Overview of Freeze Drying

Freeze drying which is also termed as lyophilization is one of the drying technologies that is commonly used to enhance the storage stability of products that have marginal stability in liquid state. The chapter starts with discussing the advantages and disadvantages of lyophilization, and situations where its use can be beneficial. It describes in detail the equipment involved in freeze drying, the various phases of freeze drying process, the design and composition of the formulation for freeze drying and various techniques to monitor and control the process. Finally, it also briefly describes the kinetics in the lyophilized solid state and model to predict the stability and shelf-life of the product.