Pilot-scale

Methane has also been used in aerobic bioreactors that are part of a pump-and-treat operation, and toluene and phenol have also been used as co-substrates at the pilot scale (29). Anaerobic reactors have also been developed for treating trichloroethylene. Eor example, Wu and co-workers (30) have developed a successful upflow anaerobic methanogenic bioreactor that converts trichloroethylene and several other halogenated compounds to ethylene. 

Under constant pattern conditions the LUB is independent of column length although, of course, it depends on other process variables. The procedure is therefore to determine the LUB in a small laboratory or pilot-scale column packed with the same adsorbent and operated under the same flow conditions. The length of column needed can then be found simply by adding the LUB to the length calculated from equiUbrium considerations, assuming a shock concentration front. 

D. H. Pontius, L. G. Felix, and W. B. Smith, "Performance Characteristics of a Pilot Scale Particle Charging Device," Preprint 76-42.6, 69th APPCA Annual Meeting Portland, Oregon, June 27—July 1, 1976. 

J. D. Me Kenna, J. C. Mycock, and W. O. Lipscomb, "Applying Eabric Edtration to Coal Eired Industrial Boilers A Pilot Scale Investigation,"... 

In order to maintain a definite contact area, soHd supports for the solvent membrane can be introduced (85). Those typically consist of hydrophobic polymeric films having pore sizes between 0.02 and 1 p.m. Figure 9c illustrates a hoUow fiber membrane where the feed solution flows around the fiber, the solvent—extractant phase is supported on the fiber wall, and the strip solution flows within the fiber. Supported membranes can also be used in conventional extraction where the supported phase is continuously fed and removed. This technique is known as dispersion-free solvent extraction (86,87). The level of research interest in membrane extraction is reflected by the fact that the 1990 International Solvent Extraction Conference (20) featured over 50 papers on this area, mainly as appHed to metals extraction. Pilot-scale studies of treatment of metal waste streams by Hquid membrane extraction have been reported (88). The developments in membrane technology have been reviewed (89). Despite the research interest and potential, membranes have yet to be appHed at an industrial production scale (90). 

Eor design of a large-scale commercial extractor, the pilot-scale extractor should be of the same type as that to be used on the large scale. Reflable scale-up for industrial-scale extractors still depends on correlations based on extensive performance data collected from both pilot-scale and large-scale extractors covering a wide range of Hquid systems. Only limited data for a few types of large commercial extractors are available in the Hterature. 

Coal is expected to be the best domestic feedstock alternative to natural gas. Although coal-based ammonia plants have been built elsewhere, there is no such plant in the United States. Pilot-scale projects have demonstrated effective ammonia-from-coal technology (102). The cost of ammonia production can be anticipated to increase, lea ding to increases in the cost of producing nitrogen fertilizers. 

Materials suitable as filter aids include diatomaceous earth, expanded perilitic rock, asbestos, ceUulose, nonactivated carbon, ashes, ground chalk, or mixtures of those materials. The amount of body feed is subject to optimisa tion, and the criterion for the optimisa tion depends on the purpose of the filtration. Maximum yield of filtrate per unit mass of filter aid is probably most common but longest cycle, fastest flow, or maximum utilisation of cake space are other criteria that requite a different rate of body feed addition. The tests to be carried out for such optimisation normally use laboratory or pilot-scale filters, and must include variation of the filtration parameters such as pressure or cake thickness in the optimisation. 

Another important class of titanates that can be produced by hydrothermal synthesis processes are those in the lead zirconate—lead titanate (PZT) family. These piezoelectric materials are widely used in manufacture of ultrasonic transducers, sensors, and minia ture actuators. The electrical properties of these materials are derived from the formation of a homogeneous soHd solution of the oxide end members. The process consists of preparing a coprecipitated titanium—zirconium hydroxide gel. The gel reacts with lead oxide in water to form crystalline PZT particles having an average size of about 1 ]lni (Eig. 3b). A process has been developed at BatteUe (Columbus, Ohio) to the pilot-scale level (5-kg/h). 

In general, the desorptive behavior of contaminated soils and soHds is so variable that the requited thermal treatment conditions are difficult to specify without experimental measurements. Experiments are most easily performed in bench- and pilot-scale faciUties. Full-scale behavior can then be predicted using mathematical models of heat transfer, mass transfer, and chemical kinetics. 

Comparisons of the complete heat-transfer model with pilot-scale rotary kiln data are shown iu Figure 5 (21) for moisture levels ranging from 0 to 20 wt %. The tremendous thermal impact of moisture is clearly visible iu the leveling of temperature profiles at 100°C. 

