Iranian Knowledge-Based Firm Uses Ultrasonic Waves to Vaporize Drugs for Special Patients
“This nebulizer device uses ultrasonic waves to turn medicine into vapor to achieve maximum therapeutic effectiveness. This method of drug administration is used for patients who cannot be injected or for special respiratory diseases,” said Amir Karimani, the deputy managing director of the knowledge company.
Noting that this type of medicine is absorbed by the patient's body through the mucous membrane of the respiratory system, he said, “We manufactured the system for the first time in Iran. The problem was that in this system all substances that are mixed with water during the conversion into vapor are settled and only water evaporates.”
“To settle this challenge, we used ultrasonic waves, and by using ultrasonic blows, without separation between the solution/water and medicinal substances, the drug along with the solvent or water turns into tiny vapor-like particles that can be inhaled,” Karimani said, adding that the device nebulizes medicinal substances at a scale of 2.5 microns.
In a relevant development late last year, Iranian researchers at Amirkabir University of Technology had also succeeded in making ultrasonic separators for dehumidifying natural gas which can be used at the outlet of gas wells to dehumidify and recover gas condensates and separate them from natural gas.
“The process investigated in this project can omit the use of chemical inhibitors (which are used to dehumidify natural gas), such as glycols, which have adverse effects on the environment, and simultaneously recover the gas condensates with the same amount of energy and increase the economic profit by nearly three times,” said Sina Nabati Shoql, a Ph.D. graduate of Amirkabir University of Technology.
Noting that the new ultrasonic separators were designed and built in a bid to indigenize and assess the performance of this process, he added, “In this research, instead of using a laboratory-scale device, we designed a device that can be used on a semi-industrial scale. This is a cyclonic ultrasonic separator whose cooling efficiency has been optimized and the way of rotating the current has been changed with angular injection.”
Nabati Shoql said that the most important application of this project is in the oil and gas industry, adding, “This device has a direct application in natural gas dehumidification and gas condensate recovery.”
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