Abstract

Fine chemicals are low volume, high priced chemical intermediates and bulk active ingredients primarily used in the preparation of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, but are also used in other specialties, such as household and personal care ingredients, electronic chemicals, and flavors and fragrances. In contrast to specialty chemicals, these intermediates are sold within the chemical industry and according to specifications rather than performance criteria. Fine chemicals typically are manufactured by batch processes in multipurpose plants starting from commodity chemicals and involving several distinct chemical or biotechnological steps. A typical fine chemical plant consists of a “wet” section, where the chemical reactions and the preliminary solid–liquid separations are carried out, and a “dry” section, where the product drying, milling, sieving, and packaging takes place. The wet section is further divided into production trains that allow individual process steps to be performed. The main apparatus are jacketed and agitated 1–10-m³ reaction vessels connected to overhead condensers, and filters resp. centrifuges. The smallest production unit is a “train”. A train consists usually of three jacketed reactors with overhead condensers, head tanks, receivers, and a filtration unit (centrifuge or nutsche). Several trains are regrouped in a production building. A complete plant also comprises an administrative building, R&D, and analytical laboratories, a pilot plant, utilities, maintenance and waste disposal units, and a warehouse.