Test Center:
Pilot plant or semi-industrial facilities
The Test Center station in GEA PROCESS ENGINEERING FRANCE includes a laboratory with 16 existing pilot plants and 3 pilots under development. New and existing processes are developed using dual resources, laboratory equipment and semi-industrial plants.
A wide range of utilities are present on site: steam boiler delivering, at maximum capacity, 100 kg/h of steam at 10 bar, 2 vacuum systems (down to 50 mmHg and down to 10 mmHg), hot water circuit of 30kW, compressed air at 7 bar, chilled water circuit (down to 5°C) and a cold storage room (6°C) of 20 m2. 11 pilot plants are actually present on site and 5 pilot plants are actually located offshore for tests.
Among the nine pilot plants, four transportable pilot plants are available to carry out tests on customer’s site. Two travelling cranes and one lifting vehicle are present on site to lift any heavy piece of equipment.
The pilot hall and the areas around each pilot plant are constantly ventilated by a powerful ventilation system (18 000 m3/h). If the solution is explosive or presents a high risk for our staf then the test can be carried out in the explosion proof area hall present in our Test Center station. The drains are collected in a special storage tank, which is regularly emptied by a waste water collecting company.
We have a long experience with many kinds of concentration, crystallisation, distillation, filtration and stripping.
Many continuous run of 5 days (24h/24h) have been already carried out with success, which demonstrates the high qualification of our team. The amount of product to be treated can range from few kilograms to several tons.
Product Database
Pilot Results - Year 1926
Since the creation of our Test Center Station, we have carried out more than 1 000 tests on products or families of products of which 150 are now produced in our units around the world. Each year more than 30 new products are successfully tested in our facilities.