Process development in the fine chemical

The rest of this chapter is a discussion of selected examples of equipment used to study the kinetics of multiphase reactions. We begin with instrumentation suitable for industrial process development in the fine chemicals area and then move on to more sophisticated methods which can be used to extract true surface kinetics data even in the presence of sharp concentration gradients near the surface. 

Distillation is a well-known process and scale-up methods have been well established. Many computer programs for the simulation of continuous distillation columns that are operated at steady state are available. In fine chemicals manufacture, this concerns separations of products in the production of bulk fine chemicals and for solvent recovery/purification. In the past decade, software for modelling of distillation columns operated at non-steady state, including batch distillation, has been developed. In the fine chemicals business, usually batch distillation is applied. 

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. 

Keller, A., E. Heinxle, and K. Hungerbuhler (1996). "Development and Assessment of Inherently Safe Processes in the Fine Chemical Industry. " International Conference and Workshop on Process Safety Management and Inherently Safer Processes, October 8-11, 1996, Orlando, FL, 213-223. New York American Institute of Chemical Engineers. 

The majority of the homogeneous processes were developed for bulk chemicals as only products having a sufficiently large volume could justify the expenditure needed for the development of totally new catalysts and the engineering involved. It was only in the nineties that applications in the fine chemicals area took off, utilising the research results of the bulk chemicals area and the large academic effort that had been set up in the meantime. 

In order to understand the challenges facing the application of catalysts in the fine chemicals industry, one has to understand not only the essential industrial requirements but also how process development is carried out, and which criteria determine the suitability of a catalyst. 

Quantitative failure frequency data are difficult to obtain for multipurpose batch plants in the way that they are often used in the fine chemicals and pharmaceutical industries. Moreover, a quantitative assessment requires detailed knowledge of the control instruments, which may not be available during process development Therefore, a semi-quantitative approach is proposed, providing the required reliability for future plant equipment. 

Surely, the concepts and paradigms of ionic liquids are new and still not fully accepted in the wider community many chemists consider with some skepticism the possibility of applying ILs as substitutes of common solvents in large-scale processes. Moreover, as has been recently evidenced,there are several prerequisites that determine the choices of development chemists working in the fine chemical industry ... 

Finally, in the fine chemical industry the time for the development of the production process for a new chemical entity is limited between a few months in the pharmaceutical industry to 1-2 years for agrochemicals. 

The procedure described in the previous section is only applicable, if the reaction vessel considered is used for just one single process. In this case all necessary substance and system data can be obtained experimentally at a reasonable expense. In the fine chemicals and pharmaceutical industry, however, multipurpose plants are preferred. They are required in order to be able to respond adequately to the fast changing development activities and the continuously changing mass demands. During project engineering activities for such a plant the problem may arise that several hundred different syntheses are expected to be performed on this plant, of which may be half are known chemically due to current activities. 

Most cases of a compound being licensed to a virtual or almost virtual company bring no process technology (beyond medicinal chemistry and preliminary preparations) or partially developed processes. Thus, the licensor is, at best, in a weak position to transfer useful or complete process technology and usually lacks motivation beyond the precise letter of the hcense. Also in most such cases, the virtual or almost virtual customer lacks processing background or experience in the fine chemicals milieu, or hires people with such competency much too late. 

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