Fine Chemicals Manufacture with Microreactors

A short review of the way in which microreactors are  being used at SAFC Pharma in Switzerland has recently been published (A Weiler, Chem & Ind, 2009, Apr 27, pp 19-21).  This is followed by an account of the successful introduction of microreactor processes and process intensification at DSM Austria for making fine chemicals (S Braune and P Poechlauer, ibid, 21-24).

DSM used a reactor designed by the Institut fur Mikroverfahrenstechnik (IMVT) in Karlsruhe, Germany to improve a process for making acrylamides using the Ritter reaction, and also reduced costs  They have also used a Corning glass microreactor to produce  Kg quantites of a potentially hazardous nitrate ester, avoiding over nitrated products by this technique.  Continuous extraction was also used to minimise decomposition of the sensitive nitrates and to produce product within specification.
 
For those interested in this topic, there was an interesting paper describing continuous flow chemistry at Lonza which appeared last year (N Kockmann et al, Chem Eur J, 2008, 14, 7470-7).  The Lonza group also describe their latest equipment in two papers, P Barthe et al (Chem Eng Technol, 2008, 31, 1146-1154) and D M Roberge et al (ibid pp1155-1161).