For decades many research papers have been describing the merits of continuous processing on the R&D scales and for production on the specialty scale — so-called flow chemistry. Yet, in industry continuous processing is predominantly deployed on the world-scale and often is not considered to the level that would be expected from the reported benefits. This could be attributed to the ‘gut-feeling’ of technology managers and investment commissions. However, a close look at the industrial needs reveals that batch operation can be reasonable even in spite of chemical and engineering drawbacks. This contribution aims at giving an up-to-date overview of the criteria for process selection based on a holistic view of the industrial R&D workflow. It will highlight the benefits of batch versus continuous processing alternatives and consider recent trends in the field. It will conclude by suggesting a simple concept to guide the decision for the most appropriate alternative.

几十年来，许多研究论文一直在描述研发规模的连续加工和专业规模生产的优点——即所谓的流动化学。然而，在工业中，连续处理主要部署在世界范围内，并且通常不被认为达到所报告的收益所预期的水平。这可以归因于技术经理和投资委员会的“直觉”。然而，仔细观察工业需求会发现，即使存在化学和工程缺陷，批量操作也是合理的。该贡献旨在基于工业研发工作流程的整体视图，提供对工艺选择标准的最新概述。它将突出分批与连续处理替代方案的优势，并考虑该领域的最新趋势。最后将提出一个简单的概念来指导最合适替代方案的决定。