Plant microplant

Acceleration of process development [ Faz 1999] by using integrated miniplant technology (laboratory plant —> microplant miniplant industrial plant). 

Product innovation absorbs considerable resources in the fine chemicals industry, in part because of the shorter life cycles of fine chemicals as compared to commodities. Consequently, research and development (R D) plays an important role. The main task of R D in fine chemicals is scaling-up lab processes, as described, eg, in the ORAC data bank or as provided by the customers, so that the processes can be transferred to pilot plants (see Pilot PLANTS AND microplants) and subsequently to industrial-scale production. Thus the R D department of a fine chemicals manufacturer typically is divided into a laboratory or process research section and a development section, the latter absorbing the Hon s share of the R D budget, which typically accounts for 5 to 10% of sales. Support functions include the analytical services, engineering, maintenance, and Hbrary. 

Microplitis demolitor Hymenoptera Mymaridae Pseudoplusia includens Plant volatiles Ramachandran and Norris, 1991... 

McCall, P. J., Turlings, T. C. J., Lewis, W. J. and Tumhnson, J. H. (1993). Role of plant volatiles in host location by the specialist parasitoid Microplitis croceipes Cresson (Braconidae, Hymenoptera). Journal of Insect Behavior 6 625-639. 

Nordlund, D. A. and Sauls, . E. (1981). Kairomones and their use for management of entomophagous insects. 11. Effect of host plants onkairomonal activity of frass from Heliothis zea (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) larvae for the parasitoid Microplitis croceipes (Hymenoptera, Braconidae). Journal of Chemical Ecology 7 1057-1061. 

Ramachandran, R. and Norris, D. M. (1991). Volatiles mediating plant-herbivore-natural enemy interactions electroantennogram responses of soybean looper, Pseudoplusia includens, and a parasitoid, Microplitis demolitor, to green leaf volatiles. Journal of Chemical Ecology 17 1665-1690. 

Clark, F. M. and Adams, A. M. (1977) Characteristics of the microplate method of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of plant viruses. J. Virol. Methods 34,475-483. 

It must be pointed out again that even today confusion of terms can be observed when chemical engineers discuss miniplants or microplants . In most of these cases they identify with the terms mentioned above chemical plants made of glassware with volumes in the range of up to a few liters. To summarize, at that early stage no specialized micro structured reactors for production purposes were available. Most of the fabricated micro structured devices were made in terms of micro fabrication capabilities and not adapted to the chosen chemical process. It is no wonder that at first visionary theoretical work either had to be based on conventionally fabricated chemical reactors or did not outline reactor design in detail [30],... 

It was very time-consuming to screen substances in animal tests for efficacy and to prepare lead analogues by classical synthesis. Therefore, it is not surprising that the researchers looked for alternatives. Today pharmaceutical companies apply computerized robotic systems in drug discovery. The starting point is the chemical library. This library does not contain books, but chemicals. Many companies keep small samples of all chemical compounds that they ever synthesized or extracted from the plant material. The amount of the samples is usually small and they are kept in microplates in dedicated temperature-controlled storage facilities. Chemical libraries of large pharmaceutical companies contain several million different compounds. 

Determinations of antioxidant activity are widely used in phytochemistry, nutrition, food chemistry, clinical chemistry, as well as in human, animal, and plant physiology, etc. Methods adapted to HPLC have appeared only recently but can be expected to have multiple apphcations in the future. ARTS" is an excellent metastable chromogen for the detection and quantification of the HAA and LAA of biological samples. Thus, using a simple photometer (end-point method), a microplate reader (multisample titration method), or HPLC equipment, a broad range of possibilities are available for the characterization of diverse samples (animal- or plant-derived). Some apphcations of special interest could include ... 

The Microplant The Link between the Laboratory and the Pilot Plant... 

Because of the high cost of pilot plants and the long times required for their construction, a newer pathway in process development attempts to introduce an intermediate step, the so-called microplant [Behr 2000], between the laboratory, in which only individual units are investigated, and the pilot plant, in which the individual units are... 

As can be seen in Figure 4-9, when the individual steps are put together, recycling streams are created (in this case one gas and one solvent recycling path). These recycling streams or feedbacks are an economic necessity, but they raise new process engineering problems. Thus, material recycled to the reactor may drastically affect the performance of the catalyst, especially its activity and service life. In addition, the solvent circuit may become enriched in byproducts and this may lower product purity. In principle, these problems can only be solved by mathematical simulation, but since many of the quantities that are required for a mathematical description are unknown, an experimental approach must be adopted. Therefore, it is important to know at as early a stage as possible, the influence of the most important reycle streams on the overall behavior of the plant (reactor with catalyst, separation behavior) and to thus achieve further discrimination between process variants. An economical and fast solution here is a microplant. 

Since the high-boiling substance was not known before, it was not possible to include it in the mathematical simulation. Now that it has been discovered as a result of operating an integrated plant (micro- or miniplant), it can be characterized and incorporated in the simulation [Buschulte 1995]. Whereas the microplant is used to test the most important recycle streams at the laboratory stage, in the integrated miniplant all recycle streams are investigated. 

Mesoscale chemical plant Microchemical factory Microplants Microstmctured reactor plant (MRP) Tabletop microreaction system Tabletop plant... 

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