{"id":9123,"date":"2019-12-11T15:27:49","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T20:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/?p=9123"},"modified":"2026-03-26T06:35:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T10:35:00","slug":"from-lab-scale-to-plant-scale-using-simulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/from-lab-scale-to-plant-scale-using-simulation\/","title":{"rendered":"From Lab Scale to Plant Scale using Simulation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As anyone who has ever raised a child will know, parenting (in\nwhatever form) is a scale-up problem. Each child is the product of many complex\nand interacting variables. Some of the obvious ones include: likes and\ndislikes; temperament; learning preferences; and emotional, social and physical\nneeds. None of these are constant, and all of them change as the child grows.\nMost people deal with this challenge with the help of more experienced parents\nand caregivers, by reading books on parenting, or, most often of all, good old\ntrial and error. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If we called a child a system (please don\u2019t tell my wife I just\ndid that), what is fundamental is to understand the system behavior.\nUnfortunately, unlike an industrial scale-up problem, the system does not\nfollow any rules of physics, instead following the much less predictable rules\nof psychology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, one can always imagine how the scaled-up system (how would you want your child to behave as an adult?) would behave based on expected outcomes from the process. This behavior is inherently tied to the physics governing the system. It is however quite common to perform trial and error procedure to understand the behavior rather than trying to build relationships between the variables governing the system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/resources.sw.siemens.com\/en-US\/case-study-abec<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"Click above link to read a real story from ABEC about scale-up in the biopharmaceutical industry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Or download a summary below<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siemens-ABEC-Case-Study<\/a>Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

While it would be impossible to perform that for a human, it is\ndifficult but doable for a given industrial system. It can be done in various\nflavors such a 1D model considering only part of the physics and assuming rest\nto behave ideally (e.g. if a child learns to read and write, ideally he or she\nwill be able to communicate). Alternatively, it can be done at a more detailed\n3D level (e.g. a person needs to learn to read and write but also understand\nwhat is needed to interact with a variety of humans to communicate\neffectively).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The examples above can be equated to the\ndesign of an equipment where two streams are being added. It can be designed to\ncarry out a reaction based on a model for reaction in 1D. Underlying assumption\nis that the streams should mix themselves in ideal manner. You will now realize\nthat it is far from what is reality, just as it is to expect someone to\ncommunicate well just based on the fact that he has learned to read and write.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us take the simile to a further level of\ncomplexity. The skill or reading\/writing is a micro scale phenomenon. The skill\nof communication is a macro scale phenomenon. The degree of communication at\nmacro scale defines what the variables\/skills at micro scale are necessary.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can try to imagine a process of\ncrystallization in an industrial crystallizer where the formation of crystals\nis dependent on concentrations, shear and other variables at micro scale. On a\nmacro scale, the overall flow and heat transfer is affecting how the necessary\nvariables are governed at micro scale.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Almost all of the processes in chemical and allied industries consists of macro and micro level phenomenon and almost all of them need a scale up from a lab environment to a plant environment. Business dictates what the outcome from the plant should be. Research drives how the micro scales affect and govern a particular process. Simulation fills the gap of scaling up. There are numerous examples and ways where it has been utilized successfully, especially for difficult to understand processes \/ child. It perhaps has the role of a parent.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As anyone who has ever raised a child will know, parenting (in whatever form) is a scale-up problem. Each child…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2802,"featured_media":9124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[18251],"class_list":["post-9123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/12\/Sclaleup.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2802"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9123"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57779,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9123\/revisions\/57779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9123"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=9123"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=9123"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}