A modular reactor platform for catalysis and reaction optimisation
Nándor Kánya and Tamás Zsigmond of ThalesNano introduce FlowChemFleet
Continuous flow chemistry has become indispensable in pharmaceutical and fine chemical development, as it offers clear advantages over conventional batch processing in terms of safety, heat and mass transfer, reproducibility and scalability. However, many laboratories still operate instruments as isolated units, requiring a significant amount of manual intervention and longer reaction times.
Stand-alone reactors are no longer sufficient to shorten development timelines, reduce experimental effort, and accelerate the transfer of laboratory discoveries to manufacturing. Achieving these objectives requires a modular platform that integrates reactors, analytical instruments, automation and data management into a single experimental environment, while retaining a small footprint and low equipment costs. This shift represents a fundamental evolution in laboratory design.
Instruments in the FlowChemFleet platform
Evolution of the modern synthetic laboratory
Since it was founded in Budapest in 2002, ThalesNano has been developing continuous flow chemistry instrumentation with a particular focus on high-pressure, high-temperature catalysis and hydrogenation( up to 450 ° C and 200 bar), replacing dangerous batch autoclaves with safer modular systems.
By integrating on-demand hydrogen generation with pre-packed catalyst cartridges, the company eliminates the risks of handling pyrophoric materials and reduces user exposure to heavy metals. This enables researchers to optimise complex chemical transformations safely and efficiently. It has now evolved its offering into the digital and automated realm.
The FlowChemFleet * platform was developed to address the increasing demand for integrated and flexible process development. Instead of relying on dedicated standalone instruments, the platform combines flow reactors, hydrogen generators, liquid handling systems and analytical technologies, supporting process development from catalyst screening to scale-up.
At the core of this digital ecosystem is the THS System Controller * combined with THS ReAction * software. This master control platform acts as a central hub, establishing communication across different hardware.
By eliminating manual intervention, the software gives researchers unified, individual control over every critical reaction parameter, such as temperature, pressure and mass flow rates on a single graphical interface, offering real-time data logging, dynamic process visualisation and automated safety shutdown protocols. The control platform also allows the integration of many third-party instruments such as automated liquid handlers and in-line analytical instruments.
Modular platform
The true operational strength of this automation infrastructure lies in its modular, plug-and-play architecture, which bridges the gap between discovery-scale chemistry and continuous industrial manufacturing.
The platform allows laboratories to orchestrate complex systems. Multiple stand-alone instruments, such as the Phoenix * flow reactor, H-Genie * hydrogen generators and external gas dosing or high-pressure mixing modules, can be aggregated into massive, networked hardware fleets controlled by a single user-friendly computer interface.
Interconnected arrays of liquid handling autosamplers, HPLC pumps, and multi-column selector valves can be programmed to run automated, pre-
42 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981