4. Industrial applications

Process industrialization is a major step in the development of high value-added molecules, such as active ingredient molecules in the pharmaceutical field. It involves developing a laboratory protocol that can be transposed to an industrial scale, an operation that does not simply involve multiplying the quantities of material and increasing the size of the reactors. There are dozens of parameters which can influence the course of a chemical reaction (stirring speed, heating time, order of introduction of reagents, etc.), and which become major factors on an industrial scale. Operations that may seem insignificant on a laboratory scale sometimes take on crucial importance on a large scale, including safety aspects:

• Can crystallization of a compound be initiated by scraping the bottom of the reactor with a spatula?

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