Pilot Plants

When considering such a high-level facility several key points must be considered:

•   The processes the graduates will be expected to understand and operate
•   The competency level the new graduates will be expected to demonstrate
•   The typical career path for the graduates (e.g. entry level, up-grading of existing operator skills)

Practical considerations which may impact on the type of hands on experience are noted below:

•   Some processes can be scaled without difficulty and thus can be operated very realistically. Typically these are physical processes without chemical reactions.
•   Some processes are difficult to scale and operate realistically for student purposes. Even if small scale processes are available, the start-up and shut-down times, and process complexity are beyond the most normal training schedules. Safety must also be a concern when operated by inexperienced students. Examples of this include
•   Centrifugal compressors which are not available in small sizes and
•   Chemical reactions, typical of the petroleum industry, which usually require high pressures and temperatures. While certain aspects can be scaled, generally heat losses are significantly out of proportion resulting in the need to house such units in high-temperature ovens.
•   Units which are difficult to scale and are more amenable to “mimic” real process conditions for example would be the use of fluids under safe conditions which appear to operate but which do not really react
•   Computer based simulations can also provide a very realistic control-room experience for selected parts of a process. This is an especially powerful training tool if there are both real and simulated stages present.