The successful development of a laboratory scale integrated trial plant, a microplant, was demonstrated. The operation was evaluated using the etherification of 2-ethoxy-2-methylbutane as a demonstration case. The experimental results were validated against the literature data with good correlation thus proving that the microplant can be used efficiently for the scale-up of chemical industry processes. As the hold-up of the microplant was 50 cm(3) and the minimum residence time was 2 h, the effects of positive feedback could be observed very rapidly thus reducing research costs. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.