A Commercial Continuous Flow Microwave Reactor Evaluated for Scale-Up

Six pharmaceutically relevant reactions covering a range of physical parameters have been investigated in a commercially available microwave flow reactor. The reaction conditions were scaled-up from tube or large batch scale microwave conditions, largely without change. Energy consumption measurements were also taken. In summary, this microwave flow reactor provided potentially successful manufacture for five out of six reactions investigated where homogeneous reactions solutions could be obtained. Production rates of between 0.5 and 3.0 mol/h (1-6 L/h) have been achieved with minimal redevelopment of the chemistry.