The Australian Flow Chemistry Symposium (AFCS), organised by CSIRO, gave many of its attendee’s a welcome break from the European Winter! 

Hosted in Melbourne 2-3 Dec 2019, the event was a successful combination of presentations & networking – with a well-attended & stimulating poster session!  The technical sessions gave clear insight into the various areas that Australia can benefit from continuous manufacturing, including biomedical materials, agrochemical & space chemistry – alongside the more conventional sectors of specialty & pharmaceutical sciences.  

Presentations from Prof. Tanja Junkers highlighted the exquisite control obtained by performing polymerisation chemistry under flow conditions, Dr. Karen Robertson demonstrated the exploitation of continuous manufacturing for controlled crystallisation, Prof. Shu Kobayashi presented his groups advances in sequential flow processes towards API’s such as Baclofen & Donepezil, Prof. Helen Lebel showcased the direct production of high quality TMS-diazomethane & Prof. Oliver Kappe showcased some of the CC FLOW Consortium's developments in high T/p chemistry using Protrix.

Aside from the excellent presentations & networking opportunities, a personal highlight of the event was a tour of the recently opened FloWorks Centre for Industrial Flow Chemistry in Clayton, where we got to see our Plantrix® flow reactor set-up for industrial process development.

A big thank you to all involved in organising this inaugural event!