An approach to engineering design, manufacture, and operation of processes that aims to substantially improve process performance through energy efficiency, cost-effectiveness, reduction in waste, improvement in purification steps, reduction of equipment size, increase in safety, and operational simplicity. It involves a wide range of innovative mixing, reactor, and separation technologies that can result in dramatic improvements in process performance. Involving an integrative approach that considers overall process objectives rather than the separate performance of individual unit operations, process intensification can enable a process to achieve its maximal performance leading to the development of cheaper, smaller, cleaner, safer, and sustainable technologies.