Micro Process Engineering: Actual State and Challenges

For process industries the enhanced performance of key processes is crucial for their economical development. The process intensification benefits from the miniaturization of channels and conduits within devices, where the characteristic lengths are reaching into the order-of-magnitude of boundary layers or transport lengths. The fast transport rates can be used for many different purposes like fast and mixing sensitive reactions, temperature homogenization or nanoparticle precipitation. This review gives an overview of miniaturization effects and beneficial phenomena in microchannels with characteristic dimension from 10 to 1000 μm. Actual research projects in Germany in the Microsystems Technology program 2004–2009 are described as well as the actual EU projects. Further emphasis is laid on industrial projects in Europe, in the States and in Far East for laboratory or production purposes. Characteristic examples illustrate the first successful applications, the crucial drawbacks, but also the needs and demands for future research and development. The integration of micro structured devices together with sensing and actuating elements as well as with the “macro world” will be one of the key issues for the future development.