1. Chemical synthesis: reducing to do more and better

As mentioned above, production tools for fine chemicals have not undergone any major changes, and the transition of a chemical reaction from the laboratory scale to the production scale (intensification) inevitably involves increasing the size of the reactor from a few milliliters to several thousand liters. The quantity of chemical produced is therefore intrinsically linked to reactor capacity (hence the name "batch synthesis"). Continuous-flow miniaturized reactors, on the other hand, involve the reaction of moving chemicals (liquid, gaseous or solid) in tubes (or channels) of micrometric or millimetric diameter, without ever interrupting the reaction (at least theoretically, as maintenance may require periodic interruptions). The intrinsic characteristics of this technology enable it to solve many of the problems encountered in chemical synthesis. Rapid mixing and efficient heat transfer...