The short version
I have done it four times, in four unrelated chemistries. The chemistry changes every time. The step doesn't.
In the 1990s I took a food-contact PET glycolysis process from bench scale to pilot to 24/7 full-scale production, ran the US FDA trial work, and saw it commercialised through a joint venture. Then six years in ophthalmic lens coatings at SOLA, rebuilding the coating technology and the machines that ran it. Yield went from the low eighties to over 99%, and throughput rose by 400%. I also developed a novel UV-curable, tintable, AR-coatable coating for polycarbonate. Three decades after the first one I did it again with enzymatic plastic recycling: from laboratory data to pilot plants producing commercial-grade PET and Nylon-6,6 monomers. That is two distinct depolymerisation chemistries, not one — different enzyme, different process, scaled separately.
Between them I ran a hazardous waste business — solvent recycling, water treatment, a NATA-certified laboratory, oil processing at Moomba — and delivered capital projects inside live operating plant without losing production. You learn what a scale-up decision really costs when you are the one operating the result.
What I do
Technology scale-up and commercialisation
Bench to pilot to production, with each stage designed to answer the question that unlocks the next tranche of spend.
Capital project delivery
Projects inside live operating plant, without losing production.
Owner's Engineer
Holding designers and constructors to scope, cost, schedule and technical risk on behalf of the company paying for it.
Technical due diligence
An independent read on whether the technology does what the deck says, and what it costs to scale.
Operational and process engineering review
For plant that is not doing what the design said it would.
What I don't do
I won't do your detailed design. Someone else can size relief valves, do Aspen modelling or check line sizing. But if you need to get a process out of a lab and into a shed, and you need kg of product for the first time — look me up.
If you are moving a process out of the laboratory and into a plant, or you have a plant that is not doing what the design said it would, I am happy to talk it through.