Application report on operating cellular process chemistry plants in fine chemical and contract manufacturing industries

Only a few microreaction manufacturing plants are being operated to date. The performance of two different microreaction manufacturing plants is discussed, one in a dedicated application, the other in a multi-purpose environment. Strategies to address the major design and operating challenges for microreactor manufacturing plants to equipartition starting material streams into parallel reaction chambers throughout manufacturing operation are provided for demanding liquid/liquid-reactions. The importance of minimizing the pressure drop variances between different microreactors or channels by rigorous microreactor fabrication process control is described. A cost/performance balanced microreactor manufacturing strategy is suggested, and the ease of assessing trade-off decisions is addressed for different manufacturing systems by the use of a case study involving a diffusion controlled Grignard reaction.