Continuous flow reactors: a perspective

In this Tutorial Review, Charlotte Wiles of Chemtrix BV and Paul Watts of the University of Hull, look at the developments made in the application of continuous flow reactors for sustainable chemical research and production.

The review looks at the 12 principles of green chemistry, as outlined by Paul Anastas et al.¹ and identifies which of these principles have the potential to benefit from flow reactor technology and discuss relevant examples. The authors also focus on production-scale processes, highlighting that reactor safety is key here and being able to easily scale-up bench processes to production scales. However, there are still challenges facing flow reactor technology and areas which still require further development, such as the manipulation of slurries and the recovery of solvents and catalysts.

Please click here to go to the RSC weblog to access the review article.