(33c) The Role of a Maxi Lab On the Scale-up of New Processes

The role of a Maxi Lab on the scale-up of new processes

The SABIC Innovative Plastic’s High Performance Polymer Business constantly strives to engineer and commercialize new products for the marketplace, which often require that new processes are developed or existing ones are modified. 

Initial laboratory trials leave questions opened to be addressed during pilot plant trials. However, availability, cost and feasibility may challenge the answers that can be realistically obtained from the pilot plant. A Maxi Lab provides an intermediate scale between the lab and the pilot plant where solutions can be found in a quick, visual and cost effective manner.

The utilization of the Maxi Lab allows for the early identification of critical steps in the operating procedures and preliminary scale-up parameters. Furthermore, due to the relatively small size of equipment, it allows for higher flexibility in changes of units of operation and multiple configurations of a piece of equipment. Such characteristics will contribute to reduce the number of runs required in the pilot plant and increase their effectiveness.

The Maxi Lab scale allows for production of a few kilograms of material, which grants collaboration with costumers via sample testing. These early samples are a key factor to understand the costumer CTQ’s and unveil possible hidden CTQ’s that may hinder the process at later stages.