Abstract
Methyl α-methoxyimino acetoacetate, an intermediate of cephalosporin antibiotics, was produced through chemical reaction and crystallization. Because the crystal purity was influenced remarkably by both the chemical reaction and crystallization rates, high-purity crystals were obtained only by the optimum combination of the two rates. The effect of agitation on the chemical reaction rate and crystal quality was studied by consideration of mechanisms in reactive crystallization processes. It was confirmed that the Z factor, showing power consumption ratio of agitation, can be used to estimate crystal purity, yield, size distribution and scale-up effect for this reactive crystallization system.
