Technology miniplant

Miniplant Technology - A Model for the Micro Structured Reactor Plant Concept... 

As miniplant technology must be considered as a model for micro structured reactor plant technology, a closer look into its working principles is very illustrative. All characteristics of a miniplant were described by the inventors of this technology, Dow, in 1979 [28] and BASF [29], which also introduced the combined simulation/ experimentation concept (Figure 4.2). 

Acceleration of process development [ Faz 1999] by using integrated miniplant technology (laboratory plant —> microplant miniplant industrial plant). 

Process Intensification through the Combined Use of Process Simulation and Miniplant Technology... 

The examples listed here cover all the levels of complexity. Before these examples are handled in detail, there will be a clarification of what characterises miniplant technology. 

Miniplant technology is thus an ideal tool to ensure experimentally process concepts selected with a view to process intensification. This will be demonstrated using three examples. 

It was also possible to prove this process concept experimentally using miniplant technology. A bubble tray column, 30 mm in diameter, was used as the miniplant column. The advantage of the bubble tray column is that there is a hold-up for each tray giving the advantage that the residence time in the column can be varied by the variation of the feed flow into the column. In this way, the foundation was set up for the increase in scale using thermodynamic and fluid dynamic simulation on the production column. This has a diameter of 600 mm and was manufactured of glass due to the corrosive nature of the aqueous hydrochloric acid. 

In this example, again it was possible to successfully ensure the process concept experimentally using miniplant technology. This production plant is already successful in operation. 

Worldwide competition, the necessity of protecting natural resources and minimising environmental stress will continue to play a central role in the development of new processes. The examples presented above show that cost-effective as well as sustainable solutions can been found using process intensification. Miniplant technology is an important tool for quickly and cost-effectively experimental ensuring of solutions which have been proposed, in view of process intensification. 

Rinard, I. H., Miniplant design methodology, in Ehreeld, W., Rinard, I. H., Wegeng, R. S. (Eds.), Process Miniaturization 2nd International Conference on Microreaction Technology, IMRET 2, Topical Conf. Preprints, pp. 299-312, AIChE, New Orleans (1998). 

These disadvantages should be overcome by miniplants, generally defined similar as in [1, 60], strictly based on a modular design. In order to adapt to varying needs, several modules may be operated in parallel. Typical module capacities range from 100,000 to 1,000,000 lb/yr. Operation of the miniplants should be so reliable and simple that the majority of these plants can be operated by personnel not specially skilled in process technology. Start-up and shutdown have to be performed fast to allow just-in-time production. The entire plant should be transportable including footprint and containment volume. 

A microplant is 100 times smaller than a miniplant (Section 4.5.1) and can be operated as simulation technology in a laboratory (Table 4-6). It is a purely experimental tool which can be used to test numerous process variants at the laboratory stage with the aim of finding the best one. Thus, a microplant should be sufficiently small and compact that it fits on a laboratory bench. A modular design allows several microplants to be constructed and operated in parallel, which considerably shortens development time and permits rapid and simple erection and dismantling. Obviously, time, costs. 

Davister, A. 1991. Technological Options for Construction of Fertilizer Plants - Miniplants, UNIDO-NFC Pakistan Workshop on Appropriate Strategies for Fertilizer Technology and Development, Lahore,... 

A miniplant has been built at Helsinki University of Technology (HUT). It is a flexible system consisting of reactors, separation units, recycles, necessary pumps, piping and automation. The system has been used in the verification of mathematical process models and in the development of and the NExOCTANE dimerization process. Several runs have been performed and the targets were successfully achieved. 

As a tool for these requirements a new miniplant was designed and built at Helsinki University of Technology. The equipment represents the main features of a complete process unit, including reactors, separation units, instrumentation, control system and recycles. The facility has been used to study the new NExOCTANE process and to test... 

A miniplant is defined as a scale-down prototype of a good commercial plant technology, often to the smallest scale that can still generate reliable design information. The design should be a characteristic slice of the production unit and the miniplant should be operated on actual plant feed under typical plant constraints whenever possible (Robbins, 1979). The individual units of miniplant are not necessarily scale-down copies of the units intended for the production since the main target is not the equipment of scale-up but to verify that the process configuration works. 

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