Focus Areas
Transforming innovations through scale-up and commercialization
As pressure mounts to deploy next-generation energy and industrial process solutions, companies and research teams face a critical challenge: how to scale promising technologies from the lab to real-world applications quickly, affordably, and with confidence.
Building a custom pilot facility is often prohibitively expensive. Permitting and safety requirements slow progress. Access to the right utilities, space, and expertise is limited. And without validated performance data, it is difficult to attract investors or meet the milestones required for public funding. For startups and seasoned R&D teams alike, the gap between prototype and practical deployment can stall even the most transformative ideas.
That’s where the RTI Pilot Xcelerator (RPX) comes in. Located in North Carolina, RPX is one of the only privately-owned energy pilot facilities in the United States built to accelerate scale-up for advanced energy and industrial process technologies.
Being technology-agnostic and enabling integration with already existing processes such as carbon capture, waste-to-fuels, and aviation fuel production, RPX helps startups, commercial partners, and government-funded teams to accelerate innovation—bridging the gap between prototype and practical application.
Facility Overview: Purpose-built for Piloting Energy Innovation
The Pilot Xcelerator provides scalable, real-world infrastructure for testing and validating new process innovations. In combination with our team of expert engineers, scientists, and project managers, we help clients advance their innovative technologies from laboratory to pilot scales.
Key Features:
- 13,000 sq ft of current space with a 15,000 sq ft expansion opening in 2026
- Configurable bays for process skids (indoor and covered outdoor)
- Dedicated control rooms and offline labs for safe, real-time process monitoring
- Adjacent solar field (future) to demonstrate behind-the-meter integration
Full Utility Access, On-Demand:
- 480 V, 3-phase power supply
- Bulk gas supply: compressed air, nitrogen, oxygen, CO2, hydrogen, natural gas
- Flue-gas supply (coal and natural gas burner)
- Chilled water
- Vent headers, thermal oxidizer, and gas flare for safety and emissions control
RTI Pilot Xcelerator built in 2013.
Core Process Units in the RTI Pilot Xcelerator
Dedicating More Space for Scale-up
Building on the success of the primary facility constructed in 2013, the RTI Pilot Xcelerator is expanding, and will feature 12,000 sq ft of additional process bay space and 3,000 sq ft of indoor, climate-controlled workspace, including offline lab and control rooms. The new facility will connect to existing utilities and gas supply and will be adjacent to a planned solar field, enabling demonstrations of behind-the-meter energy processes. Watch the video to learn more.
Contact Us to Learn More About RPX
Meet the Experts
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David Dausch
David Dausch
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David C. Dayton
David C. Dayton
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Marty Lail
Marty Lail
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Sameer Parvathikar
Sameer Parvathikar
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Vijay Gupta
Vijay Gupta
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Paul Mobley
Paul Mobley
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Jak Tanthana
Jak Tanthana
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Mustapha Soukri
Mustapha Soukri
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