The abihty of a four-parameter, two-parallel reaction model to correlate pilot-scale rotary kiln, toluene-desorption results (26) is shown in Figure 6. The model assumes that the adsorbed toluene consists of two fractions, T and F, which are tightly and loosely bound, respectively. 

Fig. 6. Pilot-scale kiln results for a fill fraction of 0.08% at 0.5 rpm and an initial toluene loading, on a dry, calcined, montmorillonite clay adsorbent, of 0.25 wt %, at A, 790°C B, 330°C and C, 190°C. The soHd lines are model fits using equation 24. The model simultaneously fits to all of the data (24).

Both CI2 and HCl have been shown to chlorinate hydrocarbons on fly ash particles. Pilot-scale data involving the injection of fly ash from municipal waste combustion (33) show that intermediate oxygen concentrations (4—7%) produce the highest levels of PCDD and PCDF. These data also show significant reductions in PCDD and PCDF emissions with the upstream injection of Ca(OH)2 at about 800°C. 

Conceptual Design of MHD Repowered Plant. The first step toward MHD plant commercialization is a pilot-scale demonstration plant. Repowering of existing plants, actively under study both in the United States and elsewhere (65), allows use of existing systems at considerable cost savings compared to building a new plant from the ground up. It also ensures that the pilot scale demonstration occurs in a reaHstic utiHty environment and... 

Dry dense medium (pneumatic fluidized-bed) separation has been used, but has not received wide attention by the industry. An area of promise for future development is the use of magnetically stabilized dense medium beds by using ferro or magnetic fluids (2,10). Laboratory and pilot-scale units such as Magstream are available. In this unit, material is fed into a rotating column of water-based magnetic fluid. Particles experience centtifugal forces and... 

The intrinsic rejection and maximum obtainable water flux of different membranes can be easily evaluated in a stirred batch system. A typical batch unit (42) is shown in Figure 5. A continuous system is needed for full-scale system design and to determine the effects of hydrodynamic variables and fouling in different module configurations. A typical laboratory/pilot-scale continuous unit using computer control and on-line data acquisition is shown in Figure 6. 

A most useful feature of the agglomeration technique is its ability to work with extreme fines. Even particles of less than nanometer size (ca 10 ° m) can be treated, if appropriate, so that ultrafine grinding can be appHed to materials with extreme impurity dissernination to allow recovery of agglomerates of higher purity. A number of appHcations of Hquid-phase agglomeration have reached either the commercial or semicommercial pilot scale of operation. 

Titanium disulfide can also be made by pyrolysis of titanium trisulfide at 550°C. A continuous process based on the reaction between titanium tetrachloride vapor and dry, oxygen-free hydrogen sulfide has been developed at pilot scale (173). The preheated reactants ate fed iato a tubular reactor at approximately 500°C. The product particles comprise orthogonally intersecting hexagonal plates or plate segments and have a relatively high surface area (>4 /g), quite different from the flat platelets produced from the reaction between titanium metal and sulfur vapor. The powder, reported to be stable to... 

Activated carbons for use in Hquid-phase appHcations differ from gas-phase carbons primarily in pore size distribution. Liquid-phase carbons have significantly more pore volume in the macropore range, which permits Hquids to diffuse more rapidly into the mesopores and micropores (69). The larger pores also promote greater adsorption of large molecules, either impurities or products, in many Hquid-phase appHcations. Specific-grade choice is based on the isotherm (70,71) and, in some cases, bench or pilot scale evaluations of candidate carbons. 

One goal of catalyst designers is to constmct bench-scale reactors that allow determination of performance data truly indicative of performance in a full-scale commercial reactor. This has been accompHshed in a number of areas, but in general, larger pilot-scale reactors are preferred because they can be more fully instmmented and can provide better engineering data for ultimate scale-up. In reactor selection thought must be given to parameters such as space velocity, linear velocity, and the number of catalyst bodies per reactor diameter in order to properly model heat- and mass-transfer effects. 

Mobil Oil Corporation has developed a process on a pilot scale that can successfully convert methanol into 96 octane gasoline. Although methanol can be used directiy as a transportation fuel, conversion to gasoline would eliminate the need to modify engines and would also eliminate some of the problems encountered using gasoline—methanol blends (see Alcohol fuels Gasoline and other motor fuels). 

Brassylic Acid. This acid is commercially available from Nippon Mining Company (Tokyo, Japan). It is made by a fermentation process (76). Several years ago, Emery Group, Henkel Corp. (Cincinnati, Ohio) produced brassyUc acid via ozonization of emcic acid primarily for captive use in making dimethyl brassylate and ethylene brassylate. A pilot-scale preparation based on ozonization of emcic acid has been described in which brassyUc acid yields of 72—82% were obtained in purities of 92—95%. Recrystallization from toluene gave purities of 99% (77). 

---