Process Intensification for the Continuous Flow Hydrogenation of Ethyl Nicotinate

Abstract

Here we report a process intensification study for the selective, partial, and full hydrogenation of ethyl nicotinate using a trickle bed reactor for meso-flow transformations (HEL FlowCAT). The process achieved a throughput of 1219 g d–1 (78 g h–1 of product per g of active catalyst) for the partial hydrogenation to ethyl 1,4,5,6-tetrahydropyridine-3-carboxylate, whereas the productivity for the full hydrogenation process reached a 1959 g d–1 of throughput (408 g h–1 of product per g of active catalyst) on this laboratory-scale flow chemistry platform.