If you need to invest a few million to equip yourself with a treatment system, it may be advantageous to carry out first a pilot testing. Our experience in this field shows that the cost of the pilot testing is more than offset by savings in the final design.

There are four good reasons to do a pilot test before proceeding to the final design:

• Confirm that the selected treatment line will meet the project goals;
• Establish design parameters;
• Avoid oversizing of the process equipment and works, so better define the project costs;
• Highlighting potential operational problems which otherwise would appear during the commissioning. If these problems lead to modifications and other costs, it is a lot better to know it sooner and integrate them into the overall solution, which will be more economical.

Since 1995, MCR has done over 50 pilot testing projects and is able to help you build your trial and in some cases rent the required equipment (tanks, aeration, pumps, clarifiers, etc.).

Make a pilot seems very simple. In reality, at the design step of the pilot we must know if what is planned for testing can actually be done at the full-scale level. Also, the pilot plant must be able to operate in conditions as close as possible as the reality.

To meet the needs of our customers we carry out the following activities:

• Preliminary treatability testing by respirometry to target pilot plant design parameters
• Pilot design and scale-up
• Protocols and monitoring program
• For some pilots, supplies of equipment
• Mobilization and demobilization
• Start-up of the pilot plant and operator training

The client can then do the operation, the monitoring of the pilot, the data analysis with its own operating team and professional firm.