A methodology for the ex ante evaluation of different processing options is proposed. Current processes for glucose oxidation and possible improvements using microreactor technology are investigated. As twofold prime research objectives, the oxidation with noble metal catalyst versus enzymatic oxidation and the oxidation under conventional process conditions versus under Novel Process Windows are explored. Operation and design of an active and stable catalyst, reactor performance, and work-up are included. This ex ante analysis gives information of the critical aspects of a process prior to technology development and facilitates the development of new process routes; especially valuable if step and paradigm changing routes are undertaken, with even no vague idea on their performance potential and with high technological risk. The methodology used for gluconic acid production will be transferred to other chemicals which have the potential in using microreactor technology and Novel Process Windows.

This article presents results on cost and performance benefit analysis of optimization and intensification activities of a pharmaceutical process. A batch process for the production of a low-volume, high-value active pharmaceutical ingredient, developed at Sanofi (France), has been used as a case study. With the scale of 100 kg/y and a product price of a few thousands Euros per kilogram, also following a general trend in pharmaceutical industry, this process is supposed to be an ideal candidate for continuous, modular plant production of a highly potent drug. It was aimed to keep the information gathered generic, i.e. to stand for the whole class of similarly produced drugs. The impact of various chemical process parameters on the overall production costs has been investigated and process performance represented in terms of operation time, waste, and resource usage as the main process metrics. Five optimized and intensified scenarios were compared to the reference case operated at a Sanofi site: intensified reaction, continuous processing, alternative catalysts, change of solvent, change in the purification sequence, recovery of the key product, and intensified drying option. The analysis has shown that, under the assumptions used, an intensified millireactor-based process with a subsequent continuous postprocessing brings the most benefits in terms of cost, while its process performance, although equal or slightly better than batch, still can be optimized. The total product cost is then reduced by 35%, while the operating time is 27% lower than the base case, with 47% less labor needed compared to that for the reference case. First studies on ecological impact by the University of Jena confirm these promising findings and are outlined hereinwith its own paper on the respective details to follow. The results are now undergoing experimental validation in the newly developed compact container plant of Evonik.

Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition was utilized for the deposition of LiCoO2 cathode materials for all-solid-state thin-film micro-batteries. To obtain insight in the deposition process, the most important process parameters were optimized for the deposition of crystalline electrode films on planar substrates. Also the electrochemical activity of the obtained LiCoO2 films was demonstrated.

Summary In order to explain the reasons behind the good performance of a microfluidic reactor for anionic polymerization of a commercial polymer ‐ narrow polydispersity index, PDI, of 1.04 (unpublished results of FP7 COPIRIDE project) ‐ modeling of styrene was selected as test system. A comprehensive model accounting for the changes of all the relevant physical parameters was developed and used to compute the fluid dynamics inside the microreactor. The results show that despite the small characteristic dimension of the system an almost segregated behavior is obtained as a consequence of the reaction. This effect leads to the counterintuitive finding that, despite having a very large residence time distribution in the microreactor, polymers with very low PDIs are obtained in a quality as mentioned above.