SAFC Commercial, the custom manufacturing business of Sigma-Aldrich, has installed a new commercial-scale continuous flow reactor at its Sheboygan, WI, facility, with capacity to produce as much as 150 kg of product per day. The company also has a smaller pilot-scale continuous flow reactor that’s being fabricated at its nearby Milwaukee facility for process optimization studies and manufacturing capability of as much as 30 kg of product per day.
 
Continuous flow manufacturing aims to provide customers access to as little or as much product as needed. According to the company, the nature of this technique offers safer, seamless scale-up of a wider array of reactions compared to the batch platform, and may help customers achieve process control, while helping to eliminate batch failures and minimize risks with handling hazardous chemicals.
 
“SAFC has invested in making these unique capabilities available to give customers access to products synthesized through reactions that were previously impractical or impossible to do with a conventional batch platform,” said Andreas Weiler, director of Global Strategic Marketing for SAFC. “The reactors will allow SAFC to develop or scale up flow reactions for customers, eliminating the need for customers to install in-house flow capacity, saving them a great deal of money, space and time. This is also a much greener technology and substantially reduces the amount of chemicals and solvents employed in reactions.”