Custom pilot plant for high-pressure phase separation

01 — The research question

How do you scale up an industrial process while mastering its key parameters?

Moving from a laboratory discovery to industrial production is a critical step. It often requires validating and optimizing process parameters on an experimental process pilot plant at an intermediate scale. This scale-up stage reduces technical and financial risks before investing in a full-scale production unit, ensuring the process is robust, repeatable, and economically viable. Our client needed to optimize a multi-phase fluid mixing and separation process. The challenge was to do so under precise pressure and temperature conditions, in vessel volumes representative of a semi-industrial scale. Standard equipment could not combine these requirements with the critical instrumentation needed for a fine, real-time measurement of phase separation, which was the key to understanding the process.

The technical challenge was to measure an interface between two immiscible liquids with millimeter accuracy in real time, inside a closed, pressurized, and heated vessel.

02 — Our approach

A design driven by measurement, safety, and operability

1. 1

   Instrumenting the interface to understand separation

   In a closed, pressurized vessel, visual measurement is impossible. To achieve the millimeter accuracy required by the client's models, we integrated a level measurement technology that travels through the gas and reflects off the liquid-liquid interface. This provides the operator with precise, recordable physical data to control the separation efficiency.

2. 2

   Ensuring safety through defense in depth

   Handling fluids under high pressure and temperature demands uncompromising safety. Rather than relying on a single software-based safety system, we layered independent levels of protection: PLCs for alerts, dedicated hardware relays (SIL 2) for emergency shutdowns, and ultimate mechanical safeguards like rupture discs. This approach ensures operator protection and the reliability of long-term tests.

3. 3

   Improving maintenance and ergonomics

   The vessel lids, weighing around 100 kg, make frequent cleaning time-consuming and risky. To make the operator self-sufficient and prevent musculoskeletal disorders, we integrated a dedicated lifting system into the frame. This solution eliminates reliance on workshop equipment and cuts down the time between campaigns, increasing the pilot plant's utilization rate.

03 — Technical specifications

04 — Other applications

Does your process involve mastering phase separation?