Shunsei Yayabe (M2), Department of Chemical System Engineering, recieved “Japan Automatic Control Conference, Excellent Presentation Award”

On 11th December 2024, Shunsei Yayabe (M2), Department of Chemical System Engineering, recieved “Japan Automatic Control Conference, Excellent Presentation Award”.

Japan Automatic Control Conference, Excellent Presentation Award
This award was established to encourage the research activities of young researchers and engineers (presenters under the age of 30) and is given to those who deliver excellent presentations.

About awarded research
Title: Modeling and application to design for drug substances flow synthesis considering flow characteristics
In the production of drug substances (or active pharmaceutical ingredients), there is a growing demand for two phase reactions involving catalysts. In such multiphase reactions, the mass transfer rate often becomes the rate-determining step. To promote the mass transfer, flow synthesis is being introduced as a replacement for conventional batch synthesis. When two immiscible liquids enter together in a flow reactor, unique flow patterns, especially slug flow, are formed. These patterns are determined by the fluid properties and the reactor specifications and have a significant impact on the mass transfer rate. Although the effects of slug flow on the mass transfer rate in two phase reactions using computational fluid dynamics have been investigated, the formation of flow patterns has not been considered. Additionally, the impacts of mass transfer change in reaction kinetics remain unclear. In this work, we developed a model considering flow characteristics of two phase reactions. Furthermore, the feasible range was determined by using the developed model. The results of this research are expected to the realization of flow synthesis design that requires consideration of flow characteristics.

Your impression & future plan

It is our great pleasure to receive this award. We deeply appreciate the collaborators and all the members of Sugiyama-Badr Laboratory. Encouraged by this award, we will continue my research in the future.