Holistic Route Selection

New agrochemical, fine chemical, and pharmaceutical products often require the development and selection of economical and effective chemical routes to enable commercial success. Atom economy and reaction step minimization are key drivers for low-cost routes. In addition, capital requirements, process operability and robustness, environmental health and safety, supply chain, quality, and intellectual property factors should be considered in the selection process. A holistic evaluation of process route options by a multidiscipline team of chemists and engineers early in the route-selection phase can result in the selection of a better route with a more focused process development research plan. Examples from three Dow AgroSciences projects illustrate route selection criteria.