Conducting the Pilot

The pilot study is likely to use all the same Quality Management tools that were used for the integration framework development (Chapter 5). However, the limited scope of the pilot study enforces some limitations and compromises—it will not be possible to make changes outside of the department covered by the pilot. Any existing interfaces with other departments must remain the same. This will impact the design phases of the work. For example, Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) may currently be prepared locally, in the overall project it might be proposed to develop these centrally. However, for the pilot study it will not be possible develop the central resource so the pilot would have to continue to rely on local resources and there will be no efficiency improvement. 

The use of the pilot study to confirm the benefits, costs, methodologies, and integration framework imposes some extra requirements. Additional resources will be required to determine the effectiveness of existing systems and to measure the improvements as early as possible. As mentioned above, the team should consider using outside resources for these activities. 

It is important to remember that unexpected benefits may arise from integration. You should actively look for these benefits and document them. It may be possible to improve some of these benefits by small modifications to the plan or integration framework. Such additional work should be undertaken only with the appropriate approvals. Never the less, if any benefits would only be achieved with the integration project, you should include them in your overall statement of benefits. An example of this might be the better allocation of capital to risk reduction efforts when an integrated risk assessment is done-addressing several different types of risk. 

Keep the pilot project design and installation as similar to the full project as possible. In this way, any lessons learned from the pilot will be most easily transferred to the full project. 

You can also use the pilot study to provide a training ground for the integration team, with care to avoid overwhelming the subject department with the whole integration team. It is unlikely that you can fmd realistic opportunities to involve the whole team directly. But you may be able to 

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The catalysts used in pilot units should be manufactured with commerical procedures. Large, consistent quantities of the catalyst are required. If the organization conducting the pilot program does not have access to manufacturing facilities, it is wise to engage the cooperation of catalyst manufacturers at this stage. 

Estimates the amount of time needed to conduct the pilot program ... 

This section presents the way forward road maps for the subsurface surveillance and monitoring activities of the pilot test stage 1. The maps are based upon the SSMP used by Staatsolie and incorporate the recormnendations made in the previous sections of this paper. The objectives include providing the schematic of the processes, activities, and tasks to be accomphshed, and decisions to be made while conducting the pilot test, as well as easing the review of the contingency program. 

For scale-up up to 2 m in diameter, testing in a pilot column of 0.025 m is sufficient if the anticipated scaled-up diameter is greater than 2 m, then the pilot tests should be conducted in a 0.050-m diameter. The column should be tall enough to accomphsh the complete extraction this may require several iterations on column height. 

Filtration experiments are typically conducted in pilot scale equipment and generally tests are conducted either at constant pressure or constant rate to determine axo, as well as s and Rf, for a given sludge and filter medium. Such tests provide empirical information that will enable the time required tor the pressure drop to reach the desired level for a specified set of operating conditions to be determined. In the initial stages of filtration, the filter medium has no cake. Furthermore, Ap is not zero, but has a value that is a function of the resistance of the medium for a given flowrate. This initial condition can be stated as ... 

To make the most of our participation in the PSM pilot test, the PSM Task Force needs your help. One of the main reasons we are conducting this test is to make sure our new system for managing process safety is practical and that it gives each of us what we need to do our jobs safely and effectively. We can t do this without your input. That s why the pilot test plan calls for getting your feedback on a continuing basis, and one of the ways we ll be asking for it is through questionnaires like this one. 

Launch. We initiated the pilot on schedule on May 15 with a series of group orientation meetings with all three shifts at Marwood. Members of the Task Force, plus the facility manager, conducted these meetings, where we explained the PSM system, discussed the pilot test, and outlined expectations of Manwood personnel. 

As part of developing the PSM implementation plan (Chapter 5), you and the team identified benefits unique to the approach you selected, using them to help win management s approval. For example, your plan may focus on priority elements because the assessment you conducted suggests that this method will yield the greatest overall improvement in safety performance. And, as part of the pilot test described in this chapter, you focused on facility-specific benefits to enlist the support of local management and staff. 

This experience will serve you well as you begin the installation process. Many of the activities and tasl will be very familiar, and rely on information you have already gathered. In particular, the pilot test will have yielded valuable tools for selling PSM if properly conducted and documented, the test will have generated a range of ideas and materials that cem serve as the core of your efforts. 

There would be little point in conducting a pilot without being able to measure the improvement achieved. The team should try to find a department where there are good records of PSM and ESH performance, and ideally records that enable the efficiency of the existing management systems to be measured. 

The team should be realistic about the time required to see improvements in end-of-pipe measures in most cases the pilot project success will be measured on efficiency improvements and other in-process measures alone. In this case it is important to demonstrate that all PSM and ESH issues are being managed. You should consider having a management systems audit (validation) conducted by a group independent of the integration project team. This may be done in conjunction with the next scheduled audit. This may be a corporate or divisional audit function or a consultant engaged specifically for this task. 

If there are no existing measures of PSM and ESH, do not panic Use the results of an independent audit of the management systems conducted before and after the pilot study or use the results of existing audits. 

