FLOW CHEMISTRY
Pharma goes with the flow
Wouter Stam and Henk Bats of FLOWID look back at what happened with flow solutions in the pharmaceutical world in the past three years
Three years ago in November 2019 , we published an article called ‘ Industry goes with the flow ’ in Speciality Chemical Magazine . Since then , Flowid has experienced high interest in flow technology and has tripled its turnover . Since 2019 we have manufactured more then 15 pilot and production flow skids . Major pharmaceutical companies have made continuous manufacturing a priority . Reshoring and ‘ going green ’ have helped to boost the interest in and use of flow technology . The reasons for exploring and implementing continuous flow chemistry processes are diverse and customerspecific . Next to the obvious capex and opex savings , two other drivers for flow solutions have stood out :
• Process intensification : Improving efficiency and productivity , especially for chemistries that cannot be done safely and efficiently in batch mode
• Reproducibility and quality control , where required by FDA directives and where batch processes struggle to reach the required quality The risk-adverse pharma industry typically looks for proven flow technology . Little is shared in the public domain on successful implementations of continuous processes and subsequent equipment as these are normally seen as unique IP .
SpinPro 1 ( above ) & full skid ( below )
Gate flow approach
A simplified stage gate flow approach to flow at Flowid goes through the following stages : 1 . Assessment : Route scouting on laboratory scale with the Vapourtec and Uniqsis Lab systems - good results can be obtained to test chemical reactions in flow
2 . Development : Decision management , quality control and operations get involved on the scope of equipment selection and the budget 3 . Scale-up : For this , specialised SMEs provide know-how and equipment . In this pilot phase , goals need to be clearly defined in order to make these achievable . The desire for a flow skid to ‘ do it all ' can be a killer for the implementation of flow 4 . Industrialisation : Scale-up to production in flow can be a burden when broad experience and expertise are lacking . For system integration we need to be a ‘ Jack of all trades ’. Close cooperation with the customer and an excellent network of industry partners specialised in flow equipment is essential to provide the best flow solutions . Flowid works as a system integrator using the best available technology to build modular pilot and production flow skids .
More than the reactor
The chemical process is about much more than the reactor . The best way forward is to start R & D with flow capabilities in mind . At present , most batch to flow conversions are done from a batch perspective . For flow solutions it is important to understand the value of both so as to decide which steps can be
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