Dr. Victor Atiemo Obeng, who served at the rank of Dow Fellow, to perform scaling up from lab to production for a big chemical company. This brought the new product to manufacturing stage in one iteration—avoiding the pilot step which usually costs more than $1 Mn.
Recently, VisiMix upgraded its mixing simulation software with three enhancements such as 3D Visualization, Alternative Impellers, and New Hydrofoil Impellers. “Our innovative software has a new exciting 3D visualization based on the VisiMix calculations, making the simulation process to look alive,” posits Amir.

The company is on route to open its VisiMix Forum envisioned to build strong customer relationship by inviting a community of expert users who understand the mixing parameters in the process and evaluate VisiMix results to help customers improve performance of their processes. The firm is all set to open the VisiMix Forum with its first presentation by—Dr. Victor Atiemo Obeng on May 17th