The AVN Blog

Last week, June 4-6,  the AIChE Process Development Symposium was held at the West Virginia Regional Technology Park, sponsored by AVN Corporation.  The PDS is a national symposium put on by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) with the help of its Process Development Division.  The symposium… Read More

A company developed a process for a new bio-based product that required hydrogenation followed by distillation. To demonstrate scalability, AVN commissioned a 6-inch internal-diameter, 22-foot-tall fixed-bed hydrogenation reactor along with three large packed distillation columns. Over multiple campaigns, operating with continuous, around-the-clock shifts, the team produced multiple totes of… Read More

AVN successfully screened a raw material from a new supplier for use in production of a flame-retardant product.  AVN replicated the existing process with the existing raw materials utilizing a heated reactor, distillation equipment, and product washing procedures.  AVN then repeated the process with the material from the new… Read More

 A 300 mL Parr reactor was operated at 2500 psi (172 bar) and 300°C to satisfy a customer’s scoping needs. AVN assembled a pressure feed system using a Haskell compressor and surge cylinder. This process was used to help the customer narrow future optimization efforts over a ten-batch designed… Read More

During scale-up efforts at AVN, a customer encountered problems with heavies accumulating within their renewable process. AVN used a pilot-scale wiped-film evaporator (WFE), deep vacuum skid, and heating oil unit to operate at 0.1 Torr and 300 °C. The equipment was tested independently of the full process, then integrated… Read More