Dossier: Flow Chemistry
The change in many chemical companies’ product portfolio away from commodities to customer-specific specialties is one of the current challenges facing the process industry. Flow chemistry or milli- and micro reaction technology (MRT) is a platform that can offer enormous advantages in this respect.
Continuous production is an innovative technology platform which is gaining momentum, especially within the pharmaceutical industry. The key advantages of flow chemistry includes faster and safer reactions which can be more environmentally friendly, smaller footprint, better quality product and critically, the ability to perform chemistry that is difficult or impossible to do in batch mode.
Globally, significant efforts have been made to develop the manufacturing flexibility and robustness of processes used to produce chemicals in a continuous way, yet, despite these scientific developments, a major challenge for industry is the established application of flow technology to commercially relevant examples. The identification of opportunities to apply flow solutions to current processes is also critical to the success of this new technology for pharmaceutical and fine chemical companies.
(Image: © Tetra images RF/Getty Images)
Continuous production is an innovative technology platform which is gaining momentum, especially within the pharmaceutical industry. The key advantages of flow chemistry includes faster and safer reactions which can be more environmentally friendly, smaller footprint, better quality product and critically, the ability to perform chemistry that is difficult or impossible to do in batch mode.
Globally, significant efforts have been made to develop the manufacturing flexibility and robustness of processes used to produce chemicals in a continuous way, yet, despite these scientific developments, a major challenge for industry is the established application of flow technology to commercially relevant examples. The identification of opportunities to apply flow solutions to current processes is also critical to the success of this new technology for pharmaceutical and fine chemical companies.
(Image: © Tetra images RF/Getty Images)
