ONE-FLOW translates ‘vertical hierarchy’ of chemical multistep synthesis with its complex machinery into self-organising ‘horizontal hierarchy’ of a compartmentalized flow reactor system – a biomimetic digital flow cascade machinery with just one reactor passage. To keep horizontal hierarchy manageable, orthogonality among the consecutive reactions needs to be increased. The winning point of nature is to have invented catalytic cascades. ONE-FLOW will uplift that by enabling the best bio- and chemocatalysts working hand in hand. 4 synthetic flow cascades ('metabolic pathways’) and 1 flow cascade driven by automated intelligence ('signaling pathway') will produce 4 Top-list 2020 drugs. ‘The Compartmentalized Smart Factory’ will develop organic, inorganic, and mechanical compartmentalization. ‘The Green-Solvent Spaciant Factory’ will fluidically allow the use of interim reaction spaces (spaciants). ‘The Systemic Operations Factory’ will aim at full orthogonality using data-base guided ultimate process harmonization. ‘The Digital Machine-to-Machine Factory’ will alter the landscape of chemical synthesis by virtue of the "Internet of Chemical Things". Automated machine-to-machine data transfer enables relegation of process monitoring to central computer systems under the oversight of chemists. ‘The Fully Continuous Integrated Factory’ will develop a commercial platform technology under the auspices of sustainability-driven process-design evaluation, making amenable the new kind of processing to all chemists. ONE-FLOW has massive impact potential: i) 38 billion Euro production cost saving; ii) 300 million EUR cost saving per drug; iii) address diseases with 500 billion Euro medication costs; iv) increase market share of emerging high-tech SME players by 10% in 10 years; v) open new windows of opportunity (personalized medicine) with 200-500 million Euro per disease; and vi) achieve 40% female share on a senior scientist level (ONE-FLOW: 34% senior, 57% junior).

The MACBETH consortium provides a breakthrough technology for advanced downstream processing by combining catalytic synthesis with the corresponding separation units in a single highly efficient catalytic membrane reactor (CMR). This disruptive technology has the ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) of large volume industrial process by up to 45 %. Additionally, resource and energy efficiency will be increased by up to 70%. The revolutionary new reactor design will not only guarantee substantially smaller and safer production plants, but has also a tremendous competitive advantage since CAPEX is decreased by up to 50% and OPEX by up to 80%. The direct industrial applicabilty will be demonstrated by the long term operation of TRL 7 demo plants for the highly relevant and large scale processes: hydroformylation, hydrogen production, propane dehydrogenation. The confidence of the MACBETH consortium to reach its highly ambitious goals are underlined by two special extensions that go well beyond the ordinary scope of an EU project: 1) Transfer of CMR technology to biotechnology: Within MACBETH we will demonstrate that starting from building blocks of TRL 5 (not from a TRL 5 pilot plant), that fit the requirements of selective enzymatical cleavage of fatty acids with the combined support and system knowledge of the experienced CMR partners, a TRL 7 demo plant will be established and operated 2) Creation of the spin-off European “Lighthouse Catalytic Membrane Reactors” (LCMR) within MACBETH: A European competence center for CMR will be established already within the MACBETH project with an actual detailed business plan including partner commitment. These efforts will ultimately lead to the foundation of the “Lighthouse Catalytic Membrane Reactors” (LCMR) that will provide access to the combined knowledge of the MACBETH project .

The European chemical industry faces some very serious challenges if it is to retain its competitive position in the global economy. The new industries setting up in Asia and the Near East are based on novel process-intensification concepts, leaving Europe desperately searching for a competitive edge. The transition from batch to continuous micro- and milliflow processing is essential to ensure a future for the European fine-chemicals and pharmaceuticals industries. However, despite the huge interest shown by both academia and industrial R&D, many challenges remain, such as the problems of reaction activation, channel clogging due to solids formation and the scaling up of these technologies to match the required throughput. COSMIC, the European Training Network for Continuous Sonication and Microwave Reactors, takes on these challenges by developing material- and energy-efficient continuous chemical processes for the synthesis of organic molecules and nanoparticles. The intersectoral and interdisciplinary COSMIC training network consists of leading universities and industry participants and trains 15 ESRs in the areas of flow technology, millifluidics and external energy fields (ultrasound and microwaves). These energy fields can be applied in structured, continuous milli-reactors for producing high-value-added chemicals with excellent yield efficiencies – in terms of throughput, waste minimization and product quality – that simply cannot be achieved with traditional batch-type chemical reactors. The chemical processes that are at the heart of COSMIC’s game-changing research are catalytic reactions and solids-forming reactions. COSMIC’s success, which is based on integrating chemistry, physics and process technology, will re-establish European leadership in this crucial field and provide it with highly trained young experts ready for dynamic careers in the European chemical industry.