Pilot scale development work

ICI Polyurethanes and du Vergier are evaluating a PU recycling method. The three-year project aims to use a pilot plant to demonstrate the practicality of the split-phase glycolysis process that ICI has developed. Work will initially focus on flexible foams based on MDI and specially made at Id s Rozenberg plant. In the second phase, the unit will use post-industrial waste. Assuming the trials are successful, a full-scale unit to handle at least 5000 t/y of scrap foam will be built. 

As in any process development work, the data have to be examined critically to make certain that there is sufficient reason to carry the project on to the next phase. Thus, if a particular system has poor stripping characteristics, it is very doubtful whether any improvement can be made by going to a larger scale, in which case the investigation may have to be terminated. However, if the bench data have produced sufficient information to draw a conceptual flow sheet, then a decision can be made on whether to run a small-scale continuous operation or a pilot plant. Many other factors have to be considered in making this decision, such as the economics of the process, cost of... 

As a reason for not using h.v.t. it is often stated that its use leads to experimental results that cannot be reproduced on an industrial scale. This is untrue. A closed system, such as an all-glass vacuum line, has more in common with an industrial plant than the typical apparatus used at the laboratory bench. Furthermore, because of the considerably more favourable surface to volume ratios in a large plant, the typical concentrations of those impurities which originate from surfaces are more accurately reproduced by h.v.t. experiments than by the typical bench experiment. This is often reflected in the problems encountered during development work when bench experiments are being scaled up to pilot plant and beyond. 

Laboratory Extractors. Pilot-Scale Testing, and Scale-Up. Several laboratory units arc useful in analysis, process control, and process studies. The AKUFVE contactor incorporates a separate mixer and centrifugal separator. It is an efficient instrument for rapid and accurate measurement of partition coefficients, as well as for obtaining reaction kinetic data. Miniature mixer-settler assemblies set up as continuous, bench-scale, multistage, countercurrent, liquid-liquid contactors are particularly useful Tor the preliminary laboratory work associated with flow-sheet development and optimization because these give a known number of theoretical stages. 

The research described in this chapter is part of an effort to develop and test a zeolite-based permeable barrier system for containing and remediating contaminated groundwater. The specific goals of this work were to scale up the production of SMZ, install the SMZ in a pilot-scale permeable barrier, and compare barrier performance to predictions based on laboratory characterization of the SMZ. 

Alcohols can be converted electrochemically into the corresponding carboxylic acids in very good yields if Ni oxide anodes are used in alkaline electrolytes. This reaction was studied intensively in industry for the electrochemical oxidation of diacetone-L-sorbose to diacetone-2-ketogulonic acid (intermediates of the vitamin C synthesis). On the basis of Sowjet work 282 284) (initially Pt anodes and NaBr—NaCl—NiCl2— NaOH electrolytes subsequently Ni oxide anodes), Roche and Merck studied the synthesis on the laboratory and pilot scale. In cooperation with the ETH Zurich 285-286 a special cell 287 288) was developed for this reaction. 

In Japan, pilot plant quantities of rayon and cotton grafted with styrene and other monomers have been prepared and evaluated. Improvements in the flex abrasion resistance and good water repellency were obtained. In addition, thermoplasticity was imparted plus an improved adhesion to rubber. Arthur et al. have also studied this type of grafted cellulose fibers. Again, the work has not led to any large scale developments. Research into grafting to textiles is continuing, but the prospects for any early successful industrialization seem remote. 

Often, chemical plant design is informed by laboratory and pilot-scale experimentation. While the initial chapters in this book will inform the reader of the most important design parameters that need to be measured and determined from such experiments, how to then ensure that these parameters perform in the same way in a large-scale plant is the subject of Chapter 6. Although it is desirable to conduct the experimental work in the system for which the results are required, this is not always easy. The system of interest may be hazardous or expensive to build and run, while the fluids involved may be corrosive or toxic. In this case scale models are used, which overcome the above problems and allow extensive experimentation. In the majority of cases the model will be smaller in size than the actual, desired plant, but sometimes, due to the nature of the materials to be handled, the fluids involved may also be different. Scale-up is only possible if the model and plant are physically similar and, hence, the procedure is based on dimensionless groups. How to develop and use these groups is described in Chapter 6. 

The identification and evaluation procedure for these research targets is essentially the same as is used for new products. New technology is increasingly being developed in smaller companies with a specific competence. An example would be the work on production scale microreactors by companies such as CPC Cellular Process Chemistry Systems, whose technology is being taken up by large companies in the pilot scale manufacture of fine, speciality and medicinal chemicals. 

The PVC industry is actively involved in the development of recycling solutions for contaminated mixed plastics waste streams with a high PVC content. Potential technologies for achieving this goal are tested at present at pilot scale. This paper provides an overview of the projects under investigation and the results obtained so far, while development work continues. 9 refs. 

Figure 5.3 gives the breakdown of industry funding for academic research ranging from basic to applied to development. It shows that industry does not go to universities to conduct work downstream of research (i.e., development work is not the university s strength). When we have a pilot scale or when we do further applied work, we do that primarily in-house. 

Consideration should be given to the availability of small-scale equipment, which is vital for development work prior to scale-up on pilot- or production-scale machines. Equipment choice is not necessarily based on maximum throughput rate, since the subsequent processing stages (e.g., cutting, spheronization, and drying) are batch processes and are therefore, a rate-limiting factor in production. Since extrusion is a continuous process, it allows adequate production rates for most purposes with any of the above mentioned extruder types. 

A vapor-phase ammmonia-injection process for SO2 removal is being developed at the Morgantown Energy Research Center. In laboratory research with simulated stack gas containing 4200 ppm SO2 (equivalent to 6.0% sulfur in coal), essentially complete removal of SO2 from the gas phase was effected by ammonia injection (i). Preliminary work has since proceeded with a small pilot-scale installation in which the sulfur products from the vapor-phase reaction are removed in a water scrubber. This paper presents additional data from the laboratory work and the pilot-scale installation. 

The purpose of this chapter is twofold (1) to provide a description of what SCWO is and can do, including its scientihc basis and current commercial worldwide status and (2) to allow one to determine if SCWO can be effective for a particular waste stream of interest, and if so, to present what needs to be considered in determining the ophmum system conhguration. Toward this end, information is provided on how and why the SCWO process works, typical system conhgurations and variations, development history, current full-scale and major pilot-scale operating plants, key results from several decades of research, feed characteristics, salt behavior and control techniques, corrosion control options, typical effluent characteristics, permitting record and history, and available cost data. 

A continuous counter-current reactor system has shown great promise as a process reactor in the dilute acid hydrolysis of cellulose. However, the findings on this unique reactor system have been limited to the theoretical aspects and the proof-of-concept laboratory experiments. It has to be developed into an upscale process reactor before it is adopted into the biomass conversion process. To this end, a pilot-scale process study is being conducted at NREL. This is only the first step. To be noted here is that reactors of similar design are being used in industry it took years of developmental work, however, before they were put into commercial service. It would probably take about the same degree of investment in this case. In addition to the reactor issue, there are other important issues that need to be addressed in the dilute acid process. 

The large economic consequences and lack of flexibility will dictate to perform most of the manufacture development work in a pilot scale, where the cost of experiments is 100-1000 times lower, and only to use the plant lines for the last process adjustments. 

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