Manufacture of chiral amines using catalytic and flow processing methods

Chiral amines are important building blocks used in 40% pharmaceutical products, 20% of crop protection compounds and are high value chemical intermediates. Current synthetic methods use wasteful resolution processes. This project will improve manufacturing efficiency by developing catalytic (transfer) hydrogenation methods to make specific types of chiral amines. The project aims to develop and exploit new catalysts, to develop solid supported variants of these, and use them in novel flow reactors. This allows reduced effective loadings of the metal catalysts, efficient metal recovery and switch from batch to continuous processing. The project generates new asymmetric catalysts, opens new market opportunities for flow reactors, and fulfils high demand for chiral amines required by end user companies made using more efficient processes to lower cost, reduce waste, improve quality and availability.