The development of pilot plants is important in establishing new technology to close the gap between lab-scale and full-scale operations by minimizing technical uncertainties. Currently, limited research is available to evaluate different aspects of pilot plants for producing lignin-based materials before commercialization. This paper focuses on designing a safe and eco-friendly pilot plant for optimizing production of dried colloidal lignin particles (CLPs). The process starts with dissolving lignin in a ternary solvent mixture, introducing it into water to generate CLPs via self-assembly, recovering the solvents, and spray-drying CLPs. Based on reported lab-scale results, a detailed study was conducted to design the pilot plant, considering the technical, safety, and environmental factors according to standards and European Union legislation. The planned daily capacity of the pilot plant was 20 kg with 2.2 M€ fixed capital costs. This process design research can be applied in similar processes that involve lignin dissolution before scale-up.

中文翻译：

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LignoSphere 中试工厂设计的技术、环境和安全方面


中试工厂的开发对于建立新技术非常重要，可以通过最大限度地减少技术不确定性来缩小实验室规模和全面运营之间的差距。目前，可用于评估商业化前生产木质素基材料的中试工厂的不同方面的研究有限。本文重点介绍了如何设计一种安全环保的中试工厂，以优化干燥胶体木质素颗粒 （CLP） 的生产。该过程首先将木质素溶解在三元溶剂混合物中，将其引入水中，通过自组装生成 CLP，回收溶剂，然后喷雾干燥 CLP。根据报告的实验室规模结果，根据标准和欧盟法规考虑技术、安全和环境因素，进行了一项详细的研究来设计中试工厂。中试工厂的计划日产能为 20 公斤，固定资本成本为 2.2 百万欧元。这种工艺设计研究可以应用于涉及放大前木质素溶解的类似工艺。