Different Modes or Strategies in Process Development

The principal routes available in developing a process (Moser, 1977a) can be summarized as follows  

Trial and error. This has been successful in the past but requires a long time and entails much loss. 

Pure theoretical route via the solution of all differential equations. This seems to be a utopian path for the future. 

Engineering approach based on quantification, including pilot plant work and work with or without mathematical models. Pilot plants are generally 10 times larger than the laboratory reactors but are smaller than production-scale plants. In the first step, the volume of the pilot plant reactor is typically about 50 to 500 1 a second step extends this to 500 to 50001. 

---