Catalytic Materials Supporting Novel UK Based Continuous Redox Reactions for the Pharmaceutical and Fine Chemical Industry

Chemical manufacturing has historically been a strength of UK industry. "The manufacture of modern medicines is one of our leading manufacturing sectors worth over £20bn," George Freeman, Minister for Life Sciences. It is recognised by government that UK's global position will only be sustained by innovation and advanced manufacturing. The societal and political need for medicines to be brought to market as fast and cheaply as possible must be met, at least in part, by the manufacturing sector. A revolution in manufacturing is seeing a move from traditional batch modalities to continuous processes, the benefits of which include: capital reduction; manufacturing lead time reduction; working capital reduction; footprint reduction; reduction in solvent use; reduction in water use; carbon footprint reduction; and reduction in development time. Hydrogenation is an important process in chemical manufacturing; it has been proposed that 10% of manufacturing reactions are catalytic hydrogenations. Hydrogenation in batch reactors on a manufacturing scale is limited by large volumes of hazardous materials. With the promise of considerable savings of time and money, better performance and significant safety advantages, continuous hydrogenation is a substantial unmet need. By bringing together two ideally suited UK-based partners, this project aims to solve the problem. IntensiChem -- an SME based on Discovery Park Kent -- has made substantial advances in developing large-scale continuous flow hydrogenation technology. Johnson Matthey is a global player in the catalyst market, and is synonymous with batch catalyst. The Cambridge-based group has already begun to collaborate with IntensiChem on the challenge of designing new catalysts specifically for flow reactors. Both companies see this as key to unlocking the full potential of the technology. The production of a new generation of catalysts and the optimisation of manufacturing process will transform the market for continuous flow hydrogenation, and make the two UK companies key players in the field.