Scale-Up of a Continuous Extraction Process for Driving an Equilibrium-Limited Reaction to Completion

We report a strategy for implementing a scalable continuous extraction to drive an equilibrium-limited reaction to completion. Our approach is simple, requiring only standard equipment and glassware, and can be designed to meet the needs of the process (e.g., reduced cycle time or reduced solvent use) with minimal development time. We investigated the process parameters, such as the flow rate of fresh n-heptane (extracting solvent) into the system, at a 0.5–5 g scale and reduced the overall time and total amount of n-heptane needed to drive the reaction to completion. The improved conditions for the extraction were demonstrated at the 50 g scale, leading to a similar yield of the desired product and total reaction time as at the 5 g scale, verifying that our reactions and extraction conditions were scalable. In particular, our fit-for-purpose approach is customizable to a number of systems and can be implemented in a short period of time with a limited amount of material.