Technical, environmental, and safety aspects in LignoSphere pilot plant design

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.