Background The chemical industry represents Europe’s third largest manufacturing sector and so significant benefits can be gained from finding safer, cleaner and more energy-efficient manufacturing processes for this high impact industry. Some of the key concerns facing the industry include inefficient energy use, poor product quality and costly management of toxic by-products. These issues are often caused when standard production equipment is not well suited to the chemical transformation processes. Demand is therefore strong within the industry to identify improved technologies that are capable of overcoming such obstacles and generating cost-effective, environmentally appropriate solutions for commercial chemical production. Objectives The objective of this LIFE-Environment project was to test a new approach in chemical production technology that offered cost savings and environment benefits. LIFE support was provided to assess the advantages from an innovative continuous reactor technology applied during synthesis and other chemical reactions. The “Alfa Laval Reactor Technology” (ART®) was demonstrated and evaluated through tests using two different types of reactor. Initial tests were carried out on a small scale plate reactor (PR-Lab) and these results were then used to inform further work on a pilot scale plate reactor (PR-Pilot). The PR-Lab and PR-Pilot reactors were evaluated throughout the project duration against a set of pre-established parameters assessing: • reactor performance; • control and operating system requirements (including personnel); and • integration needs within industrial scale process lines or plant production systems. Findings from the LIFE project aimed to surpass current Best Available Techniques (BAT) and achieve the following outputs: • 50-70% reduction in energy use; • over 80% reduction, or suppression of, potentially dangerous reactants; • significantly lower volume of waste; as well as • improved product quality, efficiency and safety. Results Outcomes from the LIFE ART project have been very positive and demonstrate that the ART technology can be used to help address environmental, energy and waste problems with increased selectivity and yields for the chemical manufacturing industry. Findings demonstrate that production efficiency can be increased overall and specific results indicate that: • toxic by-products can be reduced by up to 95%; • waste can be reduced by up to 50%; and • energy consumption can be reduced by up to 70%. Technical operational factors were assessed and found to be effective in terms of heat exchange, mixing with nozzle injection, improvement of productivity and selectivity for the peroxides tested. The ART technology was successfully designed to combine many of the best attributes of micro-reactors, plate heat exchangers, tube reactors and static mixer reactors. A modular design was developed for the Plate Reactor which allows quick construction and good adaptability in operating environments of different shapes and sizes. A two-step approach was adopted during the project’s two and half year lifespan which ensured the PR-Pilot stage was based on relevant and applied findings from the PR-Lab phase. Lessons learnt during the scaling-up process are considered to be particularly useful when transferring the PR-Pilot activity to full-scale industrial applications. The project beneficiary predicts that results from the LIFE project will lead to significant time savings in the introduction of new manufacturing processes for environmentally friendly, high-performance and high added-value chemicals. ART technology is anticipated to cut development time for these benefits from 20 years to five or 10 years and this offers considerable commercial advantages, representing up to 10% of sales for new products. By accelerating the innovation cycle, European companies can enjoy these higher profit margins on a higher proportion of their volume. These economic benefits will require corresponding improvements in the supply chain and initiative management systems throughout the industry and if these are realised the gains in total incremental profit could be as high as 12% of sales. Economic benefits are complemented by social benefits with the improved income forecasts creating new employment opportunities as well as safer working conditions from the reduced levels of toxic by-products. Safety benefits also extend beyond the chemical industry with reduced transportation pressure for toxic and waste elements. On going ART activities include the use of Plate Reactor PR49 for small to medium production, mainly in production of pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals. Further sustainability of the project will be achieved by the beneficiary’s plans to extend commercialisation of the ART results through improved awareness about the new technology among potential customers in the European chemical industry. This outreach work is expected to reinforce the long term practical legacy from Alfa Laval’s successful LIFE project, which has already been acknowledged as good practice and received the Frost & Sullivan Award 2006 for Product Innovation in the field of chemicals reactors for pharmaceuticals. Disclaimer : This « results » section should be considered as a draft until the Commission has completed its evaluation . This project has been awarded the title of "Best of the Best" from a shortlist of 21 "Best" LIFE Environment projects in 2007-2008