“The EPC wants basic data we do not have yet.”
The requirements specification has gaps, and the interfaces to the Balance of Plant are open.
- Gaps in the specification
- Change orders from the plant builder
- First plant delayed
- Investor milestone missed
Validate technology · Scale production
Good technologies rarely fail in the lab. They fail at the step into the plant.
Your pilot is running. Your investor asks about the first industrial plant, or the new hall has to produce. What is missing is the engineer who sees process, plant and manufacturing at the same time. I am Tobias Breitbach, and I close exactly that gap.
Dr.-Ing. Tobias BreitbachEngineer for the road from pilot to industrial plant
Smaller first packages often start the next day
The problem
Do you recognise one of these sentences from your last meeting?
The expensive mistakes do not happen in research. They happen at the transitions, where decisions suddenly cost a lot of money and are hard to reverse.
“Demand is there, but our stack is still handmade.”
The design is not ready for series, and assembly and testing do not scale with it.
- Manual assembly
- Scrap during ramp-up
- Late deliveries against the order book
“The new hall is nearly built. But who plans how we produce in it?”
The building grid is fixed before the process layout is. The production planner does it “on the side”.
- Layout follows the building line, not the process
- Detours and interim storage
- Lead time rises
- Delivery reliability falls
+33 %cost and +30 % time on large projects with weak front-end planning.Source: IPA/Merrow 2012, industrial megaprojects > USD 1 bn
73 %of variant manufacturers miss their delivery-reliability target, by 21 percentage points on average.Source: Fraunhofer IPA, n = 500
≈ 99,470open engineering positions in Germany. Senior capacity is missing exactly when time is short.Source: VDI/IW Ingenieurmonitor Q3/2025
The real problem
Technology is rarely what is missing. What is missing is someone who owns the transitions.
Between lab, plant and production lie interfaces that nobody feels responsible for. That is exactly where the expensive mistakes happen.
01 · Your team
Fully occupied with the core technology.
Cell chemistry, software, customers: there is no time left for the specification, balance of plant and production. These tasks get done "on the side".
02 · The plant builder
Builds what the specification says, not what you mean.
Every gap in the basic data later becomes a change order. If you do not staff your side of the table, you pay twice.
03 · The interfaces
Process, plant and production are planned separately.
Everyone optimises their own part. Whether the whole works only shows at commissioning, when changes are most expensive.
3–5 %of the investment is what thorough front-end planning costs, a fraction of what change orders and delays cost later.Source: IPA/Merrow 2012, rule of thumb for large projects
The answer is not a large consulting team. It is one experienced engineer on your side who checks the critical 10 %: the interfaces between process, plant and production.
Where the risk arises
Good technologies often fail at scale-up.
Much works up to the lab. The decisive risks arise at the transitions to the prototype and test rig, to the pilot plant and into series production.
IdeaTest assumptions on product properties and production cost early.
LabSecure the main function before the prototype is built and expensive steps follow.
Prototype / test rigMake sure the prototype works and the relevant risks measurably fall.Critical transition
Pilot plantBring edge cases and possible disturbances to light in trial operation.Critical transition
Series productionSecure quality and target cost at high volumes as well.Critical transition
I start where technical decisions become expensive and hard to reverse.
Calculator
What does one month of delay cost you?
With your own figures, in 20 seconds. Nothing is stored or sent.
How we work together
What happens when you get in touch? Five steps, no surprises.
At every step you know what you do, what you get and how long it takes.
- Today · 10 sec.
Get in touch
You choose how active to be: information by email, a call back or a short call.
- You do
- Enter your email address or phone number.
- You get
- A personal reply from me: no sales pitch, no newsletter.
- Duration
- 10 seconds. Reply usually the same working day.
- 15 minutes
Getting to know each other
You describe your situation, your goal and your time pressure. I ask the questions your bottleneck raises.
- You do
- Tell me where it gets stuck. No documents needed yet.
- You get
- An honest first assessment, including a no if I am not the right person.
- Duration
- 15 minutes, non-binding, by phone or video.
- 1–2 hrs · NDA
First meeting & diagnosis
Confidentiality first: we sign an NDA. Then we look at data, plans and, where needed, the plant or hall together.
- You do
- Provide data, drawings or access.
- You get
- A clear answer: where the bottleneck is, what it costs and which levers exist, in priority order.
- Duration
- A few days to a few weeks, depending on scope.
