Purification process, microreactor

If microscaled workup methods were available the general use of microreactors would speed up, but micro unit operations alone wiU not contribute to greener chemistry, because in purification processes such as adsorption the equihbrium concentrations govern the amounts of solvents that have to be used. This is independent of the scale of the system. The same holds for distillation. Microreactors only increase the surface area for phase contact. This can speed up the process, but equi-... 

Continuous microreactor systems have gained a lot of interest in the field of organic synthesis as these possess enhanced mass and heat transfer properties. Microreactor technology also offers a contemporary way of conducting chemical reactions In a more sustainable fashion due to the miniaturization and increased safety, and also In a technically improved manner due to intensified process efficiency. Recent developments in this area related to the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds are recorded in this chapter. Also, telescoping, in which several subsequent reaction steps (with or without purification) can be achieved by connecting different reactors to each other, is covered. 

However, for commercial production, the use of continuous microreactor technology should be justified by a dear cost advantage in comparison to presenfly applied technologies. The use of microfluidic bioreactors opens up possibilities for new production concepts, particularly continuous processing and flexible scale-up on demand via parallelization. There is, however, a need for a modular networks consisting of upstream steps (reaction) and downstream step (separation and purification), that is, the development of whole biocatalytic processes for real implementation in industrial setting. 

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