Training Courses

Course Aims & Objectives

To teach the practical aspects of designing a scaleable fine-chemical batch process and successfully implementing it at the kilo-lab and pilot plant scale, through an examination of the effects of large-scale operating methods and equipment limitations on process safety, operability, yield, selectivity and product quality. 

About this course

Operating a commercially viable chemical process requires a good chemical synthesis to start with, but is also subject to the interplay of a myriad of important physical phenomena – heat transfer, mass transfer, fluid flow, etc. which are traditionally the realm of the chemical engineer. An understanding of these scale-up phenomena is crucial for the laboratory development of processes that will scale successfully.

This course presents an overview of these issues and examines their impact on process operation in the pilot plant and beyond, including scale-up considerations for route selection, raw material charging, reaction steps, workup, crystallization, product isolation, drying, etc. Common bench techniques for each of these steps are contrasted to the safety and operability criteria for successful pilot plant operation. Numerous examples and case histories are presented, along with tips and techniques for operators and experimenters. Heavy emphasis is placed on process safety.

An underlying goal of the course is improving communication and mutual understanding between development team members of different backgrounds; thus, the course is appropriate for synthetic chemists, process development chemists and process engineers with limited pilot plant experience who wish to learn more about the potential pitfalls of scale-up in process development. The course complements the more chemistry-focused Scientific Update course “Chemical Development and Scale-Up in the Fine Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries”.

Upon completion of the course, participants will be better equipped to:

• Assess process safety and scaleability
• Identify process operations that may be problematic on scale-up
• Design processes that will minimize or avoid scale-up issues
• Select operating methods and equipment for effective scale-up
• Calculate heat removal rates and safe rates of addition of reagents
• Determine mixing requirements for scale-up
• Design crystallizations which can be successfully operated at scale
• Predict the filterability of solid products upon scale-up
• Minimize the effects of scale-up on yield, selectivity and product purity