Microwave Chemistry—out of the Lab and into Production

C-Tech Innovation has developed a large scale continuous flow microwave reactor that is capable of producing .10 kg of product per working day. The reactor has been trialled using a wide range of reactions that are applicable to a variety of industrial sectors and has demonstrated a significant reduction in reaction times and increase in reaction yields. Some examples of the work carried out include the reduction in reaction time of a Suzuki coupling from 2 h to 1 min with no loss of yield, and a dihydropyrimidine synthesis which gave a 2-fold increase in yield and a reduction in reaction time from 8 h to 4 min. We have also successfully carried out the synthesis of an ionic liquid which gave a reduced reaction time from 4 h to 2 min and are hoping to establish this as an easy, more economical and more environmentally friendly route into a variety of commonly used ionic liquids that can be synthesised in a similar way. The shorter reaction times and reduced downstream work up as a result of the higher yields and purity achieved have demonstrated a considerable energy saving and reduction in CO2 emissions. The microwave flow reactor allows chemistry to be scaled up directly from lab scale to plant scale without the need for time consuming and costly process development. Using a continuous flow system lowers the inventory of hazardous or unstable products and intermediates, making scale up inherently safer than using a batch process. C-Tech Innovation has demonstrated that large-scale microwave-assisted synthesis is no longer in the future; it is here today.