pilot plant

noun

1. an experimental industrial plant in which processes or techniques planned for use in full-scale operation are tested in advance.

pilot plant

noun

1. a small-scale industrial plant in which problems can be identified and solved before the full-scale plant is built

Word History and Origins

Origin of pilot plant¹

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

Jackson estimates that pilot plants would have to begin operating within the next decade to reduce warming by 2050.

From MIT Technology Review

It’s also important to remember that even the more established projects are only pilot plants that are still a long way from producing useful amounts of power.

From Singularity Hub 

As pilot plants take the technology out of the lab, Eat Just became the first company to sell cell-grown chicken in a restaurant in Singapore.

From Washington Post

While we’re probably not going to be powering cities with blue energy anytime soon, these working pilot plants show that scientists are trying.

From Popular-Science

Plans are already afoot to build a pilot plant that will convert CO2 into jet fuel at Rotterdam Airport in the Netherlands, but as Friends of the Earth campaigner Jorien de Lege told the BBC, scaling up the technology will be a herculean task.

From Singularity Hub 

It remains possible that the hidden pilot plant is being used for producing highly enriched uranium, he added.

From The Daily Beast

During that summer it was used in a pilot plant to separate the first significant amounts of U235 ever obtained.

From Project Gutenberg

So we're getting a pilot plant: eggs, incubator, and a knocked-down broiler battery so we can try the idea out.

From Project Gutenberg

There's nobody else around here to take it through the pilot plant.

From Project Gutenberg