Continuous Chemical Manufacture with Light (C2ML)

化学品制造业对英国经济做出了重大贡献；化工行业每年损失100亿英镑，制药行业每年损失90亿英镑。化学增长战略小组最近的报告指出，“到2030年，英国化学工业将进一步巩固其作为该国领先的制造业出口商的地位，并使化学工业对英国经济的总增加值贡献增加50%”，“智能制造”是实现其愿景的三个优先事项之一。我们的提案旨在通过改变连续光化学应用于商业化学制造的方式，为这种智能制造做出贡献。目前学术界对用于有机合成的新型光化学反应有相当大的兴趣，但如何在工业上使用它们通常被忽视。然而，光化学在制造业中的潜力是被广泛认可的，只要它能被扩展和高效。传统的制药和精细化工行业采用间歇式反应器进行生产，难以有效地适应光化学。因此，本建议侧重于连续反应器，这不仅允许在设计上进行创新，以克服当前光反应器的技术限制，而且还提供了通过扩大或扩大规模来增加吞吐量的直接途径。我们将解决传统光反应器中固有的一些技术和工程问题。这些工程问题包括使光有效地进入反应器，在透明表面上积聚不透明材料，关键的安全问题，特别是在涉及氧化的反应中，以及与许多光源效率低和规模扩大困难相关的成本问题。我们的项目建议创造新的工程方法来连续光化学制造化学品，这可以改变化学过程和成本。我们的提案解决了阻碍当前光化学商业应用的关键技术/科学障碍，并承诺在制药、农用化学品和精细化学品领域提供更便宜的产品。我们的团队由三名调查员组成，他们在将化学过程从实验室带到商业工厂方面有着良好的记录。我们拥有成功所需的专业知识；即光化学，连续有机反应，制造，机械和化学工程以及过程监测。

The manufacture of chemicals makes a major contribution to the UK's economy; £10 bn p.a. in the chemicals and £9bn in the pharmaceuticals sectors alone. The recent report of the Chemistry Growth Strategy Group states that 'By 2030, the UK chemical industry will have further reinforced its position as the country's leading manufacturing exporter and enabled the chemistry-using industries to increase their Gross Value Added contribution to the UK economy by 50%' with "smart manufacturing" as one of three priorities in realising their vision. Our proposal aims to contribute to this smart manufacturing by transforming the way in which continuous photochemistry can be applied to commercial chemical manufacture. There is considerable current academic interest in new photochemical reactions for organic synthesis but how they might be used industrially is usually ignored. Nevertheless the potential of photochemistry in manufacturing is widely recognized if only it could be made scalable and efficient. Traditionally the pharmaceutical and fine chemicals industries have used batch reactors for manufacture, which are difficult to adapt effectively for photochemistry. Therefore, this proposal focuses on continuous reactors which not only permit innovation in design to overcome technical limitations of current photoreactors but also provide a direct route to increased throughput via scale up or scale out.We will tackle some of the technical and engineering issues inherent in conventional photoreactors. These engineering problems include getting light efficiently into the reactors, build-up of opaque material on transparent surfaces key safety issues, particularly in reactions involving oxidation, as well as cost issues related to low efficiency of many light sources and difficulties of scale up. Our project proposes to create new engineering approaches to continuous photochemical manufacture of chemicals, which could transform chemical processes and cost. Our proposal addresses key technical/scientific barriers frustrating current commercial use of photochemistry and promises cheaper products in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and fine chemicals sectors. Our team consists of three investigators with a proven track record of taking chemical processes from laboratory to commercial plant. Between us, we have the expertise needed for success; namely, in photochemistry, continuous organic reactions, manufacturing, mechanical and chemical engineering and process monitoring.