The ACS Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Round Table voted continuous processing as its Top 10 key green engineering research areas that should be prioritized.

A significant hurdle to the development of continuous flow organic synthesis may simply be unfamiliarity. Synthetic chemists are trained to conduct synthesis using traditional batch techniques and the technical aspects of flow chemistry may thus appear unnecessarily daunting and alien.

Compared with conventional batch reactors, continuous microflow methods present a valuable alternative approach to circumvent known drawbacks, such as low productivity and energy transfer efficiency.

Especially, flow systems provide an additional benefit because they close the gap between bench chemistry and chemical engineering by mimicking large-scale production on the laboratory scale.

The primary motivation behind the development of continuous flow synthesis methods is to eliminate waste within all aspects of the manufacturing process. Implementation of continuous-flow processes allows for reductions in building footprint, less handling of intermediates, and decreased throughput time from starting material to final product.

On a large scale, the goals of green chemistry and industry align. High safety, low waste generation, and energy efficiency are not suggestions but requirements of a good process. A fundamental goal of green chemistry and engineering is to address these issues earlier in a project's lifetime, ideally all the way down to academic reaction development and medicinal chemistry. Flow chemistry fits into this regime.

Flow chemistry and continuous manufacturing have become increasingly recognized as a viable and, in many cases, superior alternative to batch processing. Continuous methods generally offer increased safety, energy efficiency, scalability, and reproducibility.