Future Production Concepts in the Chemical Industry: Modular – Small‐Scale – Continuous

Abstract

Modular continuous production concepts are already successfully applied in research, development, and piloting of a series of chemical compounds in the markets of fine chemistry and pharmaceutical products. Besides, first case studies for the application of those concepts in industrial scale are reported. Current European research projects focus to proof their applicability in a broader range. The elaborated know-how will be commercially used in a franchise between BTS, INVITE, Ehrfeld Mikrotechik BTS, and further partners in the product Flo-namic®. One core element of these production concepts are micro-and millistructured devices assisting continuous-flow processes due to their superior transport characteristics and small holdup. In small-scale production concepts, these special devices have to be considered together with conventional technology. The platform concept developed by TU Dortmund University for chemical manufacturing simplifies the scale-up process from lab to container scale and beyond on different levels in flow rate, temperature, or other process conditions.

A Microfluidic Toolbox for the Development of In-Situ Product Removal Strategies in Biocatalysis

“…The concept of combining microfluidic modules to test promising and novel process concepts is one of the key benefits of a microfluidic toolbox and can be referred to as plug-and-play microfluidics [20]. The concept of applying microfluidic modules in a plug-and-play manner for testing multi-step processes is not new, and creating a framework for such modularization has been emphasized a number of times in the past [98,99,[101][102][103]. However, applications of microfluidic modules in a plug-and-play manner for biocatalytic applications to date have only been attempted a few times [46,104,105].…”

Beyond Organometallic Flow Chemistry: The Principles Behind the Use of Continuous-Flow Reactors for Synthesis

“…139 The small dimensions of a typical microreactor provide opportunities to process small amounts of hazardous material and, therefore, minimizes the risks associated with its handling. 79 The power of an explosion is proportional to the mass of the explosive mixture in the reactor with the power of 1/3.…”

“…139,201 Active mixers are used in these millireactors to ensure that the same intensified heat and mass transfer characteristics are obtained as encountered in microreactors. Researchers from Lonza have developed the FlowPlate TM 34 concept, which allows for a reliable scale-up of flow chemistry from lab scale to pilot plant production ( Figure 17).…”

Separation Characteristics of Crystalline Amino Acids with Regard to the Modularization Idea

“…To be capable of competing, the development of a production process, and thus, the large-scale production of the product, has to be considerably accelerated [1,2]. A promising way to enable this is the modularization of functional areas in process engineering [3][4][5].…”