Statistical design of experiments (DoE) is a powerful tool for optimizing processes, and it has been used in many stages of API development. This review summarizes selected publications from Organic Process Research & Development using DoE to show how processes can be optimized efficiently and how DoE findings may be applied to scale-up.

Compiling, deploying and utilising large-scale databases that integrate environmental and economic data have traditionally been labour- and cost-intensive processes, hindered by the large amount of disparate and misaligned data that must be collected and harmonised. The Australian Industrial Ecology Virtual Laboratory (IELab) is a novel, collaborative approach to compiling large-scale environmentally extended multi-region input-output (MRIO) models. The utility of the IELab product is greatly enhanced by avoiding the need to lock in an MRIO structure at the time the MRIO system is developed. The IELab advances the idea of the "mother-daughter" construction principle, whereby a regionally and sectorally very detailed "mother" table is set up, from which "daughter" tables are derived to suit specific research questions. By introducing a third tier - the "root classification" - IELab users are able to define their own mother-MRIO configuration, at no additional cost in terms of data handling. Customised mother-MRIOs can then be built, which maximise disaggregation in aspects that are useful to a family of research questions. The second innovation in the IELab system is to provide a highly automated collaborative research platform in a cloud-computing environment, greatly expediting workflows and making these computational benefits accessible to all users. Combining these two aspects realises many benefits. The collaborative nature of the IELab development project allows significant savings in resources. Timely deployment is possible by coupling automation procedures with the comprehensive input from multiple teams. User-defined MRIO tables, coupled with high performance computing, mean that MRIO analysis will be useful and accessible for a great many more research applications than would otherwise be possible. By ensuring that a common set of analytical tools such as for hybrid life-cycle assessment is adopted, the IELab will facilitate the harmonisation of fragmented, dispersed and misaligned raw data for the benefit of all interested parties.

Continuous operations have become popular in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry. Continuous operations may be developed to make high-quality material safely, or because continuous operations are the only effective and economical way to make larger quantities of material. This review surveys the area of continuous processes used to make larger quantities of material and discusses the feasibility of developing economical continuous operations.

In an effort to remove residual palladium from a drug candidate prepared by palladium-catalyzed indolization, many treatments were examined. The most effective treatment was to precipitate palladium from solution using 2,4,6-trimercapto-s-triazine (TMT), which reduced palladium levels from 600−650 ppm to 20−60 ppm in an isolated indole intermediate. Subsequent crystallizations routinely afforded active pharmaceutical ingredient with <1 ppm of palladium. TMT treatment should prove useful to reduce the concentration of residual palladium in other reactions.

Continuous operations can be used for the efficient scale-up of many processes that cannot be carried out through batch operations. Rapid reactions with reactive intermediates and products can be scaled up in the laboratory using continuously stirred tank reactors (CSTR) and plug flow reactors (PFR). Continuous processing in small reactors allows for better control of exothermic processing, creating a larger margin of safety for scale-up. This review also discusses the advantages of continuous processing for thermochemical rearrangements, immobilized catalysts, and microwave, photochemical, electrochemical, and sonochemical processes. Many of these continuous operations can be performed using equipment readily available for the laboratory, and can be readily scaled up in the laboratory and pilot plant.