The Impact of Microtechnologies on Chemical and Pharmaceutical Production Processes

Microreaction technology has been developed as a new chemical tool for process intensification. The technology is still at its early stage but has started to succeed its implementation in R&D labs of fine and specialty chemicals companies. This technology has many advantages to drive innovation. It leads to new and high quality products. Fine and speciality chemicals represent a niche market for this technology that could reach about EUR 140 million for microstructured parts but only in 15 to 20 years while implemented for production purpose. The improvement of the technology leading to increased technical and economical benefits will open the way to larger markets like commodity chemicals and energy applications.