Plant costs process definition

PSD No-Net-Increase Provisions Under the PSD program, the affected source is the entire plant. This source definition allows a company to determine the most cost-effective means to control pollution any time a plant is modified. Emission increases associated with a new process or production line may be compensated for by emission increases at other parts of the plant. As long as the entire site net emissions increase is maintained below the levels identified in Table 22-5, a PSD review is not required. 

A scope or budget authorization, the next level of economic evaluation, requires a more defined process definition, detailed process flow sheets, and prefinal equipment design (discussed in a later section). The information required is usually obtained fiom pilot plant, marketing, and other studies. The scope authorization estimate could cost upwards of 80,000 for a 5 million facility with a probable error exceeding 20%. 

Service Facilities For a process plant, utihty services such as steam, water, electric power, fuel, compressed air, shop facilities, and a cafeteria require capital ejq)enditures. The cost of these facihties lumped together may be 10 to 20 percent of the fixed capital investment for a preliminary estimate. Note Buildings, yards, and service facihties must oe well defined to obtain a definitive or detailed estimate.)... 

Even before the optimum plant size was determined, a contractor had been selected and process design work was in progress. The contractor was selected on the basis of competitive cost plus fixed-fee bids. The contract was later converted to a turn-key type, based on the competitive-bid fixed-fee percentage and a definitive cost estimate for completion of the job. This saved about 2 months in over-all job completion time. Through duplication of equipment purchases and construction drawings, it was possible to reduce over-all completion time for three subsequent plants by as much as 8 months from the 17 months required for the first module (Fig. 2). About 29 months were required from Geld discovery to startup of the last Exxon treating facility. 

The discharge from both domestic and industrial wastewater treatment plants (for example, from activated sludge processes) has been a low-cost source of makeup for cooling systems for many years. Efforts to reuse water continue to gain momentum for environmental conservancy and economic reasons, but the fact that secondary use waters are, by definition, of a lower grade than other supply sources inevitably means an increased risk of deposition or fouling problems in the cooling system. 

Both in the paper by Ramshaw and in the report from the UMIST conference, first definitions (or rather descriptions) of process intensification can be found. Ramshaw (11) describes PI as devising an exceedingly compact plant which reduces both the main plant item and the installation s costs, while according to Heggs (12) PI is concerned with order-of-magnitude reductions in process plant and equipment. In one of his subsequent papers, Ramshaw writes about typical equipment volume reduction by two or three orders of magnitude (13). 

The term contingencies covers many loopholes in cost estimation of process plants. The major loopholes include cost data inaccuracies, when applied to specific cases, and lack of complete definition of facilities required. 

As soon as the final process-design stage is completed, it, becomes possible to make accurate cost estimations because detailed equipmept specifications and definite plant-facility information are available. Direct price quotations based"... 

Scaling up of chemical and pharmaceutical industry apparatus is a major task for chemical engineers, representing as it does the fundamental step in the realization of industrial plants. The objective of process development is the definition of chemical and physical processes in sufficient detail to build a plant that will operate with predictable output and product quality at a predictable cost that is as small as possible (88). This means that the apparatus... 

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