17 th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering – ESCAPE17 V. Plesu and P.S. Agachi (Editors) © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1 Solvent selection evaluation tools for an early stage at pharmaceutical process Samuel PEREZ and Paul SHARRATT School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, PO Box 88, Sackville St, Manchester, M60 1QD, UK Samuel.Perez-vega@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk paul.sharratt@manchester.ac.uk Abstract A first level of a methodology for the selection and evaluation of solvent at an early stage is presented inside a programming tool for its systematic and friendly application. This first level is based on properties and characteristics of solvents for their selection. Different tools are integrated into the program to aid the evaluation of the group of solvents selected. A case study is presented to highlight the most important aspects of the methodology. As a result, this kind of analysis can be useful to determine where the efforts related with solvent selection at an early stage should be aim. Keywords: solvents, system, systematic, early stage, selection, and evaluation. 1. Introduction Throughout the years solvent selection has been a difficult activity to do in the pharmaceutical industry. This is because there is not a complete understanding of the effects that this decision has on the complete process. One of the principal concerns of this industry is the lack of time to introduce a drug into the market; as a result, there is a need to create methodologies to appreciate future implications related with solvents at early stage.