Unleashing Scientific Advancements
Making anything bigger requires more materials, time, and effort - HFC's team of experts can help take your laboratory concepts into economically-feasible semi-industrial scale products.
What is Scale Up?
Scale up involves expanding the production of a chemical compound, usually moving from small-scale laboratory production to larger semi-industrial-scale operations. For those new to scaling up a process from the lab, it is essential to recognize that the pilot plant scale-up is not a straightforward progression. This means that one cannot simply take a laboratory process, multiply the chemicals and equipment, and transplant them directly into a pilot plant. As you increase the scale of your chemical process, various system size-dependent properties will also vary.
In the fine chemicals and pharmaceutical industries, transitioning from lab to semi-industrial scale is a crucial step. The success of this phase influences the feasibility of the new product's development process according to client quality standards. Undertaking or refining a scale-up process may require the adoption of novel production or separation techniques. Outsourcing this development phase enables companies to access specialized facilities and expertise, enhancing their in-house development capabilities.
Our Services
Transferring the process to the semi-industrial scale to evaluate behavior during scale-up
Reproducing the transferred synthetic route
Implementing the improvements needed to ensure scalability
Potential for collaboration for HFC and customer teams to develop the project in HFC facilities
Laboratory scale optimization of the yield and/or selectivity
Safety parameter evaluation
Understanding the Foundation
Before proceeding with scale-up, it's crucial to thoroughly understand the core principles driving the reaction. Familiarity with the reaction mechanism, kinetics, and thermodynamics helps predict how the reaction will perform on a larger scale. This knowledge provides direction throughout the process, helping us tackle potential obstacles.
The path to scaling up begins with careful, incremental progress. Conducting small-scale experiments provides an opportunity for optimization, helping us refine conditions and verify yields.
Risk Management
Approaching the challenges of scaling up chemical reactions is akin to painting a masterpiece on the canvas of scientific inquiry. As chemists and researchers, our motivation stems from a passion for expanding knowledge and making meaningful discoveries. Scaling up a reaction goes beyond merely increasing volume; it involves a delicate balance of comprehension, strategy, and creativity that leads to novel opportunities.
Scaling up introduces fresh obstacles and potential setbacks, but careful planning and proactive risk management techniques help protect the project from unforeseen complications.
Our Mission
Cheaper – increase yields, shorten the reaction time, improve work-up
Greener – decrease waste generation, reduce number of solvents
Safer – compliant to the highest safety and environmental regulations
Reproducible and robust
