The VERISEQ™ Ice Fog Nucleation process cuts production time by up to 30%, increases process control, and improves finished product attributes.
Freeze drying has a long history as a viable technology, dating back to the days of the Inca, who used it to preserve potatoes, and to the turn of the 20th century, when it was used during industrial coffee production in the United States.
More recently, in the days of World War II, high overseas demand for serum drove Americans to freeze dry serum in granular form for transportation. This marked the beginning of modern-day freeze drying, with the pharmaceutical sector the biggest driver.

The freeze drying method consists of three phases; freezing, sublimation, and desorption.  The critical role of the freezing step has for years been overlooked.  The freezing process determines the fundamental crystal structure that influences the drying rate for each unit.

Freezing of the pharmaceutical product in itself entails several steps.  First, the free solvent (usually water) must be frozen.  This occurs after supercooling, where the solution temperature is reduced to below the equilibrium freezing point of the solution.  Supercooled solution then undergoes nucleation, where a single seed crystal or nuclei forms somewhere in the solution.  Ice crystals propagate rapidly from the nucleation site. Nucleated units are then solidified, and finally , the solute components are crystalized or solidified into glassy states.
In nature, ice crystals form around suspended particles or container defects, while in pure systems, nuclei form from water, but only after significant super cooling.