The virtual Product-Process Design laboratory to manage the complexity in the verification of formulated products

Formulations are complex products since active ingredients, solvents and additives are combined together to obtain a product with several functions and properties. When designing/verifying a formulated product, the required modelling effort is challenging as properties and functions of complex mixtures need to be predicted. This complexity has to be managed through decomposition of the problem into sub-problems. Each sub-problem is solved and analyzed and, from the knowledge gained, an overall evaluation of the complex chemical system representing the product is made. The virtual Product-Process Design laboratory (virtual PPD-lab) software is based on this decomposition strategy for the design of formulated liquid products. When the needed models are available in the software, the solution of formulation design/verification problems is straightforward, while when models are not available in the software library, they need to be developed and/or implemented. The potential of the virtual PPD-lab in managing the complexity in the verification of formulated products, after the needed models have been developed and implemented, is highlighted in this paper through a case study from industry dealing with the verification of a hair spray product.