Sustainable, continuous chemical manufacturing using micro flow reactor technology

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Many business sectors have moved production to a 'just-in-time' operation that offers many practical advantages that lead to improved efficiency and cost savings. Fine-chemical synthesis, such as the preparation of drugs, may have the most to be gained by moving to such a format and yet chemical manufacturing continues to be done following traditional scale-up strategies with the goal of producing single batches of large quantities of final material. The build up and maintenance of large chemical inventories is a serious potential health and environmental concern and creates logistical and quality control issues. For such approaches to be adopted, it would take a significant shift in mind set in industry and the invention of pioneering new technology. Flowed chemical synthesis is currently being evaluated as the technological platform upon which sustained chemical manufacturing will be built. The premise is that reactions can be performed on a small scale at any one point in time in small diameter reactors (chips or tubes). This will allow for rapid reaction condition assessment and optimization literally on single drops of effluent from the reactor, thus drastically reducing environmental impact. Once optimized conditions are achieved, the process can be run for as long as is necessary to generate the desired amount of material. If much larger quantities are required, the reactions can be flowed in parallel, but again it is produced now only in the quantities necessary to meet need eliminating large-scale chemical storage. The PI of this initiative has developed pioneering flow technology using microwave irradiation to rapidly drive reactions to completion in the relatively short time that they reside in the flow reactor. He has assembled a diverse team of chemical, computer, and electronics engineers and synthetic and analytical chemists to integrate the flow microwave reactor into a standalone synthesis plant capable of reaction optimization using artificial intelligence with complete computer control. This new technology, which can operate at very high temperatures and pressures as is necessary, will provide a conceptually unique approach to chemical synthesis and a solution for sustained chemical manufacturing in Canada and beyond.