CPI, Lyrachem target green chemistry advances

Wilton, UK - The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and LyraChem Ltd are working jointly to develop new chemical processing techniques that could open new doors for companies looking to improve the commercial validity and environmental credentials of their manufacturing methods.

The two North East organisations have combined expertise and innovation in chemistry and chemical engineering with unique testing facilities to pioneer new and improved manufacturing methods for the production of high-value compounds, used for an array of pharmaceutical and flavour and fragrance products.

Specifically, the project uses various continuous reactor and distillation technologies, combined with innovative chemical routes, to produce efficient and greener chemical esters which are widely used by the flavour and fragrance industry.

The organisations are also developing a simple and clean ‘direct amidation’ method, previously thought to be impossible and consequently ignored by industry, to make the compound ‘amides’, used for the production of many medical drugs and a key chemical for the pharmaceutical sector.

The partnership with LyraChem combines advanced chemical expertise and novel pilot facilities to quickly screen and develop process technologies for the production of these industrially-important compounds, said Steve Donegan, CPI's process technology manager.

"This integrated chemistry and chemical engineering approach has enabled the team to access innovation in chemistry, mathematics, chemical engineering and advanced process technologies,” said Donegan. "CPI has made large investments in innovative bio and chemical process technology through establishing a range of open access, pilot-scale facilities. These assets, available for both research organisations and commercial customers to use, help reduce the capital risk associated with process innovation.

CPI was established by One North East as a UK wide resource to stimulate and drive innovation within the process Industries by working with global industry partners and leading research universities.

“At CPI our core ethos is to deliver solutions for key market needs," said Donegan. "So far the work on the projects has proven technically successful and produced very encouraging early results that are ready for commercial-scale validation and further development.”

The multidisciplinary project team has developed a strategy to rapidly screen and develop the new processes, ensuring smooth technology transfer and process robustness. The team and will be implementing the new methods to form a demonstration project within the next months.

Carl Thirsk, LyraChem CEO added: “Our philosophy is based on combining complementary disciplines in order to evaluate chemical and physical process behavior and quickly develop process understanding. Our expertise has enabled us to add significant value in process scale-up and optimization.

We saw a good opportunity to combine this expertise with CPI’s facilities and development experience in order to rapidly develop breakthrough production technologies in some high-priority areas for industry. So far, the partnership has proved very fruitful and we look forward to working with CPI to take the promising proof-of-concept results to the next phase of development.”