Pilot Plant 4.0: A Review of Digitalization Efforts of the Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Department at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

The pilot plant at the Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Department at DTU (DTU Kemiteknik, abbrv. DTU KT) serves as a facility for research & education with access to various process equipment, commonly employed in up-and down-stream processes. Among the available equipment are fermenters, membranes, distillation columns, absorbers, desorbers, extractors, crystallizers, chromatography columns and all kind of high-temperature reactors and process equipment for particulates.

The equipment is supplemented by mobile demonstration units for use at industrial sites and a large-scale maritime test station. These units are perfectly suited in combination with laboratory facilities to perform scale up studies together with the capabilities of a modern digital infrastructure. Some of the units are only operated manually while other units can be operated through human machine interfaces (HMI).

In line with DTU’s strategic objectives, DTU KT focuses on the development and application of an Industry 4.0 framework for its research and educational activities. Therefore, the pilot plant and laboratory facilities are going through a digital transformation, creating a suitable infrastructure that provides remote accessibility to all research and operational data.

These efforts are presented in this work.