INCREASED SAFETY WITH FINEST STRUCTURES

Examples from the spectrum of fine and speciality chemicalproducts that can be produced to advantage in microreactors:- Active pharmaceutical ingredients- Vitamins and their intermediates- Fragrances and aromas - Food additives- Cosmetics- Plasticizers- Detergents- Semiconductor materials- Polymeric electronic materials The EMB Modular Microreaction Systemfor combinatorial chemistry Modern chemical plants have a high safetystandard. Nevertheless, most people see a certainrisk in them. Microreaction technology providesvery clear advantages in this respect. The mostimportant of them: The hold-up volume, i.e. theamount of chemicals that is present in the plant at any time, and could react in an unwantedway, is extremely small, and no local overheating- hot-spots - can occur, as they do in largesystems, despite all possible precautions.This is not only true for established syntheses.Completely new reaction paths can be followedthat were previously technically inaccessible. Highly efficient controlled syntheses in theexplosive range of the reaction diagram becomepossible, because microreactors act as flame- barriers, due to their very fine structures. This also enables short-lived - and frequentlyexpensive - intermediate products to betechnically utilized. From a tremendously large spectrum of startingproducts, an even greater diversity of substancescan be created via various reaction paths. The reaction paths are given by the combinationof appropriate modules for unit operations andreaction, and the operating conditions that arepredetermined for these modules. The substancesproduced in the syntheses can be simultaneously subjected to further preparatory stages, so thatthey can be fed directly to corresponding analy-zing systems.