2. Miniaturization for enhanced safety

Carrying out large-scale chemical reactions in macroscopic batch reactors poses safety problems that arise at various stages of the process. Safety issues relate to the storage and shipment of large volumes of raw materials and intermediates, with a high risk of accidental chemical spillage. Many industrial incidents are linked to thermal runaway in large tanks, with potentially dramatic consequences for operators and the environment.

An obvious solution to significantly reduce the chemical risk when processing chemicals is to reduce the internal size of the reactor. This strategy is not compatible with macroscopic batch reactors as part of a centralized, global production scheme, as a reduction in size would be detrimental to the scale of production. On the other hand, this does not apply to continuously operating flow reactors. Reduced internal volume guarantees...