$re = '/(?:\{|(?<!^)\G)[^#\r\n]*\K#+(?=.*\})/m';
$str = '\\(C##nH##{##2##n##+##1}O\\)
(C##nH##{##2##n}O##2)
aaa#{bbb}';
$subst = "";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php