In pulp production different types of centrifugal pumps, depending on the consistency of the media, are required. At the beginning of the process, the medium consists of chips, which are mixed with an alkaline solution and conveyed to the digester. This emulsion is extremely abrasive and corrosive. Additionally there is an enormous risk of cavitation, due to the low pre-pressure and the related NPSH-value (Net positive suction head). To transport this type of media under such conditions, special requirements for the used material as well as for the design of the hydraulical components, have to be considered. In this thesis the development of a prototype of a pump for this application is addressed. At the beginning the basics of pulp production are introduced to figure out the operational conditions and their impact on the development. A second theoretical chapter is used to take a closer look at hydraulic turbomachines and especially to define the most important process parameters and differences in design. Afterwards a competitor analysis has been pursued and the development- and testing concept of the prototype was established. This concept figured out, that first of all, trials on model-scale are more efficient and technically more meaningful than on a prototype size. After a material selection and the design of the model, tests were carried out. In this case, the focus was particularly on cavitation and the resulting characteristic curves. The measurement results were evaluated and scaled to the prototype size by using the laws of similarity. Finally, optimization possibilities were identified, to develop the future prototype for a later test in a realistic test environment with the chip-emulsion.