The main objective of this work was the study and the optimization of the freeze-drying process of ibuprofen with aqueous and/or organic based formulations. A detailed comparative study was realized at different steps of the ibuprofen freeze-drying process for both types of investigated formulations. This comparative study was realized at the succesives stages of freezing, sublimation and desorption and also concerned some properties of the final freeze-dried product (humidity, rehydratability, aspect…). We observed that the use of eutectic A mixture, corresponding to 20 % TBA + 80 % water (mass %) as co-solvent, allowed a strong increase of the solubility of ibuprofen and for the same operating conditions (Tshelf and Pc), led to an increase of drying kinetics values by a factor 1.8 by comparison to aqueous based formulations of ibuprofen. Besides, the experimental determination of equilibrium solid-vapour pressure and of sublimation enthaly values was carried out by using two different methods: the thermogravimetic method and the static method.These determinations allowed to conclude that the increase of sublimation kinetics resulted essentially from the higher equilibrium solid-vapour pressure values and from the lower sublimation enthalpy value of eutectic A by camparison to pure ice values. Next, these thermodynamical data were used as key parameters in the modelling of the sublimation stage under Comsol Multiphysics. In fine, the overall optimization of the operating parameters of sublimation stage was achieved by using the Design Space aproach. It proved that the organic based formulation led to final freeze-died cakes which fulfilled largely the main quality criteria (color, aspect, solvents residues, etc.). Thus, the development of an ibuprofen freeze-drying process with organic based formulation seems more advantageous than an aqueous based formulation process.
