(46a) Microreactor Technology in the Fine Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industry: Is the Revolution Underway?

Few years ago we published results of a reaction analysis and performed an initial economical analysis for microreactor technology applied in the fine chemical and pharmaceutical industry (Chem. Eng. Technol. 28, 318-323, 2005). This publication was well received by the international community and a general echo was perceived to further develop the subject. Thus, this presentation will introduce additional economical outcomes from the use of microreactor technology in an industrial context. The analysis is based on the last two years of manufacturing experience.

One of the first comments in this new perspective is that the published reaction analysis should not be used for forecast, namely for the prediction of the number of reaction candidates that can be performed using microreactor technology. That analysis is a factual picture at a given time in space based on batch reactor technology. The future development of various reaction types using a new technology is not foreseen.

The analysis has the major advantage of encouraging the development of new reactor technologies in terms of unit operation. Different modules were developed to perform critical tasks such heating/cooling, tempering, manifolding and reaction to enable a complete toolbox. Thus, Lonza, together with its partners Corning and Siemens, was able to construct reactor system to operate a large number of reactions in the fine chemical and pharmaceutical industry.

Finally, it is also worth noticing after industrial experience that among the new factors playing a crucial role in the economical benefit of this technology were the additional advantages such as reduction in labor costs, quick change-over (high flexibility) in system setup, and fast kg-scale productions. The goal of this presentation is also to portray a real case study with the calculated economical advantage.