Custom-engineered pilot plants for treatability trials, technology comparison and process-design data capture — in skid-mounted, containerised, trailer-mounted and open-frame modular form factors. Engineered specifically for the constraints of remote and access-limited sites: no road, no grid, no operator on rota. Each pilot is a single bespoke build matched to the treatability question, not a generic off-the-shelf box.
Most flexible — smallest single transport unit, fits helicopter / 4×4 / light truck.
Weatherproof, secure, lockable. ISO container envelope for global logistics chain.
Fastest deployment — tow with a Land Rover, plug in, sample within an hour.
Highest reconfigurability, lightest weight, visible process for teaching and observation.
A 1:10 to 1:100 Scale Treatment Train on the Actual Feed
A wastewater pilot plant is a working scale model of a proposed full-scale treatment plant, operated continuously on the real effluent (not a synthetic feed) for a campaign typically lasting 2–12 weeks. It delivers the data needed to size and procure the permanent plant with confidence: actual coagulant doses, real biological kinetics, true membrane fouling rates, measured sludge yields. Bespoke means it is engineered around your specific treatability question, not adapted from a generic product. Most of the value comes from this fit-for-purpose engineering.
Bespoke vs. off-the-shelf. A generic pilot plant gives you generic answers. A bespoke pilot answers the specific design question you have: "will MBBR beat SBR on this feed?", "what coagulant dose minimises sludge yield?", "does the proposed UF flux survive 12 weeks on this water?". The engineering investment in a bespoke build is small compared to the cost of the design error it prevents on the full-scale plant.
The Constraints That Bespoke Engineering Has to Solve
A pilot trial at an established industrial site is a known engineering exercise: park the trailer, plug into the available power, sample the effluent line, hand the data to the design team. A pilot trial at a remote site has none of these conveniences. The pilot has to bring its own infrastructure with it, run unattended for most of the campaign, and survive on its own when the courier visit cycle is monthly rather than daily.
Helicopter, ice-road or sea barge to the site. The worst-case leg of the transport chain sets the largest single piece in the build.
No grid, so the pilot brings its own diesel generator or solar/battery hybrid. Power draw has to be sized for the trial duty, not estimated as a percentage of full-scale.
Satellite or store-and-forward telemetry to push data home. Without comms, the trial has to wait until someone physically visits the site to download the logger.
Visiting only for sample collection and calibration. Automation has to handle start-up, normal running, shutdown and fault recovery between visits.
Chain-of-custody from site to lab can involve courier, ferry and customs. Sample preservation chemistry and refrigerated storage are built in.
Pilot in the high Arctic at −40 °C is not the same plant as the same trial at +45 °C in a desert. Hardening, insulation, heat tracing or HVAC are part of the bespoke spec.
On-board spares kit sized for the full campaign. A single failed peristaltic head can lose a week of data if the spare is two flights away.
The pilot produces real effluent. Where the host site can’t absorb it, the pilot has to manage its own discharge (tankering, evaporation, re-introduction upstream of the full-scale plant).
Pick the Shape That Matches the Site, Then We Engineer the Process Around It
The most flexible form factor. Steel frame, ISO lifting eyes, sized to the worst-case leg of the transport chain — helicopter sling load, 4×4 trailer, light-truck flatbed. Modular skids bolted together on site. The first choice when access is hard.
Explore skid-mounted pilots10′, 20′ or 40′ ISO container houses the complete pilot. Weatherproof, lockable, dust-sealed. Best when global container logistics is available and the trial is long enough to justify the larger footprint.
Explore containerised pilotsRoad-legal trailer ready to tow with a 3.5 t-rated vehicle. Connect water, power and data and the pilot is running within an hour. Ideal for multi-site campaigns where the same pilot moves between locations.
Explore trailer-mounted pilotsLightweight aluminium-extrusion or steel space-frame holding individual treatment modules. Maximum visibility for teaching and observation. Lightest unit per equipment volume.
