News

With business turnover increasing by 15%, growing trade with Asia and the opening up of new markets, 2016 proved to be an excellent year for UK-based flow chemistry engineering specialists Vapourtec.

This application note describes using the Vapourtec High Flow rate pump module and Vapourtec Reactor for Rapid Mixing to scale up a liquid/liquid biphasic ester synthesis to over 200 g per hour.

The impact of the ‘Brexit’ vote to leave the European Union on June 23rd is having far reaching consequences for SME businesses engaged in export.

Professor Wirth and his team at Cardiff have used a Vapourtec E-series to safely generate and handle a highly reactive diazolithium species that reacts highly exothermally. The Vapourtec E-Series allows Professor Wirth to access this highly energetic chemistry, which would be very challenging in batch.

The recent 8th Symposium on Continuous Flow Reactor Technology for Industrial Applications, held in Delft, Netherlands, proved a great success for Vapourtec with significant levels of interest in the R-Series system and UV-150 photochemical reactor.

Flow chemistry will be a key theme at this year’s 20th UK Automated Synthesis Forum (Duxford, November 7th-8th) with Vapourtec showcasing the R-Series, the world’s most published flow chemistry system.

Vapourtec will be demonstrating their easy-MedChem flow chemistry system and UV-150 photochemical reactor at the Challenges in Catalysis for Pharmaceuticals and Fine Chemicals V event (London, November 2nd) organized by the RSC Applied Catalysis Group.

Professor Steven Ley and his team at Cambridge University have demonstrated how visible light can be used to perform complex photoredox cross-couplings in continuous flow. In an elegant paper, Professor Ley and his team have again shown how continuous flow chemistry can be a tool for new synthesis and reaction efficiency.

Vapourtec is targeting further growth in demand for its flow chemistry technology from the US market following their recent presence at the ACS (American Chemical Society) 252nd National Meeting and Exposition in Philadelphia in August.

“Customer support is Vapourtec’s number one priority and we are pleased to unveil our new look application support team following two recent, key appointments,”.

Vapourtec (Cambridge, UK) will be demonstrating their easy-Photochem flow chemistry system and UV-150 photochemical reactor at JCO 2016 (Journees de Chimie organique 2016, Palaiseau, France 7-9 Sept).

Vapourtec will be exhibiting and demonstrating at the 2016 IMRET (International Conferences on MicroREaction Technology) conference in Beijing (Sept 11-14). As well as Product displays (Booth 10), Vapourtec’s continuous process technology will be highlighted in two speaker presentations.

The Vapourtec E-Series has been at the core of a recent paper describing continuous flow chlorine generation. In the exciting paper, the Kappe group of the University of Graz, Austria, has used the Vapourtec E-Series to develop in situ chlorine generation in continuous flow. The group have been able to liberate elemental chlorine in small quantities from common reagents to saturate an organic phase. The chlorine rich organic phase was used by the Kappe group to chlorinate silanes, oxidise alcohols, and making use of the Vapourtec UV-150 continuous flow photochemical reactor, chlorinate a range of substituted toluenes. This is a clear demonstration of how flow chemistry can be used to reduce the risks of working with such a potentially hazardous reagent as chlorine, with the easy to use Vapourtec E-Series an ideal system for flow investigations.

An exciting new approach to nickel catalysed C-N coupling has been explored by Corcoran et al. of Professor MacMillan’s group, Princeton University. The new method uses nickel(II) salts that are reduced in situ to nickel(0) under mild conditions using photoredox catalysis. The Vapourtec UV-150 continuous flow photochemical reactor has been at the heart of the group’s progress in using this new method in continuous flow, resulting in high chemical yields at a fraction of the batch reaction time.

UK-based flow chemistry engineering specialists Vapourtec will be showcasing their easy-MedChem system and UV-150 photochemical reactor at the forthcoming 252nd ACS National Meeting and Exposition in Philadelphia (August 21-23).

Vapourtec’s UV-150 continuous photochemical reactor has been used in a scale-up of an innovative approach to trifluoromethylation, with exciting results. Professor Stephenson’s group at Michigan University have developed a photochemical trifluoromethylation method generating CF3 radicals in situ, however the batch scale-up suffered from common barriers such as poor light penetration. Using the Vapourtec UV-150 photochemical reactor a significant increase in yield was observed, demonstrating how the use of a commercial continuous flow photochemical reactor can have significant advantages when applied to novel synthesis.

The recently held Zing Conference in Portugal is becoming a key fixture in the continuous process chemistry calendar according to Duncan Guthrie, founder and MD of flow chemistry engineering specialists Vapourtec. Duncan, who delivered a presentation during the event entitled ‘Photochemistry in Flow’, commented: “The 4th Zing flow chemistry conference is becoming a big event in the field of flow chemistry.

Vapourtec (Cambridge, UK) has recently reached the notable landmark of appearing in 200 peer review publications, cementing its position as the supplier of the most published flexible flow chemistry systems by a distance.

Flow chemistry engineering specialists Vapourtec (Cambridge, UK) has extended its reach across South East Asia after signing a distribution agreement with Thailand-based ACI (Applied Chemical & Instrument Company). The partnership with ACI is well timed given Vapourtec’s presence at the forthcoming Drug Development International Conference in Phuket where they will be exhibiting their easy-MedChem E-Series system.

"Photochemistry in Flow" is the subject matter of a presentation being given by Duncan Guthrie, founder and MD of Vapourtec, at the forthcoming 4th annual Zing Continuous Flow Chemistry Conference in Albufeira, Portugal (April 25-28).

Vapourtec recently linked up with Korean distribution partner Chemisky to organize and deliver two engaging flow chemistry seminars in Daejeon and Seoul. Duncan Guthrie, founder and MD of Vapourtec, commented: “The seminars proved to be very successful with over 80 taking part in total at the two venues”

The key features of this flow chemistry application note include: • Safe and controlled reaction with 50 wt.% hydrogen peroxide. • Highly selective oxidation of sulphoxide formstion from thio ether. • Optimal output of 225 g/h with a single reactor (37.8 kg/week). • Demonstration of the safety features incorporated into Vapourtec systems.

A recent, published research breakthrough by the group of Steven Ley at the University of Cambridge has led to the ‘Controlled generation and use of CO in flow’. The paper describes the use of a tube-in-tube reactor for the safe hydrolysis of Ozalyl Chloride using a NaOH solution. This produces Carbon Monoxide in the outer stream which then passes through AF-2400 semi-permeable inner tubing to enrich reaction streams. By using this approach, carbonylations can be successfully performed in flow without the use of pressurized gas cylinders.

Vapourtec shows flow chemistry potential with R2S and UV-150 at Continuous Flow Technology conference Flow chemistry engineering specialists Vapourtec will be showing their modular R-Series flow chemistry system along with the UV-150 Photochemical Reactor at the Continuous Flow Technology conference (Cambridge, March 14-16).