CHAPTER 2

Stages of Process Plant Design

GENERAL

Process plant design and indeed almost all design) proceeds by stages which seem not

so much to be conventional as having evolved to fit a niche. The commercial nature

of the process means that minimum resources are expended to get a project to the

next approval point. This results in design being broken into stages leading to three

approval points, namely, feasibility, purchase, and construction.

This is why Pall and Beitz's systematized version of the engineering design process

resembles that which applies to all engineering disciplines (including chemical engi

neering's process plant design) as practiced by professional. It may very well also apply

to fashion design. Design is design. Is desig.

Note that in recommending Pahl and Beitz's approach I am not seeking to enter

the academic debate on how the design process ought to be done. Having read many

books on engineering design across many disciplines, I found Pahl and Beitas descrip

tion to be one of the closest to how design is done. That is the subject of this book.

The basically invariant demands of the process are the reason why everyone who

designs something profesionally does it basically the same way, even though chemical

engineers are often nowadays explicitly taught a radically different approach in univer

sity (if they are taught any approach at all).

CONCEPTUAL DESIGN

Conceptual design of process plants is sometimes carried out in an ultimate diena

company, more frequently in a contracting organization, and most commonly in an!

engineering consultancy.
In this first stage of design, we need to understand and ideally quantify the constraints!

under which we will be operating, the sufficiency and quality of design data available, and

produce a number of rough designs based on the most plausibly successful approaches.

I am told that, in the oil and gas industry, the conceptual stage starts from a pack

age of information known as Basic Engineering Design Data (BEDD), which is often

confused with (Process) Basis of Design. BEDD includes, typically, information to

start the concept design such as

. General plant description

Codes and standards