SAFC expands continuous flow capabilities for research and commercial scale
Adds reactors at two plants in Wisconsin
SAFC Commercial, Sigma-Aldrich's custom manufacturing services business unit, has installed a new commercial-scale continuous flow reactor at its Sheboygan, Wisconsin, facility in the US with capacity to produce up to 150kg of product each day. Now fully operational, the reactor is complemented by a smaller pilot-scale continuous flow reactor that is being fabricated at the nearby Milwaukee facility to carry out process optimisation studies and manufacturing capability of up to 30kg of product a day.
The reactors will allow SAFC to develop or scale up flow reactions for customers, eliminating the need for customers to install in-house flow capacity, saving them a money, space and time.
The company says this is also a much greener technology and substantially reduces the amount of chemicals and solvents employed in reactions.
'SAFC has invested in making these capabilities available to give customers access to products synthesised through reactions that were previously impractical or impossible to do with a conventional batch platform,' said Andreas Weiler, Director of Global Strategic Marketing for SAFC.
Continuous flow manufacturing is a lean manufacturing platform that provides customers with access to as little or as much of a product as needed.
The nature of this technique offers safer, seamless scale-up of a wider array of reactions compared to the batch platform. Additionally, this technique may aid customers in achieving process control, while helping to eliminate batch failures and minimise risks associated with handling hazardous chemicals.
Both of these reactors are supported by a multitude of research reactors located in the US and EU that provide support to customers from research to commercialisation.
