Give it a flow: A continuous-flow process for the synthesis of a 1,2,3-triazole precursor of Rufinamide has been developed. The protocol involves a solvent- and catalyst-free operation and utilizes reaction temperatures above the melting point of the target product to prevent microreactor clogging, resulting in a decrease of the operating time from hours to minutes.

1. Borukhova, S., Noël, T., Metten, B., de Vos, E. and Hessel, V. (2013), Solvent- and Catalyst-Free Huisgen Cycloaddition to Rufinamide in Flow with a Greener, Less Expensive Dipolarophile. ChemSusChem, 6: 2220–2225. doi: 10.1002/cssc.201300684

Micro Process Technology and Novel Process Windows – Three Intensification Fields:

The fundamental principles of transport intensification are discussed first. Chemical intensification follows with the deeper investigation of opportunities offered by novel process windows in terms of new chemical transformations, routes performed at high temperature and pressure, at increased concentration or under neat conditions, at explosive or runaway regimes and simplified through integration of synthetic transformations. The novel concept of process-design intensification is discussed with the prospective on micro flow operations, partly mimicking integration known from large-scale equipment, partly developing own proprietary solutions.

While the chemical intensification presented below may be one more backbone towards Green Chemistry, process-design intensification is a pillar for Green Engineering. It promotes benefiting from interdisciplinary integration of chemistry, micro process technology, process engineering and process control. Decreased number of apparatus combined with its decreased size result in smaller foot-print size, which when combined with decreased number of process development steps constitute to a concept of process-design intensification. Here in, all three intensification fields are introduced along with their roles and strengths in process intensification.

2. Borukhova, S. and Hessel, V. (2013) Micro Process Technology and Novel Process Windows – Three Intensification Fields, in Process Intensification for Green Chemistry: Engineering Solutions for Sustainable Chemical Processing (eds K. Boodhoo and A. Harvey), John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, UK. doi: 10.1002/9781118498521.ch4