(116d) Can the Scientific Method Survive the Plant Condition ?

If engineering is the application of technology to improve our way of life, then the venerable pilot is the means to that end in the chemical and process engineering realm. Whether a pilot is conducted to develop a new product, assess methods to recover a waste/byproduct, troubleshoot or enhance robustness or improve the quality-yield-capacity of a long established operation, the execution of technically sound pilots is inextricably tied to the Scientific Method (SM). The SM categorically transcends the industry, market or application where it is applied and establishes a powerfully simple method of gathering data and knowledge to accomplish a goal. That it is as applicable to fifth-grade students (where it is generally first introduced) as it is to thirty five year subject matter experts in the various high-tech fields may belie its utility but make no mistake, those who snub it with technical arrogance do so at great risk to the success of their undertaking.

While the SM’s natural habitat is the comfort zone of HVAC-controlled R&D laboratories around the world, its survival is less certain when immersed in the comparably hostile ecosystem born of the plant condition. In this paper, the so-called “plant condition” is the confluence of human-factors, commercial, technical, safety, and financial/resource limitations that conspire to make it the first casualty in what may very well have started as a well-planned undertaking with a clear Design of Experiments (DoE). The plant condition can also take on a more literal meaning – where the plant is already in a start-up mode and its performance is lacking in some way, thus necessitating additional work alongside its start-up – perhaps even leveraging the plant itself as part of the pilot in a recursive nature. While piloting alongside a start-up is certainly not a comfortable position for a new plant, it is a scenario that demands the most from the best qualified, disciplined and entrepreneurial-based team members and places the most pressure on the team to adhere to the SM. For a failed pilot is at best a lost opportunity and at worst the harbinger of a failed venture. It may be difficult to locate a post mortem or read of the lessons learned as the victims (not to mention those accountable!) often have little incentive to propagate the pain.

This paper takes a very process-centric look at how the SM lies at the foundation of properly executed pilots and how the various forces inherent in the plant condition can be managed to keep the execution on track towards achieving the goal. It demonstrates how the tenets of process safety management, good engineering/project management techniques, and an ever-increasing desire to develop more chemically responsibly and sustainable solutions can be used to foster success and keep the pilot on track, while acknowledging that the goals themselves may change as data is gathered and the nature of the pilot organically adapts, grows and strengthens. In the final analysis, the product of the chemical engineer (and what generally separates them from other disciplines) is the mass and energy balance (MEB) gleaned from a properly executed pilot. Consequently, it is not an overstatement to suggest that the SM is the essential tool that should steer pilot endeavors if a goal is to met, if a process is to see commercialization and if a business is to succeed. Indeed, if society’s way of life is to be advanced.