In addition to the common equipment needed in the synthesis of fine chemicals, Synthelia holds several flow reactors and offers Flow Chemistry Services to our clients. Flow reactors are mainly used in reactions that require extreme conditions such as very high (or very low) temperatures or very high pressures giving successful results when traditional chemistry fails due to harsh process conditions.

 

Flow chemistry offers several advantages over traditional batch chemistry:

• Safer Reactions: use of small quantities of reagents or intermediates during a reaction minimizes risks associated with handling of large amounts of potentially dangerous reagents or conditions in a batch reactor.
• Reaction Conditions Impossible in Batch: working in batch is mainly limited by pressure and temperature.
• Faster Reactions: intensification of the conditions allows speeding up a reaction.
• Cleaner Products: due to shorter reaction times, formation of by-products related to reaction time is minimized.
• Continuous Analysis: process can be monitored by continuous sampling or by integrating an IR or HPLC detector in-line.
• Fast Reaction Optimization: variation of parameters is fast, easy and each condition can be tested in minutes.
• Scale-Up easy and robust: due to small variability of the parameters when changing to a larger reactor, the scale-up is easy and can be done with minimal modifications.

At Synthelia we have designed our own flow equipment that has the following characteristics:

• A wide range of reactor sizes, from milligrams to kilograms per hour.
• Materials of the reactors are PTFE, FEP, 316SS and Hastelloy.
• Temperature range from -80 ºC to 400 ºC.
• Our equipment can work with pressures up to 170 bars.
• Home-made design allows Synthelia to run reactions with gases such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen and ozone among others.

 

At Synthelia, we consider that all the intellectual property generated during the development of a new process belongs to the client. Because of this, we will work under a Confidential Disclosure Agreement signed with your company.

Below are shown the steps that we will follow.

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Evaluation: Based on the Synthelia experience and the literature, we will inform the customer of the possibility of carrying out a reaction or synthetic route in flow.

Flow Screening: After making fast low cost preliminary experiments, Synthelia gives the customer an overview of the possibility to run a reaction in flow.

Optimization: If the customer is interested in performing the reaction in flow, Synthelia will optimize all parameters for maximum yield and for the best product quality at the lowest price.

Piloting: After all the parameters and the costs have been established, Synthelia will performs several checks to ensure the robustness of the method, obtaining quantities considered pilot proof, from hundreds of grams to several kilograms. The customer then will evaluate the quality and decide whether to proceed.

Validation: Once the decision is made, several semi production runs will be carried out to prove the consistency of the process.