Sponsored Networking: Robustness and Flexibility in Pilot Plant Process Development Work

SwRI's chemical and petroleum process development programs start from simple concept testing in the laboratory to operating commercial scale demonstration units. At SwRI, we test and evaluate a broad range of technologies, which span traditional refining and chemical unit operations to the newest methods for consuming plastics and carbon dioxide as feedstocks. A few examples of this range are, thin film polymer commercial demonstration, natural gas to olefins, and carbon capture and conversion pilot plants. With more than 40 years of experience in pilot plant process development, we have had the opportunity to learn what is successful for our clients when it comes to designing robust and flexible processes. Process development is a feedback process, and pilot plants require innovative and flexible designs to accommodate ranges of process conditions that may not be applicable to commercial scale processes. SwRI has compiled our learnings and developed a procedure for process development called the SwIFT (SwRI Interdependent Flexible Time-driven) process for information development. SwIFT process development is fundamentally about derisking a process and, if necessary, making as many mistakes as you can early on, at the smallest believable scale. SwRI staff are available to discuss process development and designing robust and flexible pilot plants from lab to demonstration scale.