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A pilot plant is a small chemical processing system
Chemical plant

A chemical plant is an industry Industrial process factory that manufactures chemicals, usually on a large scale. The general objective of a chemical plant is to create new material wealth via the chemical or biological transformation and or separation of materials....
 which is operated to generate information about the behavior of the system for use in design
Design

Design is used both as a noun and a verb. The term is often tied to the various applied arts and engineering . As a verb, "to design" refers to the process of originating and planning for a product, structure, system, or component with intention....
 of larger facilities.

Pilot plants are used to reduce the risk
Risk

Risk is a concept that denotes the precise probability of specific eventualities. Technically, the notion of risk is independent from the notion of value and, as such, eventualities may have both beneficial and adverse consequences....
 associated with construction of large process plants. They do this in two ways:



If a system is well defined and the engineering parameter
Parameter

In mathematics, statistics, and the mathematical sciences, a parameter is a quantity that defines certain characteristics of systems or function s....
s are known, pilot plants are not used. For instance, a business that wants to expand production capacity by building a new plant that does the same thing as an existing plant may choose to not use a pilot plant.

Additionally, advances in process simulation
Simulation

Simulation is the imitation of some real thing, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviors of a selected physical or abstract system....
 on computers have increased the confidence of process designers and reduced the need for pilot plants.






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Encyclopedia


A pilot plant is a small chemical processing system
Chemical plant

A chemical plant is an industry Industrial process factory that manufactures chemicals, usually on a large scale. The general objective of a chemical plant is to create new material wealth via the chemical or biological transformation and or separation of materials....
 which is operated to generate information about the behavior of the system for use in design
Design

Design is used both as a noun and a verb. The term is often tied to the various applied arts and engineering . As a verb, "to design" refers to the process of originating and planning for a product, structure, system, or component with intention....
 of larger facilities.

Pilot plants are used to reduce the risk
Risk

Risk is a concept that denotes the precise probability of specific eventualities. Technically, the notion of risk is independent from the notion of value and, as such, eventualities may have both beneficial and adverse consequences....
 associated with construction of large process plants. They do this in two ways:

  • They are substantially less expensive to build than full-scale plants. The business
    Business

    A business is a legally recognized organization designed to provide good s and/or Service to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalism economies, most being privately owned and formed to earn profit that will increase the wealth of its owners....
     does not put as much capital
    Financial capital

    Financial capital can refer to money used by entrepreneurs and businesses to buy what they need to make their products or provide their services or to that sector of the economy based on its operation, i.e....
     at risk on a project that may be inefficient or unfeasible. Further, design changes can be made more cheaply at the pilot scale and kinks in the process can be worked out before the large plant is constructed.
  • They provide valuable data
    DATA

    Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa is a multinational Non-governmental organization founded in January 2002 in London by U2's Bono along with Robert Sargent Shriver III and activists from the Jubilee 2000 Drop the Debt campaign....
     for design of the full-scale plant. Scientific data about reactions, material properties, corrosiveness, for instance, may be available, but it is difficult to predict the behavior of a process of any complexity. Engineering data from other process may be available, but this data can not always be clearly applied to the process of interest. Designers use data from the pilot plant to refine their design of the production scale facility.


If a system is well defined and the engineering parameter
Parameter

In mathematics, statistics, and the mathematical sciences, a parameter is a quantity that defines certain characteristics of systems or function s....
s are known, pilot plants are not used. For instance, a business that wants to expand production capacity by building a new plant that does the same thing as an existing plant may choose to not use a pilot plant.

Additionally, advances in process simulation
Simulation

Simulation is the imitation of some real thing, state of affairs, or process. The act of simulating something generally entails representing certain key characteristics or behaviors of a selected physical or abstract system....
 on computers have increased the confidence of process designers and reduced the need for pilot plants. However, they are still used as even state-of-the-art simulation cannot accurately predict the behavior of complex systems.

Pilot plant is a relative term in the sense that plants are typically smaller than production scale plants, but are built in a range of sizes. Some pilot plants are built in laboratories
Laboratory

A laboratory is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which science research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. The title of laboratory is also used for certain other facilities where the processes or equipment used are similar to those in scientific laboratories....
 using stock lab equipment. Others are constructed of fabricated metal on dedicated concrete slabs and cost millions of dollars.

After data is collected from operation of a pilot plant, a larger production scale facility may be built. Alternatively, a demonstration plant, which is bigger than a pilot plant, but smaller than commercial plant, may be built to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of the process. Businesses sometimes continue to operate the pilot plant in order to test ideas for new products, new feedstocks, or different operating conditions. Alternatively, they may be operated as production facilities, augmenting production from the main plant.

See also

  • Mass production
    Mass production

    Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines. The concepts of mass production are applied to various kinds of products, from fluids and particulates handled in bulk to discrete solid parts to assemblies of such parts ....
  • Production line
    Production line

    File:Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.jpgA production line is a set of sequential operations established in a factory whereby materials are put through a refining process to produce an end-product that is suitable for onward consumption; or components are assembled to make a finished article....