Advances in solid handling for continuous flow synthesis of specialty chemicals and pharmaceuticals

Continuous flow chemistry has transformed the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and specialty chemicals by advancing sustainability, efficiency, and process control. Despite these advantages, the management of solids remains a major challenge, often leading to clogging, inefficient mixing, and limitations in scalability. This review discusses recent strategies developed to overcome these obstacles, including the use of continuous stirred-tank reactors, packed-bed reactors with immobilized reagents, reaction design modifications, Pickering emulsions, colloidal nanoparticle suspensions, and specialised equipment such as agitated tubular reactors, spinning disk reactors, and sonicated systems. By critically assessing these developments, we chart the trajectory toward more resilient and robust flow-based manufacturing, consolidating continuous flow chemistry as a cornerstone of modern chemical manufacturing

• Johnston Z¹
• Peme T¹
• Mabasa T²
• Len C³
• Riley D¹
• Panayides JL²
• Sagandira CR²

•   ¹Department of Chemistry, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
• ²Pharmaceutical Technologies, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa
• ³Chimie ParisTech, CNRS, PSL Research University, Institute of Chemistry for Life and Health Sciences, Paris, France

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