Adaptable unit configuration
Enables pilot testing to mimic your process and operating requirements
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Pilot Plant Service
Validate Your Process at Scale
Simulate real conditions and generate commercial-ready results you can trust.
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Maximize Conversion Efficiency
Control fouling, extend run lengths, and improve yields with dispersed catalyst power
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Turn your toughest refining and upgrading challenges into proven opportunities.
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Pilot Testing That Delivers Confidence
Our team ensures that the data you receive is not only scientifically sound but commercially actionable, built on ISO-certified processes and decades of hydroprocessing experience. At HTI, quality isn’t just a box we check—it’s the reason clients trust our results at commercial plant scale.
HTI’s pilot plant services deliver reliable, repeatable, and accurate results that reflect your specific process conditions. With flexible, retrofit-ready systems and decades of experience, we help clients mimic their commercial operations, test at scale, and move forward with confidence. From catalyst screening to co-processing development, everything we do is built around your needs—scalable, quality-focused, and proven over 80 years.
Feedstock flexibility
From traditional refining to bio-based and circular economy feedstocks
Scalability
Reactors available in multiple sizes to support process scale-up
The Testing Facility Behind Tomorrow’s Breakthroughs
Our pilot facilities are designed to replicate your exact process conditions, including pressure, temperature, feedstock characteristics, and other relevant parameters. With a deep focus on flexibility, scalability, and commercial relevance, HTI’s units can be configured to match your existing operations or future process goals.
Key Capabilities:
Fixed-bed
Hydrotreating and hydrocracking of conventional and unconventional feedstocks, from simple once-through designs to advanced two-stage recycle configurations.
Ebullated-bed systems
The only independent ebullated-bed pilot plant in the U.S., enabling critical testing where catalyst life, fouling, and flow behavior determine success.
Additional units
CSTR, batch, distillation, and mixing setups to support a wide range of process studies.
Scale flexibility
Reactor sizes ranging from a few cubic centimeters up to hundreds of liters, ensuring smooth process scale-up.
Tailored design
Pilots can be retrofitted to simulate existing units or configured for novel pathways, validating feedstocks, catalysts, and operating strategies.
Main Applications (not limited to)
- Traditional refining
- Hydrotreatment: Removal of heteroatoms to meet environmental regulations.
- Hydrocracking: Breaking down heavy feedstocks into lighter, more valuable products under high-severity conditions.
- Catalytic reforming: Dehydrogenation to improve gasoline quality.
- Biorefining: Processing and co-processing of bio-based feedstocks.
- Circular Economy: Processing and co-processing of waste-derived materials
- Other applications: Including reactivity studies, mixing charges, distillation processes, and more.
Main Feedstocks (not limited to)
- Conventional oils: Naphtha, diesel, VGO, residues, and more.
- Circular materials: Used motor oil, plastics, tires, sludge, etc.
- Renewables: Vegetable oils, used cooking oils, and related feedstocks.
- Bio-derived materials: Lipids, wood, and other biomass sources.
- Coal: Including coal liquids and derivatives.
- Gases: Wide range of gaseous feedstocks for process testing.
Main Applications (not limited to)
- Traditional refining
- Hydrotreatment: Removal of heteroatoms to meet environmental regulations.
- Hydrocracking: Breaking down heavy feedstocks into lighter, more valuable products under high-severity conditions.
- Catalytic reforming: Dehydrogenation to improve gasoline quality.
- Biorefining: Processing and co-processing of bio-based feedstocks.
- Circular Economy: Processing and co-processing of waste-derived materials
- Other applications: Including reactivity studies, mixing charges, distillation processes, and more.
Main Feedstocks (not limited to)
- Conventional oils: Naphtha, diesel, VGO, residues, and more.
- Circular materials: Used motor oil, plastics, tires, sludge, etc.
- Renewables: Vegetable oils, used cooking oils, and related feedstocks.
- Bio-derived materials: Lipids, wood, and other biomass sources.
- Coal: Including coal liquids and derivatives.
- Gases: Wide range of gaseous feedstocks for process testing.
Continued Support Through Every Step
Step 1: Define the Objectives
We align on what success looks like—feedstocks, operating goals, and target outputs. Our team also reviews any existing data to refine testing parameters and ensure continuity.
