Flow chemistry or milli- and micro reaction technology (MRT) is a platform that can offer enormous advantages in this respect. But MRT has not yet achieved the status in fine chemicals and active ingredient manufacturing that one might expect. What are the reasons for this reluctance?
CHEManager asked executives and industry experts dealing with flow chemistry so share their opinion on why some industry sectors are so reluctant in adopting continuous production processes. We wanted to know:
How would you define the essence of flow chemistry?
Luigi Vaccaro: If I think of flow chemistry, the first concepts that come to my mind are innovation, efficiency and – above all – opportunity.
Mastering flow technologies to achieve a chemical process opens a fast road towards a proprietary access route to a desired target material but also to the unquestionably unparalleled optimization of the process in terms of energy, safety and chemical efficiency.
Finally, flow chemistry is an opportunity of incalculable value for academics and industrials to invest in something innovative and capable of creating new science, different professionals and job positions. The opportunities that at the same time involve fundamental and applied research are rare, especially if they can lead to cultural and economic leadership, as flow chemistry can do.
Which factors are affecting the global flow chemistry market and the implementation of flow chemistry in the industry?
Luigi Vaccaro: As an academic and as a non-expert of the actual complexity of the economic issues of global chemistry markets, the cost of flow equipment certainly seems to be the main element influencing the actual implementation of this technology. Being fully convinced of the capability of flow technologies of delivering highly efficient processes, I tend rather to focus on the cultural barriers related to its use. We need more professionals who are able to know and exploit the strengths of flow chemistry and to make the technology transfer to real cases more evident and immediate.
Should there be simplified approval procedures for flow chemistry processes or plants, and is the technology sufficiently covered in academic education
Luigi Vaccaro: There are excellent scientists working at the development of flow technologies for different chemical sectors. Mostly, these activities involve PhD students and more advanced scientists while teaching at an undergraduate level is more limited, but it would be important to present this technology to this audience. Master programs could be organized as a joint effort of universities and companies to include flow chemistry in the curricula.
