Micro Instrumentation

The concept of process intensification aims to reduce capital costs by combining previously separate unit operations to increase process efficiency and throughput. To achieve this, existing process limitations need to be overcome, especially in mass and heat transfer. This can be implemented particularly well with micro-scale equipment, a very active area of development rapidly gaining in importance since other factors are also increasingly mitigating the size scale-up advantage of conventional plants, such as shipping and waste handling costs outweighing the actual conversion costs. The necessity of producing less waste and more product from less starting materials as well as safety and environmental issues led to the novel approach of combining micro-instrumentation with process intensification technologies to rapidly gather detailed online process information from high throughput micro-reaction equipment, allowing a much better understanding of the chemistry and improved models for optimizing while safely scaling the process more swiftly and at lower less costs. This first comprehensive treatment of the intertwined roles of micro-instrumentation, high throughput experimentation and process intensification as valuable tools for process analytical technology covers both industrial as well as academic aspects. First class editors and authors from top companies and universities provide interdisciplinary coverage ranging from chemistry and analytics to process design and engineering, backed by ample case studies and analytical data. For chemical and process engineers, analytical chemists, materials scientists, apparatus construction engineers, and those working in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries.