SAFC Expands Continuous Flow Capabiliti?es for Research and Commercial Scale

Sigma-Aldrich Corporation has announced that SAFC Commercial, its custom manufacturing services business unit, has installed a new commercial-scale continuous flow reactor at its Sheboygan, Wis., facility with capacity to produce up to 150 kg of product per day. Now fully operational, the reactor is complemented by a smaller pilot-scale continuous flow reactor that is being fabricated at the nearby Milwaukee, Wis., facility to carry out process optimization studies and manufacturing capability of up to 30 kg of product per day.

“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.”

Continuous flow manufacturing is a lean manufacturing platform that provides customers access to as little or as much of a product as needed. The nature of this technique offers safer, seamless scale-up of a wider array of reactions compared to the batch platform. Additionally, this technique may aid customers in achieving process control, while helping to eliminate batch failures and minimize risks associated with handling hazardous chemicals.