Hello everybody I was wondering if any of you have actually got your hands on one of these PandaPLUS. I was just wondering how you like it, what is the realistic shelf life on products produced with it and if it’s worth the money.
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GEA is the shit. Used them all day in Pharma.
I don’t have this specific machine but almost anything from GEA I would call good to go.
I used an emulsion machine from GEA about 10 years ago for non-cannabis work. I’ve also used their single pot and a capsule machine. Super good, easy interface, GMP and cleanable.
I imagine these will be similar. Love to try one out - but already have inhouse emulsion tech and not interested in buying new tech for that right now.
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High pressure homogenizers you’re going to spend probably 15k-40k getting set up with fairly low throughput to start. The pricey stuff is the reaction chambers, some of which go above 10k alone. They are a fun toy for sure. Gets closer to 40k-100k for something closer to production scale.
What would you be using to get the particle size down before running through? You have a rotor stator homogenizer?
edit: numbers
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Looks like a really sweet unit that is comparable to the benchtop offerings from Microfluidics. I’ve wanted a bench top high pressure homogenizer for years now. They are unfortunately priced out of my reach at the moment.
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I am very new to the world of homogenization. I do apologize for any ignorance/Confusion on my end. I don’t have any equipment for it (yet). I didn’t know I had to get the particle size down. I was under the assumption that you loaded in distillate to the Pandaplus unit and out would come the nano emulsified product. I think it safe to say I was wrong assuming it would be that easy lol. I reached out to rootscience same time I made the post to try and learn more about it.
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It seems to me the process with those machines would first be to emulsify the distillate and a surfactant using heat and a high shear mixer. From there you would send that through the high pressure homogenizer which would get the particle size down to <100nm. At that point you would have a water soluble product. From my research you either buy expensive surfactant blends ~1.5$/g or you figure out how to make your own. It seems that a 5:1 surfactant:distillate w/w is needed to get a water soluble product.
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What you explained makes more sense than what I was initially thinking. Ill post here whenever the company reaches back out to me and tell ya what they say. Till then it’s time to put on my research cap and try to learn how to make my own surfactant blend 
Thanks for the info I appreciate it
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Would love to hear what you come up with. There are several threads here that discuss surfactants. It seems that most companies that sell the all in one surfactants are using Modified Coconut Oil (MCO) as well as anti-oxidants (possibly vitamin e) as well as other stuff that I haven’t found yet. I would also like to know what they quote you on the unit!
If anyone has a recipe for a surfactant that would be ideal for this application, feel free to DM me.
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Also doing some research to create my own blend! Let’s keep this thread going with updates
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I used to run a microfluidics system from Precision NanoSystems in pharma (NanoAssemblr); it’s a superior mfg method because you can titrate your particle size relative to flow rate and keep your organic and aqueous phases separate, meaning that you don’t have to do any course emulsion prep.
However, over the past several years, I’ve just utilized sonication. You can buy ultrasonic homogenizers for 10x cheaper with 10x the capacity of microfluidics instruments, and if you have solid formulations and mfg processes (especially filtration) then I would always recommend sonication over microfluidics relative to processing capacity/ROI/ease of use.
I have DLS data of microfluidics vs sonication with a couple of my formulations. The only real difference is the polydispersity index and number distribution, but that’s assumed given the above info. Tighter ND and lower PDI with micro but PDI with sonication <0.2 and VD for sonication was 99.8% under 110nm so you’re splitting hairs at that point.
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Plus one for GEA.
I actually commissioned a PANDAPlus when I was in pharma.
Stellar piece of equipment. Super user friendly—almost suspiciously so. As far as I remember you basically turn a knob (a needle valve) and increase the homogenization pressure that way.
These things put out ridiculous pressure, like 10,000psi ridiculous. There was a larger unit like this that put out damn near 30,000psi.
It’s a plate homogenizer, I’m pretty sure, but at that pressure, who gives a shit—it’s gonna homogenize.
I’d buy the heck outta that thing.
Edit: GEA TriplexPanda Lab Homogenizer - YouTube
Neat lil video
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