This review highlights the research using 3D printing and computational modeling as digital tools for the design and fabrication of reactors and structured catalysts.

This collaborative review (between teams of chemists and chemical engineers) describes the current scientific and operational hurdles that prevent the utilisation of aerobic oxidation reactions for the production of speciality chemicals and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).

We address liquid–liquid mass transfer between immiscible liquids using the system 1-butanol and water, with succinic acid as the mass transfer component. Using this system we evaluate the influence of two-phase flow transitions from Taylor flow to stratified flow and further to dispersed flow at elevated flow rates. In addition, we address the scale-up behavior of mass transfer coefficients and the extraction efficiency by using reactors on the micro- and the milli-scale. Flow imaging enables us to identify the different flow regimes and to connect them to the trends observed in mass transfer, and the obtained results highlight the dependence of mass transfer on flow patterns. Furthermore, the results show that on the milli-scale fluid–structure interactions are driving the phase dispersion and interfacial mass transfer, and such a reactor design ensures straightforward scalability from the micro- to the milli-scale

Ultrasonic small scale flow reactors have found increasing popularity among researchers as they serve as a very useful platform for studying and controlling ultrasound mechanisms and effects. This has led to the use of these reactors for not only research purposes, but also various applications in biological, pharmaceutical and chemical processes mostly on laboratory and, in some cases, pilot scale. This review summarizes the state of the art of ultrasonic flow reactors and provides a guideline towards their design, characterization and application. Particular examples for ultrasound enhanced multiphase processes, spanning from immiscible fluid–fluid to fluid–solid systems, are provided. To conclude, challenges such as reactor efficiency and scalability are addressed.