Pilot Plants in Process Research

Session Chair and Co-Chair:

• Shyamal Bej, Shell
• David Edwards, Zeton Inc.

Session Description

Pilot plants are extensively used for conducting process research for successful technology development and scale-up. They can be very simple or extremely complex in configuration depending on the nature of the processes and the purposes for which they are designed. This session will focus on examples where meaningful process research has been conducted using different types of pilot pants for successfully developing and commercializing various chemical processes.

Schedule:

Abstracts:

Successful Scale-up and Commercialization of INVISTA's New Adiponitrile Technology

INVISTA has successfully scaled up and commercialized a new adiponitrile (ADN) technology for the hydrocyanation of butadiene using a homogeneous nickel catalyst.  ADN is a critical intermediate in the production of hexamethylene diamine which is reacted with adipic acid to produce nylon-6,6.  INVISTA’s new ADN technology extends INVISTA’s market leading technology in several ways:  improved product yields, reduced energy consumption, lower greenhouse gas emissions, enhanced process stability and reduced capital intensity.  The new technology is a culmination of more than $40 million in research and development spanning four years on two continents.

This talk will focus on the rigorous, disciplined risk-based assessment and mitigation approach that was used to enable the scale-up and commercialization of the new technology and the role of an integrated pilot plant with full recycle which demonstrated the technology in conjunction with laboratory units, process modeling and simulation, and prototypic testing of unit operations at equipment vendors and contract manufacturers. 

Mini-plant Demonstration Integrated with Process Development and Final Commercial Design

In today’s competitive market, there is a push to accelerate the development of new products and processes, with shorter times from concept to commercialization.  Reducing development time frequently means simultaneous execution of experimental and computational process development, and commercial design, with feedback across all the activities. Mini-plant piloting is a key step for demonstration and development of the full scale commercial process. 

We will present an example of a project which resulted in a commercial design which includes a liquid phase reaction, vapor phase reaction, and multi-column distillation.  The mini-plant demonstrated closed recycles, catalyst lifetime, in-spec product, and led to capital savings in the final commercial design.

Reactors for Smaller Scale GTL Facilities

Velocys is commercializing an advanced Fischer-Tropsch process based on a high activity cobalt catalyst in a microchannel reactor. The modular nature of the technology enables its deployment at smaller scales than is possible using conventional technology which provides a platform for cost-effective positioning of gas-to-liquids (GTL) plants in any location to monetize shale, stranded or associated gas. Construction has begun on a commercial GTL facility near Oklahoma City that will serve as a reference site for the Velocys technology and will deploy a number of our full scale Fischer-Tropsch reactors. The project is the first to be developed by a joint venture between Velocys, Waste Management, NRG Energy and Ventech to develop GTL plants using a combination of renewable biogas and natural gas and is scheduled for startup early in 2016.

Rigorous laboratory testing, as well as stable operations for more than 1500 hours in the Velocys pilot plant was used to demonstrate performance as well as to assess catalyst regenerability and life and to determine the design basis for the commercial facility. Commercialization, however, is not only limited to catalyst and reactor development and manufacturing scale-up but needs to address sustainable operability and the full product life cycle to truly be commercially viable. To this end, the Velocys pilot plant has been used to rigorously test and develop realistic operating protocols, improve and demonstrate transient operating cases and to successfully develop and use commercially relevant catalyst loading and unloading procedures. In conjunction with our pilot studies, predictive performance models, simulations for engineering studies and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations are used to fully describe and assess all possible operating scenarios. These programs not only minimize risk and validate commercial operations but also open up the opportunity for continuous improvement and innovation and as such are essential to the success of any new technology.