Step 2: Scope the Campaign
Our team outlines the timeline, conditions, and deliverables based on your needs.
Step 3: Configure the Unit
We adapt our pilot systems to replicate your process, with flexibility for unique configurations.
Step 4: Safety and QA Checks
Before testing begins, we verify all safety protocols, system calibrations, and QA procedures.
Step 5: Execute the Test
Our experts run the campaign, monitoring in real-time to ensure data quality and process integrity.
Step 6: Analyze and Report
You receive a clear, detailed report with validated results and commercial recommendations.
Step 7: Confirm Satisfaction
We follow up with a client survey to ensure expectations were met and capture feedback for continuous improvement.
Co-Process, Customize, Optimize
Refiners come to HTI when they need to evaluate new feed blends, confirm catalyst performance, or make data-backed decisions about renewable integration. Our pilot plant testing simulates commercial configurations so you can validate opportunities before full-scale implementation.
Questions we can help you answer:
- Can I blend renewable or alternative feedstocks with my current operations?
- How do different catalysts perform under my operating conditions?
- What yields and qualities can I expect from this feedstock?
Turn Ideas Into Actionable Data
Whether developing new upgrading pathways or looking to validate novel configurations, HTI helps you test with commercial precision. We work with startups, research groups, and government-funded teams to derisk development and accelerate timelines.
Questions we can help you answer:
- Can this feedstock be upgraded with available catalysts or processes?
- What operational ranges deliver the best outcomes?
- How do I prove performance for investors or licensing?
Benchmark Performance. Build Confidence.
HTI supports catalyst manufacturers looking to validate formulations under highly representative conditions. We help you compare catalyst activity, selectivity, and product profiles under customer-specific scenarios.
Questions we can help you answer:
- How does this catalyst perform versus current options?
- What operating windows maximize yield or minimize impurities?
- Can we prove compatibility with specific customer feedstocks?
Explore Novel Materials and Pathways
From plastics recycling to circular economy concepts, HTI helps researchers evaluate new materials and technologies. Our units accommodate wide-ranging feedstocks and conditions, delivering the process data needed to publish, scale, or license.
Questions we can help you answer:
- What happens when we treat this material under hydroprocessing conditions?
- Can we replicate this idea at a scale that informs commercialization?
- What product distribution or properties can we expect from novel inputs?
Co-Process, Customize, Optimize
Refiners come to HTI when they need to evaluate new feed blends, confirm catalyst performance, or make data-backed decisions about renewable integration. Our pilot plant testing simulates commercial configurations so you can validate opportunities before full-scale implementation.
Questions we can help you answer:
- Can I blend renewable or alternative feedstocks with my current operations?
- How do different catalysts perform under my operating conditions?
- What yields and qualities can I expect from this feedstock?
Turn Ideas Into Actionable Data
Whether developing new upgrading pathways or looking to validate novel configurations, HTI helps you test with commercial precision. We work with startups, research groups, and government-funded teams to derisk development and accelerate timelines.
Questions we can help you answer:
- Can this feedstock be upgraded with available catalysts or processes?
- What operational ranges deliver the best outcomes?
- How do I prove performance for investors or licensing?
Benchmark Performance. Build Confidence.
HTI supports catalyst manufacturers looking to validate formulations under highly representative conditions. We help you compare catalyst activity, selectivity, and product profiles under customer-specific scenarios.
Questions we can help you answer:
- How does this catalyst perform versus current options?
- What operating windows maximize yield or minimize impurities?
- Can we prove compatibility with specific customer feedstocks?
Explore Novel Materials and Pathways
From plastics recycling to circular economy concepts, HTI helps researchers evaluate new materials and technologies. Our units accommodate wide-ranging feedstocks and conditions, delivering the process data needed to publish, scale, or license.
Questions we can help you answer:
- What happens when we treat this material under hydroprocessing conditions?
- Can we replicate this idea at a scale that informs commercialization?
- What product distribution or properties can we expect from novel inputs?
Where Pilot Testing Meets Performance
HCAT® is the catalyst at the core of HTI’s pilot testing, enabling higher yields, longer run times, and scalable solutions for today’s refinery challenges.