Scaling Chemical Processes

Chapter 1

Introduction

Abstract

This chapter discusses the concepts of models and prototypes and presents the criteria for scaling a chemical process from a model to a prototype or from a commercial plant to a pilot plant or a laboratory. The former activity constitutes “upscaling” and the latter activity constitutes “downscaling.”

Keywords

Scaling; model; prototype; dimensionless parameter; similarity

Introduction

Scaling, up and down, is the raison de etre for chemical engineering. Scaling chemical processes provided the primary impetus for the development of chemical engineering, which became a separate professional discipline during the first two decades of the 20th century. Prior to those decades, chemists scaled their laboratory experiments into ...