Scale pilot plant design

The RC1 is an automated laboratory batch/semi-batch reactor for calorimetric studies which has proven precision. The calorimetric principle used and the physical design of the system are sound. The application of the RC1 extends from process safety assessments including calorimetric measurements, to chemical research, to process development, and to optimization. The ability of the RC1 to generate accurate and reproducible data under simulated plant scale operating conditions may result in considerably reduced testing time and fewer small scale pilot plant runs. 

The EDS II test program includes testing and design studies needed for a preliminary design of a full-scale pilot plant, a preliminary hazard analysis, development of a full-scale cost estimate, and a schedule for construction and operation of a facility employing the AEA technology. 

In its first two years, CPRR also constructed and began operating what is potentially a commercial-scale pilot plant facility. To be able to reduce the applied research to practice in a timely manner," says Morrow, "we realized that we had to have a process development and demonstration facility that was significantly larger than you would ordinarily expect to find at a university, or even in industry." He adds that this has allowed them to move along faster toward a commercially viable design. 

Engineering Aspects of Process Scale-Up and Pilot Plant Design... 

Pilot Plant Design, Experiments, and Results. Design of the pilot plant scale-up was based upon the earlier study involving quinaldic acid breakthrough. Because this compound may represent a worst case, other factors must be considered. 

Scaling Up from Laboratory Data Laboratory experimental techniques offer an efficient and cost-effective route to develop commercial absorption designs. For example, Ouwerkerk (Hydrocarbon Process., April 1978, 89-94) revealed that both laboratory and small-scale pilot plant data were employed as the basis for the design of an 8.5-m (28-ft) diameter commercial Shell Claus off-gas treating (SCOT) tray-type absorber. Ouwerkerk claimed that the cost of developing comprehensive design procedures can be minimized, especially in the development of a new process, by the use of these modern techniques. 

By paying particular attention to FCC pilot plant design and operating procedures, feedstocks containing significant amounts of residue can be successfully processed in a small-scale unit. The critical aspects can be itemized as follows ... 

In addition, early in the program, process design engineering for commercial-scale plants was initiated. Cold models were also used effectively to develop the pilot-plant design and then to prove out elements of the commercial-scale design. 

The major advantage of these fixed-bed systems is that the fixed-bed technology can be simple, and will require minimum scale-up studies. As indicated earlier, this type of design has been successfully scaled-up to commercial size directly from bench-scale pilot plant data many times. 

The C,-fraction of naphtha crackers is used as a feedstock in the Mitsubishi fluid bed process for the production of maleic anhydride. This process was commercialized in 1970. Many data related to this process including the catalyst screening, laboratory experiments, pilot plant design, reactor behaviour and the development of higher selectivity catalysts may be found in the patent literature (12-17).The patents thus give a nearly complete picture of the scale-up process. The data have been used in the present investigation to test the fluid bed reactor model. 

Baruah, G.L., Nayak, A., and Belfort, G., Scale-up from laboratory microfiltration to a ceramic pilot plant Design and performance, J. Membr. Sci., 274, 56, 2006. 

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