SCALE-UP

Scaling, up and down, is the raison de

etre ( Reason for existence) for chemical
engineering.
3.10.2019

REFERENCE: SCALE-UP IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

BY MARKO ZLOKARNIK 2ND EDITION
 Definition of SCALE-UP
The bio-chemical industries produces and markets
drugs, bioproducts for various uses.
They are subject to a variety of laws and regulations
that govern the patenting, testing, safety, efficacy.
Sometimes chemicals are hazardous, pyrophoric and
sometimes flammable.
These types of reactions should be handled carefully
as it might costs lots of life and property on over
exposure.
These reactions cannot be directly manufactured in a
large scale, first these are tested in a lab by the
research and development department considering
each factor such as reactivity, flammability and safety
 WHY SCALE-UP
Scale up is basically needed for:
• Market growth
• Introduction of new processes
• Reduction in making expensive errors in
design and operation
• Concentrate on addressing areas of doubts
and uncertainty
• Economic feasibility
How to scale up from small scale to large scale?
 Scale-Up theory
• There are three categories of scale up:
• 1. WELL-DEFINED, EASY AND QUANTIFIABLE
(e.g. distillation, heat exchanger, absorption
etc.)
• 2. DIFFICULT BUT QUANTIFIABLE (e.g.
reactors)
• 3. VERY DIFFICULT AND RARELY CAN BE
QUANTIFIABLE (e.g. particulate processes)
 STEP BY STEP SCALE UP
• Product and process development for scaling
up is typically move in small steps.
• • For instance, the development is initially
from lab scale to bench scale then move to
pilot scale and finally to commercialization
scale.
• • By performing scale up step by step, the risk
with large investments could be lessen.
• •
The following figure illustrates the conventional
scale up procedure for bio fuel.
 Process Scaling
• Chemical engineers do not just scale into larger equipment.
• They also scale Into smaller equipment.
• Downscaling occurs when an existing commercial plant has
significant operating problems that are not amenable to
calculated resolution. In other words, experiments must be
performed to fully understand and solve the problems.
Such testing cannot generally be done in a commercial-
sized plant.
• In this case the chemical engineer will downsize the
problem into smaller equipment where the necessary
testing can be conducted.
• So, how can a chemical engineer be sure that he or she has
upscaled a process or downscaled a problem accurately?
 Model and Prototype

• We designate the pilot plant as the “model”

• The commercial plant are designated as the
“prototype.
Example
• To derive the size independent NavierStokes equation, note that the model
and the prototype differ in size by the ratio
• xp/xm
• Thus, if the above two conditions Eqs. (1.30 and 1.31) hold true, we
have one equation describing incompressible, viscous flow in two
plants of different size.

Our prototype plant and our model plant will operate similarly, that
is, behave identically, so long as the above conditions are met.

• Each of the above conditions constitutes a dimensionless parameter.

• Each of them also has a name.

• We call first one, V2=gL, the Froude number. It is named after William
Froude, who did pioneering work in the movement of solid objects
through a liquid; in particular, the movement of ships through water.

• The second dimensionless parameter above, namely, ρLV=μ is the

Reynolds number, named after Osborne Reynolds, who did
pioneering work in fluid flow through conduits, such as pipes.
Similarity
TYPES OF SIMILARITIES
• As chemical engineers and bio-chemical
engineers, our major concern is the reactions
occurring in the process.
• We want our prototype to reflect what occurs in
our model.
• To ensure that outcome, our prototype must be
chemically similar to our model.
• Chemical similarity demands the ratio of
concentration differences at all corresponding
locations in the prototype and in the model be
equal.
• Therefore, our prototype and model must also be
geometrically, mechanically, and thermally similar.
 MODELS
• Upscaling and downscaling involve modeling. We build models to reduce the
time from ideation to commercialization and to reduce the cost of that effort.
The major cost savings of modeling come from not Building an inoperable, full-
scale commercial plant.
• There are four types of models. They are
 true models;
 adequate models;
 distorted models;
 dissimilar models.
• True models involve building all significant process features to scale. Thus the
model is an exact replica of the prototype, that is, of the commercial plant. We
build true models in some safety investigations to determine definitely the
cause of a specific, safety event.
• Automobile manufacturers use true models when gathering crash data about
the vehicles they plan to market. For complex processes, a complete model is
actually a full-scale prototype, that is, a true model.
• While true models may provide highly accurate information, they are capital
intensive, expensive to operate, and require extended time periods to build.
 2) ADEQUATE MODELS
• Adequate models predict one characteristic of the prototype
accurately.
• In general, adequate models involve testing the dominant,
controlling factor in the process.
• For example, porous solid catalyzed processes are generally
stagnant film diffusion rate limited or pore diffusion rate limited. If
a process is so limited, then we only have to ensure the same
controlling regime in our laboratory or pilot plant reactors. If we do
not ensure equivalent controlling regimes in the laboratory or pilot
plant reactors, then any process development or process support
will be wasted effort.
• If we do not consider whether the commercial process is stagnant
film diffusion rate limited, pore diffusion rate limited, or reaction
rate limited, then we will finish our effort with an expensive
scattergram of the experimental results.
 3. Distorted Models
• In distorted models we violate design
conditions intentionally for one reason or
another.
• Such distortion affects the prediction
equation.
• Hydrologic river basin models are the most
common distorted models.
• In these models the horizontal and vertical
lengths do not have the same scaling factors
 4. Dissimilar models
• Totally different and rough models
• Accuracy is very low
• Cheap
• Give rough estimates
 DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS
• BASIC UNIT: M,L,T
• DERIVED UNITS LIKE
• FORCES= MASS X ACCERLATION=
• MLT-2
TABLE: Fundamental dimensions and
units
TABLE: VARIOUS DERIVED UNITS
DEVELOPING DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS
• Since physical equations contain physical
magnitudes, they must by necessity contain
physical content. They contain physical content
because physical magnitudes arise from physical
quantities, which in turn arise from our
perceptions.
• Therefore, when we write a physical equation, we
are, in essence, writing an equation that balances
physical quantities α[Ψ] through the use of an
equality sign. Thus, we arrive at the first “axiom”
of Dimensional Analysis.
 DIMENSION AS A POWER LAW
• Consider a physical concept α that we want to quantify.
• 1ST step is to choose a set of fundamental dimensions [Ψ] that will
quantify α.
• For example, let us choose Length, Mass, and Time (LMT) as our
fundamental dimension set.
• We next select the system of units we will use to determine the physical
magnitude of α.
• Since there are many such systems of units, let us choose L1M1T1 as our
system of units. Thus
α [LMT] = Φ [L1;M1; T1]
• where α represents a physical concept and [Ψ] represents the
fundamental
dimensions quantifying α.
Φ(L1,M1,T1) represents the function determining the physical magnitude
in the chosen system of units. We could have chosen a different system
of units, which we identify as L2M2T2.
 • Exercise
• We aim to develop an organised way of
examining how drag on a sphere in a fluid
varies with parameters. First step is to identify
parameters
• They are dia of sphere, density of fluid,
viscosity, drag and settling velocity