COURSE OVERVIEW

This practical and highly-interactive course
includes various practical sessions and
exercises. Theory learnt will be applied using our
state-of-the-art simulators.
Process plants are normally designed to nameplate
capacities stipulated at the commencement of
design. However, this can be misleading. Usually,
plants have an inbuilt design margin that is not
'visible' to the owner, leading to false operating
constraints that cost you lost revenue. On the other
hand, bottlenecks are often introduced due to poor
design or as a result of incomplete commissioning
and poor control. These tend to result in your facility
having reduced throughputs coupled with poor
uptime. Not too long ago, it was generally conceded
that a new plant could produce at least 10% more
than its nameplate capacity. In some instances,
owners would oversize certain pieces of critical
equipment to assure this and possibly more. Today,
however, we see plants being expanded too much
higher capacities due to a combination of new
technology and improved ways to operate and
control them.
Modernization and optimization are the key prerequisites for long-term successful
plant operation. Process plants are subject to permanent adjustment pressure for
optimization in the areas of new or changing feed materials, products and product
specifications as well as environmental regulations and demands on energy savings.
Major optimization targets are, in addition to cost cutting, plant quality and capacity
improvements. Retrofitting a plant is often seen as an attractive investment option
compared to a new plant. Implementing new technology ‘creeps’ the plant
capabilities at minimum cost. Plant debottlenecking for incremental capacity or
product quality changes costs less than a new plant. However, revamping plant is
more complex than building new one. Existing equipment needs to be analyzed,
performance predicted, and integrated with new equipment and process changes.
Process sequence changes also require evaluation for finding the most cost effective
and reliable revamp. Existing equipment poses both challenges and opportunities in
a revamp. Challenges due to limitations, both hidden and obvious, must be met.
Opportunities come from using underutilized capabilities of the existing equipment.
Correctly identifying both limits and opportunities provides the lowest investment
revamp. Processes include more than just equipment. Processes include specific
linkages between equipment to achieve the operating plant objectives. Revamps
must examine both the capabilities of the equipment and the opportunities available
from changing the process sequence (or operating conditions). Correctly integrating
equipment and process evaluation requires good field test data, an accurate analysis
of the data, and putting together a proper team for a given revamp. No revamp is
the same as any other. Every plant is different. All equipment and every process
have different limits and different opportunities.
Debottlenecking is a common term for increasing overall production capacity by
identifying the limiting unit operation(s) in the process and removing this limitation.
Like the weakest link in a chain, maximum production capacity of any process is
limited by the lowest capacity step(s) in the process, thereby producing a
"bottleneck" or narrowing of total process throughput. Identifying and eliminating
"bottlenecks" is a cost-effective way to obtain a sometimes-significant increase in
plant overall capacity and profitability. Debottlenecking can maximize an existing
plant's profitability. However, debottlenecking considerations should be taken into
account during the design stage of a new facility to allow for future debottlenecking.
Also, sometimes a fresh view of an operating facility can lead to debottlenecking
ideas. Both revamp work and troubleshooting can be part of a plant debottlenecking
effort. They share many tactics, but differ in their intent. The goal of a revamp is to
improve some basic parameters such as capacity or processing efficiency. In
contrast, troubleshooting merely aims to solve a problem that hampers current
operation. Often, the problem exposes an opportunity for much greater gain in
performance. Both revamp and troubleshooting require open-minded thinking and
proficiency with engineering tools. Both often rely on test runs to diagnose problems
and uncover design errors or inaccuracies in equipment ratings. However, for a
major improvement in the fundamental performance of a unit, the engineer must go
beyond this first level of investigation and intentionally look for the greater gain.
This course is designed to provide a good overview of the process plant optimization,
rehabilitation, revamping and debottlenecking. It covers process plant overview,
optimization & profitability, basic and advanced optimization tools, optimizing the design,
capacity creep & plant debottlenecking, cost-effective debottlenecking strategy and
action plan, optimizing process operations, process controls, optimizing reliability,
management & enterprise information systems, risk management & optimization,
optimizing offsites operations, utilities management, rehabilitation philosophy and
mechanism, revamping strategy and options, R&D role in new product development and
production capacity enhancement, safety & environmental considerations, and project
management issues. The course includes many case studies that will be discussed
within the 5 days. However, participants are encouraged to bring their own problems
and case studies to the course. These problems should be of a non-confidential nature
that can be discussed without violation of any confidentiality restrictions.