AISI 316L Stainless Steel Reactor with Temperature-Control Jacket
Reactor manufactured in AISI 316L stainless steel with an external jacket for temperature control.
Design conditions:
Maximum temperature: 250°C
Pressure: Full Vacuum to +50 barg
The unit shown in the photos is part of a system for which Pilotta Srl was commissioned to carry out the construction.
Design Guidelines for the Skid-Mounted Pilot Reactor
- 2 top connections for pressure and temperature probes, 2 top valved connections for partial dosing or purging
- 1 top valved sampling connection with dip pipe
- Sight glass
- Magnetic drive agitator
Certifications: ATEX / CE Declaration of Conformity / PED / AD2000
In the model illustrated here, the heating system and electrical control panel are excluded.
Details of the 15-Liter Reaction Unit
15-Liter Reaction Group in AISI 316L/304 consisting of:
- No. 1 15-liter reactor with magnetic drive agitator and reactor body lifting system
- No. 1 condenser – 0.5 m²
- No. 1 casting tank – 10 liters
- No. 1 collection tank – 15 liters
- No. 2 sight glasses
- Interconnecting piping between units
- Bottom valves
- Line valves between units
- Safety valves
- Supporting structure with base frameSupporting structure with base frame
- System certifications: ATEX / CE Declaration of Conformity / PED / AD2000
Technical Specifications – 30-Liter Pilot Reactor Version
30-Liter Reaction Group in AISI 316L/304 consisting of:
- No. 1 30-liter reactor with magnetic drive agitator and reactor body lifting system
- No. 1 condenser – 1 m²
- No. 1 casting tank – 20 liters
- No. 1 collection tank – 30 liters
- No. 2 sight glasses
- Interconnecting piping between units
- Bottom valves
- Line valves between units
- Safety valves
- Supporting structure with base frameSupporting structure with base frame
Angelo Pilotta Srl | Production of Reactors for Pilot Plants
Learn More About Pilot Plants
What is a Pilot Reactor?
A pilot plant reactor is a small-scale production unit used to develop manufacturing processes and to produce limited quantities of new products for field testing and validation.
In a reliable scale-up process, intermediate experimentation phases exist between laboratory and industrial scale — the most typical being the “pilot” phase.
A pilot plant is defined as a set of equipment reproducing the process scheme, with dimensions intermediate between laboratory systems and full industrial production units.
Today, advanced measurement systems, process controls, micro-flow analysis, centralized data collection, and automation technologies allow the realization of highly efficient pilot plants even with relatively small capacities. These technologies enable significant cost reductions thanks to improved data quality, shorter experimental times, and potentially fewer technicians required for operation.
A pilot reactor becomes necessary when laboratory research, mathematical modeling, simulation techniques, and preliminary engineering, economic, and market evaluations do not provide sufficient information to implement industrial-scale production with an acceptable level of risk.
This decision typically results from a comprehensive and continuously updated evaluation of the available information.
What Are Pilot Plants Used For?
A pilot plant is a pre-commercial production system that uses new manufacturing technology and/or produces small volumes of innovative products, primarily to validate and understand the new technology.
Typical applications requiring pilot-scale models include:
Liquid-liquid extractors
Gas-liquid reactors
Mixing systems
Burners and combustion chambers
Crystallizers
Filters
Dryers
Solid processing operations
Fluidized-bed reactors
Dispersers and atomizers
Highly complex chemical reactions with poorly defined kinetics
In such cases, simple multiplication of laboratory reactors is not sufficient for industrial realization.
Economic advantages arise when the model saves time and/or money.
For example, a well-developed kinetic model based on laboratory data can eliminate intermediate testing phases, reducing equipment construction and trial costs.
Practical advantages include:
Faster response times
Centralized information management
Integration into broader process models
Improved decision-making reliability
What is the scale-up of a pilot plant?
A pilot plant enables intermediate-scale study of a product and process before committing significant financial resources to large-scale production.
It is generally impossible to fully predict the effects of a substantial increase in production scale without pilot validation.
Bibliography: R.E. Johnstone, M.W. Thring, Pilot plants, models and scale up methods in chemical engineering, New York 1957; D.G. Jordan, Chemical process development, ivi 1968; A. Bisio, R.L. Kabel, Scale-up of chemical processes, ivi 1985; Dimensional analysis, in Ullmann’s encyclopedia of industrial chemistry, vol. B1, 3, Weinheim 1990.