Applications of Microstructured Devices

Microstructured devices have been successfully used for the continuous processing of fast and highly exothermic reactions [28] and chemical transformations involving toxic, sensitive, and explosive chemicals such as nitration [29], hydrogenations [30, 31], polymerization [32, 33], oxidation [34], halogenations [4], alkylation [35], tetrazole synthesis [36], and reaction of diazomethane [37]. With 

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The efforts of industry and academia have led to the successful installation of microreactors in existing production plants. In the following, a few examples of the industrial application of microstructured devices are given. 

Based on the unequivocal advantages of microprocess technology, a lot of companies started to study microstructured devices as tools for process intensification [14]. BASF, Bayer, Clariant, Degussa, DSM, Lonza, and Merck are among them and have also published some studies they had performed to investigate the applicability of microstructured devices for chemical production [17-20]. Several pilot- and production-scale applications of microreactors have also been reported. There are about 20 plants published in the literature and 30-40 plants estimated to be installed worldwide [21]. 

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