Explore open-frame modular pilotsWhat goes wrong on a remote pilot — transport, climate, comms, spares, operator gap — and the engineering responses that prevent it. Cross-cuts every form factor.
Read challenges & solutionsWhere the question is "what is in the water?" rather than "how should it be treated?", a water-assessment station is the right answer instead.
Explore assessment stationsMost Asked-For Pilot Trains
Pilot-scale dissolved-air flotation rig with saturator, recycle loop and skimmer. Validates hydraulic loading, air:solids ratio and chemical demand on the real feed.
Inclined-plate clarifier with adjustable plate angle for surface-loading and overflow-rate validation.
Moving-bed or sequencing-batch reactor with controllable carrier fill and DO setpoint. Establishes SRT, oxygen-transfer and BOD-removal kinetics.
Multi-media, GAC and cartridge columns logging head-loss curve and breakthrough time on the actual feed.
UF for solids removal and RO for desalination duties. Logs flux decline, transmembrane pressure rise and CIP frequency on real water.
Acid / caustic / lime dosing pilot with reaction-time and overshoot characterisation.
UASB or EGSB pilot for high-strength wastewater with biogas measurement and methane potential.
Bench centrifuge, belt-press or filter-press pilots for sludge characterisation before full-scale procurement.
Parallel trains run on the same feed to compare competing technologies head-to-head — the strongest evidence available for a technology-selection decision.
What "Bespoke" Actually Means
Typical pilot scale is 1:10 to 1:100 of the proposed full-scale plant flow. Choice driven by which physics needs to be preserved: residence-time studies favour large scale; membrane fouling can be characterised at small scale.
For hydrodynamics, we preserve the relevant dimensionless group — Reynolds number for turbulent regimes, Froude number for free-surface flow, Camp number for flocculation kinetics. Stated explicitly in the design report.
Quick-connect process, electrical and instrument links between modules so the pilot can be reconfigured mid-campaign without rebuilding.
PLC + edge-compute node logging every instrument at 1-minute resolution; daily upload to a project SCADA via satellite or cellular. Open-format exports (CSV, NetCDF) for the design team’s tools.
Automated grab and composite samplers with refrigerated bottle racks. Chain-of-custody logging tied to the SCADA timestamp.
Where the host site cannot absorb the pilot’s effluent, dedicated tankering, evaporation or re-introduction-upstream arrangements built into the campaign plan.
Successful scale-up from pilot to full-scale requires preservation of the governing dimensionless numbers. We explicitly state which similitude principle applies to each pilot:
A pilot trial is only as good as its sampling. We design sampling plans to achieve statistically significant conclusions:
Campaign duration is calculated from the coefficient of variation (CV) of the key performance indicator. For a target precision of ±10% at 95% confidence with CV = 0.25, minimum n = 24 samples, dictating a 7–14 day steady-state period after process stabilisation.
Every reported pilot result includes an uncertainty budget conforming to JCGM 100:2008 (GUM). For a derived quantity such as chemical dose (mg/L) = mass chemical (mg) / flow (L), the combined standard uncertainty is: uc(D) = D · √((u(m)/m)² + (u(Q)/Q)²). Typical relative uncertainties: flow measurement ±2% (calibrated electromagnetic flowmeter), mass measurement ±1% (calibrated balance), analytical result ±5% (COD, MCERTS lab). Combined expanded uncertainty (k=2, 95% confidence) for chemical dose is therefore approximately ±11%. When extrapolating to full-scale, we add a scale-up uncertainty component of ±15–20% for physical processes and ±25–30% for biological processes, yielding total design safety factors of 1.2–1.5 on loading rates.
All laboratory data is reviewed against control chart limits, blank contamination checks, and duplicate precision criteria (RPD <10% for duplicates). Method blanks must be <10% of the reporting limit. Spike recoveries must fall within 80–120%. Data flagged by QA/QC rules is rejected or qualified, never used for design without root-cause resolution.
