To improve the dissolution properties of poorly water soluble active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), a solvent-free melt-absorption process was applied to directly load the APIs into mesoporous SBA-15 silica powder as an amorphous solid dispersion. Two model compounds, poorly aqueous soluble ibuprofen (IBU) and fenofibrate (FEN), were individually mixed with SBA-15 powder and heated above their respective melting points. Upon cooling, the physicochemical and solid-state properties of the solid dispersions were investigated by N-2 adsorption, DSC, XRD, SEM and solid-state NMR. The molten API was found to be absorbed into the pores, confined within the nano-channels of SBA-15, and re-solidified to an amorphous solid dispersion. Due to the amorphous properties, the APIs showed a significant enhancement in dissolution rate as compared with the untreated crystalline APIs. Although the amorphous forms were not at thermodynamic equilibrium, the APIs exhibited excellent solid-state physical stability even under accelerated stress conditions. In comparison with APIs loaded using a co-spray drying process (previous work), the melt-absorption process required no organic solvent, produced powders with a coarser size distribution and more desirable flow properties. This solvent-free direct melt-absorption process can be used to formulate a wide range of poorly soluble drugs to be amorphous solid dispersions. (C) 2017 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.