Glossary
API
Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient
Avantium
The name Avantium is derived from the Italian word “avanti” and stands for Forerunner. In Avantium’s world of innovation and advanced R&D it is important to always be ahead.
Biodiesel
Biomass derived diesel; a biofuel that is made out of vegetable oils.
Bio-ethanol
Biomass derived ethanol; a biofuel that is made by a fermentation process on basis of sugar.
Biofuel
Transportation fuel derived from biomass. 1st generation biofuels refer to bio-ethanol and biodiesel, which are on the fuel market today. 2nd generation biofuels refer to cellulose derived bio-ethanol (cellulosic ethanol); this fuel is expected to replace 1st generation bio-ethanol, dependent on technological breakthroughs to convert cellulose to sugars.
Catalysis
The acceleration of a chemical reaction by means of a chemical substance, called a catalyst, which is itself not consumed by the overall reaction.
Catalysis research
Research to discover, develop, and optimize catalysts for a specific chemical reaction. Catalysis research is conducted by us by screening various metals, support materials, preparation methods, and process conditions (such as pressure and temperature) to determine their effect on the chemical reaction.
Catalyst
A chemical substance that accelerates a chemical reaction, but that is not consumed by the overall reaction.
Cellulose
Polymer consisting of a chain of sugar molecules (polysaccharide). Cellulose forms a large part of the biomass, as significant parts of plants and wood consist of cellulose. Cellulose can be broken down by an enzymatic process to sugars. The use of cellulose for the production of biofuels or bio-based chemicals would therefore not conflict with the food supply chain. Major R&D efforts worldwide are focused to an economical process to convert cellulose to sugars.
Chemometrics
The science of using mathematical and statistical methods to design experiments, for a systematical approach for conducting experiments with the objective to achieve a better understanding the results.
Cocrystal
Cocrystals are crystal forms consisting of a hydrogen-bound combination of a drug molecule and a different molecule
Crystal form
A solid form of a chemical compound. This refers to the way molecules are packed within the solid material in a regular ordered, repeated pattern. Drug molecules often exist in different crystalline solid forms, referred to as crystal forms. These crystal forms can exhibit different physico-chemical properties, and thereby impact the bio-availability of the drug. The crystal form does not impact the ability of a drug to effectively interact with a particular target (for example receptors or enzymes) because this happens in solution; this is dependent on the chemical structure of the drug.
Crystal16®
A system developed by Avantium for conducting parallel crystallization experiments. This system is often used by pharmaceutical and chemical scientists who want to achieve a better understanding of when a substance crystallizes (becomes solid) and when it dissolves.
Crystallization
The process of the formation of (solid) crystals from a solution. Many factors can impact the crystallization process (and thus which crystal forms are formed) including solvent, concentration, time and temperature.
CTL
Coal-to-liquids. The process to convert coal into liquid fuels. In order to convert coal into liquid hydrocarbons, coal is converted into synthetic gas (a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen) by a coal gasification process. Subsequently the synthetic gas is converted by the Fischer-Tropsch process to diesel type of liquid fuels.
Fischer-Tropsch
A catalyzed chemical process to convert gas to liquid fuels. The principal purpose of this process is to produce a synthetic petroleum substitute, typically from coal or natural gas, for use as synthetic fuel.
Flowrence®
A research system developed by Avantium for catalysis research. The Flowrence® is equipped with 16 fixed-bed reactors (flow reactors) that are based upon Avantium's Nanoflow technology. It enables scientists to screen heterogeneous catalysts under industrial conditions (high pressure, high temperature and with real industrial feedstock). The Flowrence® can be used for a range of chemical and refinery research and development applications.
Glucose
A type of sugar, also referred to as carbohydrate or monosaccharide. Glucose can be produced out of sugar cane, sugar beets, corn or wheat, but also by the break-down of cellulose.
GTL
Gas-to-Liquids: this refers to the process to convert natural gas (or other gaseous hydrocarbons) to liquid fuels.
Nanoflow
Parallel catalyst testing platform. We inherited the basis of the Nanoflow technology from Shell at the inception of our company. We subsequently advanced the technology and developed many proprietary features to enable the testing of heterogeneous catalysts under industrial conditions. Our Nanoflow technology is a key element in for our catalyst development capability.
Physico-chemical properties
Refers to the properties of crystal forms of drug molecules, such as solubility, dissolution rate and stability. These properties are important because they affect the bio-availability of the drug, and thereby are an important factor in determining if the drug is sufficiently dissolved in the human body to become an effective therapy.
Polymorph
Polymorphs are distinct crystal forms of a chemical substance with the same chemical structure
Salt forms
Salt forms are crystal forms consisting of an ion-bound combination of a drug molecule and a counter-ion (such as hydrochloric acid)
Small molecule drugs
Chemically synthesized drugs (in contrast to drugs such as proteins and antibodies that are produced in a biological way from bacteria or cell cultures).
XRPD (X-ray powder diffraction)
An analytical method that is applied to identify crystal forms of drug molecules. XRPD is the pharmaceutical industry’s “golden standard” in crystal form identification and is often referred to as the finger printing technique for crystal forms, as each crystal form has its own unique X-ray powder pattern.
YXY
A technology platform, developed by Avantium, to produce green building blocks for materials and fuels.