Particles occur in almost all processes in chemical and life sciences. The particle size and shape influence the process performance and product quality

and in turn they are influenced by the flow behavior of the particles during production. Monitoring and controlling such characteristics in multiphase systems to obtain sufficient qualities will greatly facilitate the achievement of reproducible and defined distributions. So far

obtaining this information inline has been challenging

because existing instruments lack measurement precision

being unable to process overlapping signals from different particle phases in highly concentrated multiphase systems. However

recent advances in photo-optics made it possible to monitor such features (particle size distribution (PSD)

aspect ratio and particle concentration) with advanced image analysis (IA) in real-time. New analysis workflows as well as single feature extractions from the images using multiple image analysis algorithms allowed the precise real-time measurements of size

shape and concentration of particle collectives even separated from each other in three phase systems. The performances

advantages and drawbacks with other non-photo-optical methods for assessing the particle size distribution are compared and discussed.