The objective of this work was to study the coating of microcrystalline cellulose with a polymeric suspension in a fluidized bed. The coating operation was carried out using a fluidized bed with top spraying by a double-fluid nozzle. The fluidized bed consists of a cylindrical column made of plexiglass with a height of 0.6 m and an inner diameter of 0.14 m. The polymeric coating suspension was formulated using Eudragit® as the basic component. As the quality of the coating product is greatly affected by the spraying characteristics, the influence of the flow rate of the coating suspension and the moisture content of the particles on the agglomeration index and efficiency of the process of coating microcrystalline cellulose was analyzed.
coating; fluidization; moisture content; microcrystalline cellulose
