Scaling from milligrams to kilograms without changing the route

A route that works beautifully at 50 mg can be unusable at 5 kg. Chromatography becomes impractical, exotherms that were harmless in a vial need engineering, and a reagent that cost nothing at small scale dominates the bill.

#Scale-readiness, scored early

When ChemOS ranks routes it already looks at what each step would need at larger scale:

• Purification: crystallisation and extraction over column chromatography
• Thermal risk: steps with large exotherms are flagged before you commit
• Reagent cost: prices are modelled at the quantity you might eventually need
• Supply: starting materials with a single supplier are marked as a risk

#A worked example

A three-step route with one chromatographic purification may beat a two-step route that needs two. Fewer steps isn't automatically better once the purification is counted.