Bench-scale synthesis experiments

Conception is the most critical step in the development of a new process. Though still done largely on the basis of experience and intuition, it may be implemented with process synthesis. Computerized algorithms may provide for a large number of possible routes to a product. This method, combined with the analysis of raw material costs and DS-51 ASTM tests for process hazardousness, are the best options to speed up the bench-scale development of new chemical processes. Thus, one or a reduced number of routes to the desired product can be identified for preliminary process development. 

This book is written primarily for chemists and chemical engineers who are concerned with the development of a chemical synthesis from the laboratory bench scale, where the first successful experiments are performed, to the design desk, where the first commercial reactor is conceived. It is also written for those chemists and chemical engineers who are concerned with the further development of a chemical process with the objective of enhancing the performance of an existing industrial plant. And, of course, this book is written for students of chemistry and chemical engineering. 

As mentioned in the introduction, this article is aimed at the practicing homogeneous catalysis chemists in academic, corporate, and national research laboratories, who perform small-scale bench-top organic synthesis. These scientists should be concerned that their experiments are reproducible, at both an intralaboratory as well as an interlaboratory level. As this article tried to emphasize that reproducible mass transfer is an integral component of obtaining reproducible rates, and more importantly of reproducible regio-, chemo-, and stereoselectivities. The main issues and conclusions of the article can be condensed into a succinct checklist. 

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