A thermal epimerization reaction was conducted in a continuous thermal tube reactor. A research scale reactor was utilized to rapidly screen reaction temperatures in the range 100 to 320 degrees C and residence times in the range 10 to 60 minutes. This proved to be a powerful tool for defining reaction kinetics. Optimum reaction conditions were 300 degrees C and 15 minutes residence time. Subsequently the process was rapidly scaled up to 200 g/h rate by increasing tube dimensions. This continuous process offers significant advantages over the previous batch process, including safety, speed to scale up, and operating temperatures and pressures outside normal bounds for typical batch reactors.