The Flow Research Facility was founded by Prof. Michael Organ, the director of CCRI, in 2016 to facilitate research at the University of Ottawa and beyond with a state-of-the-art infrastructure for continuous manufacturing and analysis. In 2018, Dr. Debasis Mallik joined the facility as the Flow Research Facility Manager. The research activity at the facility has grown substantially over the last six years, initially serving members of the Science and Engineering faculties of the university, to eventually forming  collaborations with universities across Canada and industries around the world.

Continuous manufacturing, an emerging manufacturing platform that relies on the fundamentals of flow chemistry, enables process scientists to make essential commodities on-demand using greener and safer manufacturing methods. The ability to produce chemicals on-demand eliminates unnecessary over-stocking of commodities. The implementation of the Lean and Six Sigma principles through continuous manufacturing can drastically cut down on waste as well as streamline process workflow. However, the initial investment in setting up a process development infrastructure and the lack of technical know-how continue to deter process scientists from embracing the flow format.

The success from a continuous manufacturing process heavily relies on the synchronicity of a rather large cluster of moving parts that must channel reactive fluids in the right direction at the right time in order to achieve the best possible outcome. Our strategy is to identify the 'missing links' in the operation of such a highly synchronous and complex equipment cluster, and develop necessary tools and the core expertise here in Canada. The mission of the Flow Research Facility at the University of Ottawa is to empower scientists with the latest and the greatest hardware tools for the development of next-generation continuous reactor platforms and sustainable manufacturing processes.

We understand that perfection can be hard to attain. But if we make smarter tools and apply them to their fullest capabilities, excellence can be achieved.