- Fixed price
Joint approach
We agree the goal, scope, milestones and contact persons. We start with a clearly defined package at a fixed price agreed in advance.
- You do
- Decide, on a reliable basis.
- You get
- A project plan that your team, your plant builder and your investors can build on.
- Duration
- Smaller first packages often start the next day.
- 6 · 9 months · long term
Working together on the project
Depending on the project, I support you for six months, nine months or long term: remotely over the project term, on site when it counts.
- You do
- Work with me as the engineer on your side.
- You get
- Regular alignment, documented decisions and support through to commissioning or start of series production.
- Duration
- 6 months, 9 months or long term.
Example
How it works: a typical case.
A scale-up is about to award the contract to the plant builder. Time is short, and the team is busy with cell chemistry. Instead of a large mandate, we start with a design review at a fixed price agreed in advance.
Design review before EPC awardExample, anonymised
- Day 1
Call-back requested. A 15-minute call the same day.
- Day 2
First meeting: NDA signed, documents received.
- Weeks 1–2
Diagnosis: basic data, interfaces and balance of plant reviewed, site visit.
- Week 3
Joint approach: prioritised points before the award, fixed-price package starts.
- 6–9 months
Support through to the award and through the planning of the first plant.
Your path
Where are you right now?
Technology & scale-ups
We are scaling a new technology.
From pilot to first industrial plant, from stack to series, from test rig to due diligence.
To the scale-up topics Industry & productionWe plan, build or improve production.
New halls, material flow, automation without a catalogue machine, and senior capacity for planning offices.
To the production topicsFour focus areas
Four focus areas – always with the whole picture in view.
Technical depth, production know-how and clear decisions from one source.
01Understand and validate concepts
Check feasibility, challenge assumptions and make technical risks visible early.
Due diligence & feasibility (DE)
02Build and test prototypes & pilot plants
Develop test strategies, define test set-ups and prove them under real conditions.
Test bench & pilot plant (DE)
03Plan and support industrialisation
Support design for manufacturing, production systems, ramp-up and transfer into series.
Road to series production (DE)
04Technical advice in every phase
Due diligence, site development, project control and structured delivery as an adviser.
Approach & first packages
Dr.-Ing. · Mechanical engineering
About me
Development needs competent grounding.
I keep questioning until it is clear what does not work, or it is out.
- Mechanical engineering degree, doctorate in production engineering
- Industrialisation and production systems, from test rig to plant
- Experience from industry, research and start-ups
- International projects, including commissioning in the USA
- Years of hands-on trade experience: I know what the shop floor looks like
REAC Energy is my engineering office. You work directly with me, and with my team where a project needs more hands. I typically run three projects in parallel: few on purpose, so each gets my full attention.
What I do not do
Explosion-protection assessments (ATEX) belong to specialist experts. I bring them in instead of pretending it is mine. And I do not replace an EPC or a large detail-engineering team.
What I do: review the critical interfaces between process, plant and manufacturing so that your EPC and your experts can work cleanly.
References
Electrolysis, hydrogen, factory planning, agritech.
From a design review before EPC award at a climate-tech scale-up with its own electrolysis process to multi-year support of a plant expansion for a German technology group in the USA. Anonymised until the client agrees to be named.
Do you actually have capacity?
My projects are planned so that short-notice assignments remain possible.
What does a first package cost?
Every first package is clearly defined and has a fixed price agreed in advance. You know the cost before you start. There is no open-ended hours budget.
What happens to our data and our IP?
We sign an NDA before any data is exchanged. Your intellectual property stays with you – we set this out in the NDA and the contract.
Why not just hire a freelancer through a platform?
With me you do not get a profile to vet. You get a defined package with a clearly defined deliverable and a fixed price agreed in advance. Clearly separated work packages also make the contract cleaner.
Do you also work abroad?
Yes. For example on a plant expansion in the USA: remotely over the whole term, and on site for the decisive commissioning steps and acceptance tests at the manufacturer.
Language
Detailed topic pages are in German.
REAC Energy is a Germany-focused consultancy, so the detailed topic pages are written in German. The pages marked (DE) open in German. For anything else, write to me in English.
Let us get started
Are you developing, scaling or protecting an investment?
For a smaller, clearly defined first package I can often start the next day: read in, think through, prepare the site visit. From the start you talk to the engineer who also does the work.