As the chemical industry looks for alternatives to stirred-tank reactors, continuous processing technology (process intensification) is fast becoming an area of global interest.
Having been successfully employed by the oil industry for several decades, this proven technology has a number of distinct advantages, including:
Improved product quality and process yields
Lower inventory, safer processes
Shorter development and scale-up time
Lower capital and operating costs
Environmentally friendly, less waste
Phoenix is at the forefront of introducing this technology into the fine chemical industry and has gained a world-wide recognition in this field. The company has now built up considerable expertise in the handling of a wide range of difficult processes, with special emphasis placed on continuous high pressure asymmetric reductions, chloromethylations, nitromethane chemistry, and the use of diazomethane, azides, cyanides and chloramine.
Reactions requiring careful process control to achieve high chemical yield, selectivity or chiral purity
Exothermic reactions limited by heat transfer rates
As well as commercial manufacturing units, we have a variety of pilot units which can be configured to suit the vast majority of chemical reactions. Equipped with on-line analytical instrumentation, our continuous reactors are quickly able to optimize most processes.
What is Continuous Processing? Phoenix Chemicals believes that continuous processing technology is the most practical and cost-effective way of achieving what is often referred to as process intensification. By using continuous flow-through reactors - the simplest being a pipe containing a static mixer, with reactant inlets, an outlet, and either heating or cooling along the pipe length – the same production rate can be achieved as when using a batch reactor system many orders of magnitude larger. This reduction in reactor size and different mode of operation is particularly advantageous when operating a fast or energetic process such as those often encountered in the production of today’s complicated intermediates.
Improved Product Quality & Process Yields Optimum reaction conditions may be readily achieved and maintained through precise control of heating/cooling, highly efficient mixing and reaction times controlled to the second. Further control over the formation of by-products and impurities is possible through the continuous use of a constant reactant stoichiometry.
This is in stark contrast to a conventional batch reactor operated in semi-batch mode where the stoichiometry changes markedly over time as one reactant is added slowly to another. Inefficient mixing and heating/cooling, along with reaction times described to the nearest minute (at best) mean there is less certainty about product quality and thus the likelihood of higher impurity levels.
Thus a reproducible & consistently high quality is achieved with the maximum process yield.
Lower Inventory, Safer Processes The precise controls over reaction conditions which benefit product quality also improve process safety. Less variation means less likelihood of a runaway reaction occurring, and should there be a temperature deviation, the efficient heating/cooling may quickly bring it under control.
The use of small-volume reactors is especially useful when handling highly toxic or explosive materials, where any loss of containment could have serious consequences. By minimizing the inventory present, the process becomes inherently safer.
Shorter Development & Scale-up Time As the plant is engineered to fit the chemistry, less time is spent in designing and developing the process. Scale-up and optimization are thus much easier.
