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C16
The chemistry works in the flask. At production scale, transport phenomena change, catalysts deactivate through different mechanisms, and selectivity is lost — because the fundamental physics behaves differently when the vessel gets bigger.
Process Chemistry Scale-Up
16 problems across 6 domains · v6: 16NEW
Shared Structural DNA
These 16 problems share a pattern that the collection couldn't see until 500 briefs: a chemical or physical process works at lab scale but fails at production scale due to transport phenomena, catalyst lifetime, heat management, selectivity loss, or process control challenges. Distinguished from C4 (manufacturing system design) by binding constraint: C4's challenge is production SYSTEM design — tooling, automation, QC, supply chain. C16's challenge is the fundamental chemistry/physics behaving differently at scale. A flow reactor's distribution becomes non-uniform across parallel channels. An enzyme loses activity under industrial temperatures. A catalyst deactivation mechanism changes at production current densities.
Heterogeneous catalyst, biocatalyst, electrode, base metal — active site degradation mechanisms accelerate or change at production scale
Polymorph transitions, protein folding, membrane degradation — precise phase/structure control lost at scale
Flow distribution, oxygen transport, nutrient delivery — mass/heat transfer regimes change with vessel size
Soil inoculant, green solvent — process designed for pure lab inputs fails with real-world feedstock variation
Peptide synthesis, fermentation purification — waste/energy costs scale super-linearly with production volume
Ocean CDR — measurement methods that work in lab don't function at deployment scale
Member Problems
Domain Spread