The company is operating a petrochemical production facility that produces a product that is used as raw material for one of its sister concern. The product is an import substitute and its availability is crucial for continuous sustained running of the sister concern, a leading manufacturer and supplier of synthetic polymer resin. The plant has already completed phase 1 of the capacity expansion during which the throughput of the plant was increased by 20%. Due increased demand for its product the company decided to expand the capacity further by another 30% by debottlenecking. The major unit operations included high temperature olefin chlorination reaction, distillation, absorption, recycle gas compression, drying and liquefaction, byproduct (liquid waste) incineration. Since the plant capacity has been increased by 20%, many of the process equipment are running at the maximum capacity within the system limit. The feasibility study conducted by the internal technical team indicated several constraints and replacement /significant changes to the design of the process equipment and addition of some balancing equipment. Detailed study was commissioned to develop the basic engineering package and estimate cost for the proposed expansion project. The project task included:
   The Detailed review of the all the existing process equipment
   Computer simulation using vendor’s proprietary software to evaluate the distillation and absorption columns to meet the enhanced throughput
   Evaluation of package units to meet the enhanced throughput
   Preparation of revised mass balance and utility balance
   Hydraulic study of the piping system
   Review and updating of the existing P&ID
   Review of the instrument list
   Review of the safety relief system
   Evaluation alternative schemes to increase the compressor capacity
   Review of the utility system to meet the proposed expanded production capacity
   Instrument data sheet preparation
   Process equipment data sheet preparation based on the expanded system process rates from the mass balance.
   Process design level capital cost estimation
The data sheets were issued to the vendor for estimation of cost for the purchased equipment. From the vendor quotes cost estimate for the capacity enhancement project was made.
During the subsequent detailed engineering phase and project implementation the process engineering team provided phase all the necessary support. The plant with enhanced capacity was commissioned smoothly and all the design criteria in terms of quantity and quality

   Process Engineering
   Basic Engineering Design
   Equipment specification
   Computer simulation
   Cost estimation