Sustainable, continuous chemical manufacturing using micro flow reactor technology

许多商业部门已经将生产转移到“准时制”运营，这种运营提供了许多实际优势，从而提高了效率和节省了成本。精细化学合成，如药物的制备，可能通过转向这种形式获得最大的收获，但化学制造仍在继续遵循传统的扩大战略，目标是生产单批大批量的最终材料。大量化学品库存的积累和维护是一个严重的潜在问题，对健康和环境构成威胁，并造成后勤和质量控制问题。要采用这种方法，需要行业观念的重大转变和开创性新技术的发明。流水式化学合成目前被认为是建立持续化学制造的技术平台。前提是，反应可以在小直径的反应器(芯片或管子)中的任何一个时间点上以小规模进行。这将允许对反应器中的单滴流出物进行快速反应条件评估和优化，从而大大减少对环境的影响。一旦达到优化的条件，该工艺就可以持续运行，只要需要产生所需数量的材料即可。如果需要大得多的量，反应可以并行进行，但同样，现在只生产满足需要的量，消除了大规模的化学储存。这一倡议的PI开发了开创性的流动技术，使用微波辐射来快速推动反应在相对较短的时间内完成，这些反应驻留在流动反应器中。他组建了一支由化学、计算机和电子工程师以及合成和分析化学家组成的不同团队，将流动微波反应器集成到一个独立的合成工厂中，该工厂能够使用人工智能和完全计算机控制进行反应优化。这项新技术可以在必要时在非常高的温度和压力下运行，它将在概念上为化学合成提供一种独特的方法，并为加拿大及其他地区的持续化学制造提供解决方案。

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