The development of an industrial process or product involves different steps: (i) identify the necessity of a new product or process; (ii) research in glassware scale to find a way that leads to the desired product or process; (iii) build up and optimize a laboratory pilot plant; (iv) scale up one or more times the pilot plant; (v) build up an industrial plant and start up a commercial production. From the beginning of 2002 to the end of 2011, the Laboratory of Materials and Fuels (Institute of Chemistry, University of Brasília) has focused in the development of an alternative process to produce biodiesel. The aim of this account paper is to describe all this development in order to show the long way to achieve a laboratory pilot plant scale.
biodiesel; process development; pilot plant