IGT selected Harshaw Ni-0104T nickel-on-kieselghur catalyst formed in 4 X y in. cylindrical pellets for the initial catalyst charge to the methanation section of the HYGAS pilot plant. This selection was based on high activity over a range of temperatures (274°-516°C) and space velocities. Catalyst activity life tests were conducted for 1420 hrs without deterioration (Table I) consequently, we felt that suitable longevity could be obtained in the pilot-plant methanation reactors. 

The general operation of the pilot scale reactor has be previously described by Pareek et. al. [3]. However, modifications were required to allow the injection of the gas and liquid tracers, and their subsequent detection at the outlets. The liquid tracer, 5mL Methyl blue solution (lOgL" ), was injected via a syringe inserted into the liquid feed line. Outlet samples were measured with a Shimadzu 1601 UV-Vis Spectrophotometer at a wavelength of 635nm. A pulse (20mL) of helium gas tracer was introduced using an automated control system, with the outlet concentration monitored in real-time with a thermal conductivity detector. Runs were carried out based on a two-level... 

We would certainly not expect them to improve. Even the researchers who conducted the study did not expect to find much of an effect. It was to just be a very small pilot trial to learn if patients would actually go along with us and to see if any subjects actually benefited, Lee Park recalls. 

RESERVOIR DESCRIPTION. The TFSA-waterflood pilot study was conducted in Santa Fe Energy Company s Torrance Field. The field was discovered in 1922 and produces from Miocene and Pliocene sands located at depths of 3100 ft to 4400 ft (945 m to 1340 m) subsea. Within the pilot area, the net pay thickness of the Main Zone averages 96 ft (29 m) and varies from less than 90 ft (27 m) in the center of the pattern to more than 110 ft (34 m) in the northwest and southeast sections of the pilot. 

TFSA-WATERFLOOD PILOT. A 36 acre (1.14 x lO m2) TFSA-waterflood pilot was recently conducted in the Torrance Field in the Los Angeles Basin of Southern California. To characterize the fluid floi patterns within the pilot, an interwell chemical tracer study was conducted with sodium thiocyanate. Results of the tracer study are shown in Table IV. Only 61.6 % of the injected tracer was recovered in the produced fluids, indicating that as much as 38.4 % of the injected fluids were flowing out of the pattern. Furthermore, since only 1604 bbl/d (255 m3/d) of brine was injected into the pattern, as much as 75.9 % of the total fluids produced by pilot wells were from outside the pattern. 

For non-Newtonian liquids and suspensions, an apparent viscosity is determined using correlations which include power input and the Reynolds number. Scale-up comparisons based on heat generation data only were determined by comparison of results from RC1 experiments and from a 675-liter reactor [208]. In the experiments, a Bingham plastic fluid was used to determine the film heat transfer coefficient. This presents a worst case because of the low thermal conductivity of the Bingham plastic. Calculated inside film heat transfer coefficients determined in the RC1 tests were about 60% lower than the values determined in the pilot plant reactor, even though substantial effort was made to obtain both geometric and kinematic similarity in the pilot reactor. 

A first order reaction conducted in the pilot unit attained 75% conversion. Find (a) the specific rate of the reaction (b) the conversion in the... 

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dust explosion tests are usually conducted before a new chemical goes into the pilot-plant phase. 

Figure 17-46 shows such a performance curve for the collection of coal fly ash by a pilot-plant venturi scrubber (Raben "Use of Scrubbers for Control of Emissions from Power Boilers, United States-U.S.S.R. Symposium on Control of Fine-Particulate Emissions from Industrial Sources, San Francisco, 1974). The scatter in the data reflects not merely experimental errors but actual variations in the particle-size characteristics of the dust. Because the characteristics of an industrial dust vary with time, the scrubber performance curve necessarily must represent an average material, and the scatter in the data is frequently greater than is shown in Fig. 17-46. For best definition, the curve should cover as wide a range of contacting power as possible. Obtaining the data thus requires pilot-plant equipment with the flexibility to operate over a wide range of conditions. Because scrubber performance is not greatly affected by the size of the unit, it is feasible to conduct the tests with a unit handling no more than 170 m3/h (100 ftVmin) of gas.

A pilot-scale demonstration remediating harbor sediment was conducted 1 year before the SITE demonstration. Based on the pilot-scale demonstration, the processing costs for a fuU-scale, 110-ton/day unit were projected to be 230/ton (September 1992 U.S. dollars). It is assumed that the unit will be down approximately 30% of the time for maintenance and design improvements in the first year of operation. Based on this system availability, 28,105 tons can be processed in one year. This cost included estimates for variable costs, fixed costs, and deprecia-tion/insurance. Variable costs include diesel fuel for a mobile generator, hydrogen, and caustic. Fixed costs include labor diesel fuel for pumps, heaters, process equipment, and instrumentation propane, water and sewer and parts and supplies. Depreciation/insurance costs include capital cost depreciated over a 3-year period, general insurance costs, and pollution liabihty insurance. This analysis does not include costs for setup and demobilization (D128007, pp. 5.12-5.14). 

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