(509f) Scale-up Issues From Bench to Pilot

In the development of commercial processes to convert biomass feedstocks to fuels and chemicals, using batch laboratory results to design and operate a continuous pilot plant presents new challenges. Materials handling, solid-liquid separations, stream recycling, and waste streams need to be addressed in the pilot plant before the demonstration and commercial plants are built. However, many of these issues are either briefly investigated or completely ignored during laboratory development. Ignoring these potential problems can result in disappointing process performance from the pilot plant, due to mechanical and operating difficulties.

Based on over 40 years experience at Hazen Research in designing and operating pilot plants for the energy, mining, and environmental fields, the authors will present a number of areas that can present problems in process scale-up from the laboratory to the pilot plant. Many of the problems experienced in pilot operations in other industries have direct application in both biochemical and thermochemical process scale-up. Several examples of piloting problems that can be overcome with proper design and planning will be presented in this talk. With knowledge of what potential problems may be encountered in the pilot plant, the engineer can develop pilot plant designs that will overcome mechanical and operating difficulties, allowing the development team to focus on demonstrating the process and providing design criteria for a feasibility engineering study.