Typical process plant project

COMMERCIAL OPERATION Figure 1.1 Typical process plant project. 

The largest component of the constant C is the return on investment of the fixed capital. In order to make comparisons easier, a standardised methodology is adopted which is detailed in the Appendix. Typically process plants are assumed to take a similar (3 year) construction period to operate at full output over the project lifetime with zero residual value. The capital payback is then over this operating life. 

Table 8.3 summarizes the actual or estimated prices to build a variety of chemical and refinery process plants. The stated costs do not include associated tankage, utilities, effluent treatment, service roads, general-purpose buildings, spare parts, or all the other components required to complete a major project. These additional offsite facilities are typically considered to add 50% onto the cost of a project. [1, 2]... 

In a typical chemical process plant, the duration of the construction phase is approximately 80% of the total project duration from the start of engineering (after completion of Phase 1) to the mechanical completion of the construction work. The remaining 20% is the lead time required for engineering and procurement activities before construction can start in a cost-effective manner. It must be noted, for initial planning purposes, that the lead time allowed should not be less than three months. Historically, the engineering hours spent during this period are normally between 30 and 40% of the project total. 

Figure 18.2 shows the current and projected electricity generation capacity by fuel type. Table 18.1 lists typical power plant parameters for facilities using different fuel types. Current power generation is dominated by thermal processes that use the action of heat generated by either renewable or nonrenewable fuels on a working fluid to drive a turbine. This includes fossil fuel combustion, nuclear fission, biomass combustion, geothermal extraction, or solar-thermal collection. 

Optimization can be applied in numerous ways to chemical processes and plants. Typical projects in which optimization has been used include... 

Most expertise/resources for all phases of process analytical methodology development are typically available in the different functional areas of a manufacturing plant that has some laboratory capacity. But these need to be effectively organized. Thus, there is not necessarily the need for additional personnel in manufacturing to implement process analytics. However, the coordination of this existing expertise in the different areas, and the approval of the area management to redirect some resources to process analytics and not merely consider this an add-on project are critical for long-term success. Alternatively, most expertise... 

The 100 BPD MTG project was extended recently to demonstrate a related fluid bed process for selective conversion of methanol to light olefins (MTO). The products of the MTO reaction make an excellent feed to the commercially available Mobil Olefins to Gasoline and Distillate process (MOGD) which selectively converts olefins to premium transportation fuels ( 1). A schematic of the combined processes is shown in Figure 1. Total liquid fuels production is typically greater than 90 wt% of hydrocarbon in the feed. Distillate/gasoline product ratios from the plant can be adjusted over a wide range to meet seasonal demands. 

---