Towards environmentally friendly production of active pharmaceutical ingredients with a flow reactor
(PHYSorg.com Chemistry)

Mostly, the chemical industry still follows very extensive procedures when producing active pharmaceutical ingredients and other complex substances. Often, each intermediate has to be produced in a separate fashion within large reactor vessels. Chemists at Bielefeld University are working on an alternative together with international project partners: the flow method. This combines the production stages and proceeds in microreactors in which the desired substance can be produced without intermediate isolations. The European Union`s research programme is funding the project `ONE-FLOW` with a total of four million Euros. Bielefeld University has now succeeded in gaining a scientist from the renowned Keio University (Japan) for the project. Dr. Yasunobu Yamashita has started his work on the project at the beginning of August.