• Continue the Pilot Plants benchmarking initiative (Bob Duggal et al).
• Create a Pilot Plants Web Forum/Message Board (DE) - Hosted on www.eng-tips.com
• Define more clearly roles of Chair, Chair-Elect and Activities Chair (DE)
• Collaboration with Univ. of Wisconsin on continuing education course on pilot plants and scale-up (JP)
• Contact Groups 11 and 16 for Co-Sponsoring sessions in Spring and Fall 2005 (DE)
• Contact AIChE regarding meeting room allocation (DE)

• Introductions
• Mission Statement Review
• Area Leadership and upcoming elections
• Programming Review (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006)
• Current Action Items
• New Business
• Benchmarking Study

The Pilot Plant Area is a forum for active interchange of ideas and for the continual improvement of Pilot Plant contributions to quality research and effective scale-up.

AIChE programming, benchmarking, operation reviews, and extensive networking form the backbone of the Area activities.

Past Chair: Bob Duggal, Ethyl Corporation
Chair: David Edwards, Zeton Inc.
Chair-Elect: Joe Powell, Shell USA
Activities Chair: Michael VonDeak, Pfizer Inc.

• Chair - David Edwards
• Co-chair - Ramesh Rameswaran
• Proceedings co-chair - Stephanie Sullivan
• 5 sessions
  • The Role of Pilot Plants in Process Development (George Liebermann, Bill Dale)
  • Pilot Plants: The Uniqueness of Small Scale (Cawas Cooper, Erik Dienemann )
  • Traditional and Novel Pilot Plant Reactors (Kamlesh Bhatia, Concetta LaMarca)
  • Key Factors in Successful Pilot Plant Design and Operation (John Corn, Helen Lou)
  • Pharmaceutical Pilot Plants (Michael VonDeak, Ka Ng)
• Short Course : Safety Reviews, Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessments for Pilot Plant and Laboratory Equipment (Richard Palluzi) - Cancelled

One session: Mixing in Pilot Plants
Chair : Aaron Sarafinas
Co-Chair : Richard Grenville
Co-Sponsored by NAMF (Group 6)

• Bioreactor Pilot Plants(Prof. S.T. Yang, Dan Schell)
• Elegant Experimental Methodology in Pilot Plants(Marc Privitera, Brian Johnson )
• Membrane Process Design and Scale-up Considerations(Glenn Lipscomb (Group 2), Robert A. Cross )
• R&D Management Topical 3: Six Sigma Usage in the CPI(Frank van Lier (Group 5), Bob Duggal)
• Pilot Plant Benchmarking Study Results(Bob Duggal, David Edwards)

One session: Fuel Cell and Gas to Liquid Fuels Pilot Plants
Chair : Ramesh Rameswaran
Co-Chair : TBA (Group 16)
Co-Sponsored by F&PD (Group 16)

• Pilot Plant Economics (Chair : Mitch Loescher, Co-Chair : Group 12)
• Safety in Design and Operation - Pilot Plants and Unit Operation Labs (Chair : John Corn, Co-Chair : Group 11)

One session: Pilot Plant Success Stories
Chair : David Edwards (Group 12)
Co-Chair : TBA (Group 12)

• Pilot Plants Mini-Topical
  • Process Scale-up and Scale-down in Pilot Plants
  • Unit Operations in Pilot Plants
  • Pilot Plant Instrumentation and Control Systems
  • Pilot Plants in the Food and Allied Industries
• Poster Session : Pictures of Pilot Plants

• Analytical techniques/devices for pilot plants
• Pharmaceutical pilot plants - regulations and environmental challenges
• Process safety management in pilot plants
• Bio-informatics/Bio-technology
  • Generic drugs and related topics
  • Bio-processing
  • Bio-tech Pilot Plants
• Polymer Processing in Pilot Plants
• Syngas Pilot Plants
• Contract Pilot Plants (contracting either as a supplier of pilot plant services or a client)
• Constructability issues for Pilot Plants
• Careers in Pilot Plants
• Microbiological and Cleanliness Challenges in Pilot Plants
• Miniaturization of Pilot Plants
• Cost-Driven Pilot Plants (Funding)
• Process Control and Data Acquisition in Pilot Plants
• Marketing of Pilot Plants (internal see next topic or External for purposes of contracting services)
• Time-to-Market
• Successful Pilot Plant Design
• Pilot Plant Productivity (Metrics used to define equipment/personnel/reliability)
• Pilot Plants as Part of the Corporate Structure/Organization
• Optimum Sizing of Pilot Plants
• Internal or Contract Pilot Plants ?
• Pilot Plant Tools and Techniques
• Pilot Plant Equipment Selection
• Use of Computer Simulation to Support Pilot Plant Design and Operation

• Business objectives for pilot plants
• Staffing and operation of pilot plants
• Pilot Plant Automation
• EH&S issues in Pilot Plants

• Bob Duggal, Ethyl Corp.
• Joe Powell, Shell USA
• Dan Pintar, UOP
• Richard Palluzi, ExxonMobil
• Paul McKenzie, BMS
• Kathrine Threefoot, Dupont