IMRET 5 featured more than 80 oral and poster communications, covering the entire interdisciplinary field from design, production, modeling and characterization of microreactor devices to application of microstructured systems for production, energy and transportation, including many analytical and biological applications. A particularly strong topic was the investigation of the potential of microstructuring of reactors and systems components for process intensification. Perspectives of combining local, in situ, data acquisition with appropriate microstructuring of actuators and components within chemical and biological devices were explored in order to enhance process performance and facilitate process control.

Miniaturization has cost and time-saving advantages for numerous applications in chemistry, pharmacy, medicine and biotechnology. Additionally, microreaction technology offers new solutions for the automobile industry and environmental technology, e.g. fuel cells, or mobile sensor systems for on-the-spot analysis. Therefore, the 3rd International Conference on Microreaction Technology - IMRET 3 is an important forum for creating awareness of the wide variety of the new trends in this up-and-coming discipline.