Flow chemistry

In a typical pharmaceutical synthesis drugs are prepared in a series of batch synthesis and purification steps. However, it is predicted that current manufacturing practices will be replaced by the cleaner, more flexible, more efficient continuous manufacturing. This shift is encouraged currently by regulations both in the European Union and the United States. However, the realization of this perspective is rather challenging, since the development of a continuous manufacturing process usually involves several diverging expertise, e.g. designing flow reactors, developing suitable catalysts as well as their immobilization in the flow reactor, and applying online cleaning and separation techniques. In this project we will focus on two important aspects of flow chemistry. On the one hand we aim at developing novel immobilization approaches for both catalytic complexes and for enzymes to allow the straightforward functionalization of the reactor ‘core’ and the easy separation of the product. On the other hand we aim at developing reactor designs that allow the optimal application of the developed immobilization techniques.

István Szalai, Imre Varga

Result_May 2020