A continuously operating spinning disk reactor (SDR) displayed distinct adv
antages over batch processing techniques when several commercially relevant
processes for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals as test reactions were in
vestigated. It proved to be a useful tool for revealing intrinsically fast
kinetics as well as for optimizing processes with such kinetics. Very encou
raging results were achieved for a phase-transfer-catalyzed (ptc) Darzen's
reaction to prepare a drug intermediate and the recrystallization of an act
ive pharmaceutical ingredient (API). In comparison to presently used batch
processes, the ptc reaction resulted in a reaction with 99.9% reduced react
ion time, 99% reduced inventory, and 93% reduced impurity level. The recrys
tallization yielded particles with a tight particle size distribution and a
mean size of around 3 mu m. Reactor modeling was in good agreement with th
e experimental results and highlighted the advantages of the process-intens
ified equipment,with a production capacity of around 8 tonnes/year.