Sunday, February 17, 2019

Useful And Essential Facts About Pilot Plants

By Edward Foster


New technologies are developed every day that passes. In addition to that, new tech-based products are developed and put to commercial production by companies everyday as part of diversifying their product portfolios. New products are meant to ensure that companies continue to survive in the market and compete effectively with other newer technologies produced by rivals. However, not every idea that a company/individual comes up with is worth commercializing before adequate data has been collected about it. This is worth knowing about Pilot plants.

Companies should engage in small scale production of new technologies or products before going into commercial production. A set up known as a pilot plant is usually used in doing this. This production system is pre-commercial and uses new production technology in the small scale production of products that are based on new technology. The major reason for doing this is to learn. This helps in obtaining the skills to be used in designing full-scale commercial products and production systems.

The items that emanate from pilot factories are often real and there are a number of reasons for which they can be used. To begin with, these items can serve as samples that can be employed in gauging the market. In order to do this, the sample commodities are handed to consumers in the market being targeted. The customers then give feedback that companies base on to improve the final commodity.

Apart from being used for testing the market, these samples could also be used to control quality. Here, company engineers test the samples to find out if they are of the required standards. The standards could be set internally by the company or by the government. If it is determined that samples not of the required standards, reengineering is done till they meet the standards.

The phrase pilot plant is largely relative since such plants occur in a broad spectrum of sizes. One distinctive factor, however, is that in comparison to full scale plants, they are smaller. This is because they solely serve learning purposes. Pilot factories can be downscaled or up scaled, depending on goals.

The simplicity and the cost it takes to build these plants usually vary from one scenario to another. Some plants are very simple in that they can be built in labs with the use of stock lab equipment. On the other hand, some plants are very large and very costly. A complex pilot plant can take up several square feet of space and cost several millions to construct.

Composite plants are often customized. Process piping instrumentation and equipment are used in their construction. Complex plants serve to train personnel. The workers may then use the knowledge they got from the pilot plant in real life instances when they work in full scale factories.

There are many ways in which these plants minimize risks that come from constructing large process plants. First, the use of semi-empirical methods and computer simulations are used to validate designs and assumptions. Companies therefore avoid risking money before they can be sure that a certain process can be achieved.




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