Robinson Brothers explores continuous flow production with a newly installed Chameleon flow-reactor

Robinson Brothers is pleased to announce the trials of some of their existing batch processes in Cambridge Reactor Design’s Chameleon flow reactor.

This new continuous flow reactor has been installed in Robinson Brothers’ research & development laboratories, in West Midlands UK.

As part of the company’s commitment in driving sustainable manufacturing, Robinson Brothers engaged on the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative in 2015 named REMEDIES: RE-configuring MEDIcines End-to-end Supply. This funded-collaborative project consists of 23 partners and aims to reduce production footprint in the manufacturing supply chain.

Within this project, members Robinson Brothers and Cambridge Reactor Design (CRD) have worked together to trial a flow reactor at Robinson Brothers site. At present, manufacturing continues to be predominately batch processes which requires a large stock inventory and large campaign sizes. However, as companies look for more efficient and time-saving methods, there is a move towards continuous flow production. See Figure 1 (right): Chameleon flow reactor installed in Robinson Brothers' R&D laboratory fume cupboard.

Identifying process optimisation methods is a core competency of Robinson Brothers, thus, it is well-suited to now explore continuous flow production as part of their chemical manufacturing methods. Not only are reactions faster in a flow-reactor, but floor-space is significantly reduced. Along with hazards being reduced as reactions occur in a closed-environment; the quality of the material can be improved as there is less human intervention.

The Chameleon flow-reactor has been designed and installed by CRD. This pilot will consist of four reactors that allow a mixed reactor platform, a series of CSTRs (plug flow) for continuous processing, a preheat mixing station for temperature, cooling and pressure control station to regulate operating parameters, flexibility of switching between batch and continuous flow, when required, can accommodate on-line process analysis tools (PAT).

To learn more about this REMEDIES project, visit https://remediesproject.com/project-report/

Robinson Brothers Limited | West Midlands | B70 0AH UK
E: [email protected]
T: +44 (0)121 553 2451
External links: Cambridge Reactor Design, visit http://www.cambridgereactordesign.com/