Standard safety factors applied to pilot-derived design parameters: hydraulic loading ±20%; surface loading ±25%; chemical dose ±15%; biological loading (F:M ratio) ±30%; membrane flux ±20%; aeration rate ±25%. These factors account for similitude imperfections, diurnal variability, and seasonal temperature effects not captured in a short campaign.
Six-Stage Delivery, Typically 12–24 Weeks End-to-End
Define what the pilot has to answer. Fix the technology train, the scale and the campaign duration.
Form factor, process train, instrumentation, telemetry, firm quotation. Lead time stated explicitly.
Shop fabrication, equipment integration, factory acceptance test on synthetic or representative water.
Single-piece transport on the worst-case leg. Lift in, connect water, power and comms. Hot commissioning.
2–12 weeks of continuous operation. Periodic operator visits for sample collection and calibration only. Data streamed to project team.
Treatment-train recommendation, validated kinetic constants, Capital/Operating parameter envelope. FEED-ready data pack for the permanent plant.
What a Pilot Plant Actually Needs to Meet
A pilot plant does not need pressure-vessel certification, drinking-water product approvals or other certifications that apply to specific full-scale product categories. Below are the codes and standards that actually apply — we are happy to share the documentation.
Where the assembled pilot qualifies as machinery under EU/UK law, CE / UKCA marking with a Declaration of Conformity. We provide it.
Electrical equipment compliance. Internal panel built to BS EN 60204-1 (safety of machinery: electrical equipment).
Electromagnetic compatibility for the assembled equipment and the SCADA controls.
Hazardous-area certification — only where the duty requires it (oil & gas pilot trials, flammable feeds). Otherwise the pilot is not ATEX rated.
Reynolds & Bauhm operates a quality-management system aligned to ISO 9001. The pilot build inherits its traceability and documentation regime.
If the pilot discharges to a watercourse it requires a site-specific permit from the local regulator (EA in England, SEPA in Scotland, etc.) — this is the operator’s responsibility, but we help with the application data pack.
What we do not claim. Pilot plants do not need (and we do not assert) pressure-vessel certification (PED / ASME VIII / AS 1210) for atmospheric process tanks, AS/NZS 4020 drinking-water approval (unless the pilot is on drinking water), WRAS approval, or any "pilot-plant certification" — no such generic certification exists. If a specific component within the pilot needs a real certification (e.g. a pressure receiver vessel), we provide it for that component alone.
Industries & Site Types
Acid-mine-drainage treatability, tailings-water polishing, camp wastewater. Pilot ahead of permanent-plant procurement.
Produced-water treatability, drilling-mud water polishing, ATEX-rated pilot trials at well pads and gathering stations.
RAS biofilter pilots, denitrification reactor characterisation, water-reuse trials at hatcheries and grow-out facilities.
High-strength dairy / meat / brewery effluent pilots ahead of new factory commissioning or factory expansion.
Plant-uplift trials — new chemistries, new biological process choices — on a slip-stream from the existing works.
Seasonal HAB-response pilots, alternative coagulant trials, ultrafiltration-vs-DAF pretreatment comparisons.
Form-factor deep-dive: advantages, transport, on-site assembly, real challenges.
Read MoreISO container envelopes for global logistics chains.
Read MoreRoad-legal towable units for fastest multi-site deployment.
Read MoreLightweight aluminium / steel space-frame holding swappable treatment modules.
Read MoreThe ten challenges that defeat remote pilot trials and the engineering responses to each.
Read MoreThe broader pilot-testing service hub.
Read MoreSister product family — source-water characterisation stations.
Read MoreThe full remote-deployment family for permanent plants.
Read MoreTell us the question, the feed, the site and the campaign window — we will scope a bespoke pilot, cost it and estimate a schedule within two weeks.
Our expertise spans multiple industries with sector-specific water treatment solutions.