Laboratory-range Plants

The specific nature of microreactors at the laboratory scale, e.g., due to their small size, continuous way of operation, and their interconnectors, raises the need for compact tailored platforms, and indeed suppliers have provided such complete systems, i.e., as bench-scale microreactor plants [2]. Meanwhile, a choice of modular multi-purpose or dedicated microreactor laboratory plants is available on the market, approaching the pilot-scale level [2]. Still, suitable tools for dovmstream processing are missing to satisfy all customers needs. 

Using a similar construction approach, a cream manufacturing plant has been developed (Fig. 6.16). 

Part of the plant (e.g., the pumps and inlets for solids) is above a thermostat bath level, part (e.g., the melting pots for solids, micromixer, all tubing) is immersed into it to be exposed to a hot environment. Solid waxy materials like palmitic or stearic acid are molten in the pots encompassed by a water or oil bath. Being liquehed, these materials are pumped into an eight-component caterpillar micromixer where water and other ingredients are added (Fig. 6.16). In a second stage, another micromixer may feed a further component that is difficult to 

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Each laboratory at explosives plant should be provided with at least one "precision hydrometer calibrated by the National Bureau of Standards in Washington. As these hydrometers are very expensive, it is advisable to use them only for calibration of other laboratory and plant hydrometers, which are much cheaper. A simple method of calibration, such as used during WWII, at Keystone OrdnWorksis described in Ref 8. In this method the following liquids were used kerosene for calibration of hydrometers, range 0.700 to 0.800 iso-butanol for 0.800 to 0,900 boiled distilled water for 0.900 to 1.000 16% (by weight) soln of H2S04 in w for 1.000 to 1.200 41%... 

Alloys are prepared commercially and in the laboratory by melting the active metal and aluminum in a crucible and quenching the resultant melt which is then crushed and screened to the particle size range required for a particular application. The alloy composition is very important as different phases leach quite differently leading to markedly different porosities and crystallite sizes of the active metal. Mondolfo [14] provides an excellent compilation of the binary and ternary phase diagrams for aluminum alloys including those used for the preparation of skeletal metal catalysts. Alloys of a number of compositions are available commercially for activation in the laboratory or plant. They include alloys of aluminum with nickel, copper, cobalt, chromium-nickel, molybdenum-nickel, cobalt-nickel, and iron-nickel. 

The potential for phytotoxicity from explosives is discussed at length elsewhere in this volume (see Chapter 3). Few studies of the phytotoxicity of these chemicals have been undertaken, and most of these, which are reviewed in Rocheleau et al. [13], were tests of TNT. Concentrations of TNT that reduce shoot or root biomass in crop test plants in the laboratory range from about 0.1 mg kg-1 to >1600 mg kg 1 dry soil [14-17], Phytotoxicity tests with amended soils produced lowest observed effect concentration (LOEC) values for TNT ranging from 0.1 to 64 mg kg 1 depending on plant species and exposure type used [15] (see Chapter 3). Plant growth was not affected by HMX at concentrations up to approximately 1900 mg kg1 dry forest soil [16], and additional studies suggest that nitroheterocyclic compounds are not as toxic... 

Industrial flooring RubCon s exceptional resistance to a wide range of corrosive chemicals—from acids to alkalis (unlike other products that resist only acids or bases but not both)—defines its usefulness in industrial floorings. Floors in factories, chemical laboratories, manufacturing plants, and so on will reap the benefits of RubCon by eliminating the need to resurface or replace [29],... 

Figure 8.19 Ranges of gas and liquid flow rates utilized in laboratory, pilot plant, and commercial trickle-bed reactors. [After C.N. Satterfield, Amer. Inst. Chem. Eng. JL, 21, 209, with permission of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, (1975).]...

In the extraction from solids, scale up from 20 to 50 1 vessels to extractors of several m seems possible (scale up factor of 100 to 1000), if the experiments are carried out in a pilot plant unit. While a laboratory size plant has to be as flexible as possible, in order to be able to experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of a process step under a broad range of processing conditions, a pilot plant is designed to demonstrate the technical feasibility of certain process steps on a larger scale. Ideally, a pilot plant is a small version of a processing plant, but normally only parts of the technical process can be simulated on this scale. The variability of the plant is much more limited than that of a laboratory scale plant. 

Fractional vacuum distillation is the method used to separate terpene mixtures into their components. The terpene chemist usually has in the laboratory a range of columns with differing numbers of theoretical stages. Experimental distillation in the laboratory is useful in providing data for manufacturing plants that produce commercial quantities of terpene products. 

In any industrial facility, from offices to factories and laboratories, spills happen and create a variety of risks to workers. Inside a plant, spills result in chemicals on the floor, in the air, or on the workers themselves. When releases occur outside the plant (e.g., chemical releases from tank cars or trucks, the spread of noxious fumes from an internal spill), the potential for harm extends far beyond the facility, particularly with major catastrophes such as the Bhopal chemical release, the Exxon Valdez oil spill. New York s Love Canal, and dioxin-contaminated Times Beach in Missouri, have led several federal departments and agencies to enact protective regulations. These protections are aimed at protecting a much broader range of people, property, and the environment than most regulations administered by OSHA. 

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