Pilot-plant-scale development/testing

Pilot-plant-scale development and testing to address engineering issues for process scale-up... 

The alkalized zinc oxide—chromia process developed by SEHT was tested on a commercial scale between 1982 and 1987 in a renovated high pressure methanol synthesis plant in Italy. This plant produced 15,000 t/yr of methanol containing approximately 30% higher alcohols. A demonstration plant for the lEP copper—cobalt oxide process was built in China with a capacity of 670 t/yr, but other higher alcohol synthesis processes have been tested only at bench or pilot-plant scale (23). 

The global rates of heat generation and gas evolution must be known quite accurately for inherently safe design.. These rates depend on reaction kinetics, which are functions of variables such as temperature, reactant concentrations, reaction order, addition rates, catalyst concentrations, and mass transfer. The kinetics are often determined at different scales, e.g., during product development in laboratory tests in combination with chemical analysis or during pilot plant trials. These tests provide relevant information regarding requirements... 

Our work on vinyl chloride graft copolymers has led to the development of a graft polymerization process for the production of homogeneous VC/PE graft copolymers with high backbone-polymer content. This process is now being tested on a pilot-plant scale, and industrial applications are being considered. 

Therefore, the secondary screening method is a powerful tool for determining the catalytic behavior of materials under kinetic regime, but further developments of industrial catalysts require the use of conventional pilot plant scale units (Figure 15.2), which are well suited for testing the catalysts under the influence of additional parameters like mass and heat transfer [8, 9]. 

An enzyme product for cell wall degradation was developed, by which the number of living microbial cells in meat products could be reduced. The product has been tested on pilot-plant scale with good results. 

The discovery route utilized the pyridinium chlorochromate (PCC) oxidation of 2-cyclohexylethanol in CH2CI2 in presence of molecular sieves. It is a simple process, as the aldehyde is simply isolated by filtration of the reaction mixture through silica gel. However, this process was proven to be difficult to scale up due to difficulties of filtration of the chromium salts. Furthermore, the environmental issues created by the large amount of toxic chromium salts make this process unsuitable for large-scale synthesis. Two other processes (Scheme 6.7) were therefore developed and tested to prepare the required 2-cyclohexyl acetaldehyde at the pilot-plant scale ... 

Attempts to separate thorium and uranium from sulfuric acid solution of monazite by solvent extraction with TBP were unsuccessful because distribution coefficients of uranium and thorium from monazite solutions were too low, as these elements are complexed by phosphate ion. Development of extractants with higher distribution coefficients for these metals has made solvent extraction a practical process for recovering uranium and thorium from monazite sulfate solutions and from sulfuric acid solutions of other thorium ores. This section describes processes tested on a pilot-plant scale by Oak Ridge National Laboratory [C5]. 

A pilot plant scale, tubular (annular configuration) photoreactor for the direct photolysis of 2,4-D was modeled (Martin etal, 1997). A tubular germicidal lamp was placed at the reactor centerline. This reactor can be used to test, with a very different reactor geometry, the kinetic expression previously developed in the cylindrical, batch laboratory reactor irradiated from its bottom and to validate the annular reactor modeling for the 2,4-D photolysis. Note that the radiation distribution and consequently the field of reaction rates in one and the other system are very different. 

The process was tested on a pilot plant scale in Canada. Severe mechanical and corrosion problems were encountered in the operation of the pilot plant and hindered the continuing development of the process to such extent that it was never commercialized. 

History. Methods for the fractionation of plasma were developed as a contribution to the U.S. war effort in the 1940s (2). Following pubHcation of a seminal treatise on the physical chemistry of proteins (3), a research group was estabUshed which was subsequendy commissioned to develop a blood volume expander for the treatment of military casualties. Process methods were developed for the preparation of a stable, physiologically acceptable solution of alburnin [103218-45-7] the principal osmotic protein in blood. Eady preparations, derived from equine and bovine plasma, caused allergic reactions when tested in humans and were replaced by products obtained from human plasma (4). Process studies were stiU being carried out in the pilot-plant laboratory at Harvard in December 1941 when the small supply of experimental product was mshed to Hawaii to treat casualties at the U.S. naval base at Pead Harbor. On January 5, 1942 the decision was made to embark on large-scale manufacture at a number of U.S. pharmaceutical plants (4,5). 

In certain cases, it is necessary to choose materials for equipment to be used in a process developed in the laboratory and not yet in operation on a plant scale. Under such circumstances, it is obviously impossible to make plant tests. A good procedure in such cases is to construct a pilot plant, using either the cheapest materials available or some other materials selected on the basis of past experience or of laboratory tests. While the pilot plant is being operated to check on the process itself, specimens can be exposed in the operating equipment as a guide to the choice of materials for the large-scale plant or as a means of confirming the suitability of the materials chosen for the pilot plant. 

The process engineer also develops tests and interprets data and information from the research pilot plant. He aids in scaling-up the research qpe flow cycle to one of commercial feasibility. 

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