3 replies to this topic

[sineadi]

What is scaling factor? What is the importance of it? I recently seen a definition which is not understandable which is mols of product per hour specified/mols of product produced per 100 kmol of the principal raw material. Could anyone help me out?

[joerd]

A scaling factor, in general, is just a multiplier that is used across the board to scale up for example flow rates to a different capacity. So if you have a heat and material balance for the production of say 10 kmol/h product A, and you want to generate a material balance for 15 kmol/h product A, you would multiply all "extensive" properties, such as flow rate, volumetric flowrate, enthalpy, for all streams by 15/10 = 1.5
The scaling factor is then 1.5 in this example.

[Adriaan]

A scaling factor, in general, is just a multiplier that is used across the board to scale up for

Erm ... scaling up is not just about using a multiplier; scaling up from a laboratory setup to a working installation entails QUITE a lot more than that.

For one thing pipes come in standard sizes / diameters (so a scale factor alone doesn't suffice). With reactors scaling up is VERY tricky, you want to avoid 'dead zones' (especially in biological processes). Etcetera etcetera.

[joerd]

I agree, I was just referring to material balance data. Sorry for being incomplete.