Development of Basis of Design for

projects in fertilizer industry

Document Development Guidance

Department: Engineering / Projects
Revision 1 – August 2018

Doc. No: AKH01-GUI-ENG-PHY-002

 Development of Basis of Design for projects in fertilizer industry

Contents

1. Synopsis .............................................................................................................................................. 2
2. Why develop specific guidelines and procedures ......................................................................... 3
3. Purpose of this document ................................................................................................................. 3
4. Understanding Basis of Design ........................................................................................................ 3
5. Basis of Design content..................................................................................................................... 3
6. Responsibility ...................................................................................................................................... 6
7. Develop your own organization procedures ................................................................................... 6
8. Definitions ............................................................................................................................................ 7
9. References .......................................................................................................................................... 7

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 Development of Basis of Design for projects in fertilizer industry

1. SYNOPSIS
AmmoniaKnowHow.com and UreaKnowHow.com support fertilizer manufacturers by providing essential
services to the industry, using our syngas technologies and scientific knowledge developed in multiple
projects worldwide.

Together we initiate a program to enhance the guidelines and procedures for operation, engineering,
maintenance and process safety in the fertilizer industry utilizing the best practices and standards available
today.

Using knowledge gained from our industry, historic risk registers, lessons learned from projects and from
FIORDA members we are committed to give proper advice to improve safety, reliability and projects
performance of fertilizer plants.

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 Development of Basis of Design for projects in fertilizer industry

2. WHY DEVELOP SPECIFIC GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES

Guidelines and Procedures are developed to help staff and management teams run the organization. In the
best use situations, procedures play a strategic role in an organization. They are developed in light of the
mission and objectives of the company and they become the media by which management’s plans, rules,
intents, and business and operation processes become documented and communicated to all staff.

Carefully drafted and standardized guidelines and procedures save the company countless hours of
management time. Guidelines, procedures and employee handbook should be an important part of the
operation. They should be the first thing given to a new employee (either in hard copy or an electronic
version). They should also be easily accessible in their most up-to-date version. Hence it is extremely
important that an organization’s procedures are a “living document” prepared and saved in Microsoft Word
and easily exported into portable versions (like PDF) and made available over the company network.

3. PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT

The Basis of Design (BOD) document provides designers and engineers with an effective tool they can use
to clearly present—to the owner, commissioning team, contractors, suppliers, and any other third parties—
the decision, assumptions, and specifications that are being used to develop the construction documents
for a project. The BOD transforms the raw data from the owner’s project requirements document (the “what”)
into a detailed, technical, actionable plan (the “how”) that will meet the owner’s objectives—which will also
help avoid the “scope creep” that can derail the project schedule and lead to budget overruns.

4. UNDERSTANDING BASIS OF DESIGN

One of the definitions of the BOD is “a document that records the major thought processes and
assumptions behind design decisions made to meet the owner’s project requirements (OPR).”

The design team uses the BOD document to show how their assumptions and specifications will enable
the completed project to satisfy the requirements listed in the OPR document.

The BOD document needs to be created early on before creating the actual design development
documents. That’s because the BOD must explain the decision processes behind the design, essentially
“translating” the owner’s vision into practical design criteria—and improving the communication process
between all parties during the design phase.

A key deliverable for each project is the Basis of Design which establishes the key requirements for a
facility’s design and is the prime document that identifies specific aspects that relate to safety.

5. BASIS OF DESIGN CONTENT

The Basis of Design generally includes the following data:

Applicable industry codes and standards

• Process parameters for the required range of normal and extraordinary (fault, commissioning,
shutdown etc.) operating conditions
• Control and shutdown system philosophy (level of automation)
• Site conditions and seasonal variations
• Level of system availability

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 Development of Basis of Design for projects in fertilizer industry

• Isolation for maintenance philosophy

• Provision of alternative power supplies
• Provision for future growth (if applicable)
• European Union regulations and CE marking for equipment.

Task

Preparation of a Basis of Design (BOD).

Purpose

The BOD is used to specify the criteria to be used by the engineering team to complete the design. In
some instances, a Contract BOD is prepared by the Client engineering team to present the required design
basis to prospective Contractors. For examples of Contract BODs, refer to the listed go-bys.

Principles

• Discrete presentation of key requirements for the design process.

• Codes, Standards, Specifications and Regulatory Requirements form the backbone of the design
process and are hence integral to the BOD.
• The BOD should avoid being a description of the scope of work. Similarly, it should not be a
document where detailed equipment purchasing requirements are specified.

The BOD summarises the customer’s requirements that the facility must satisfy. It is critical that the
customer reviews and formally approves the BOD.

• On large projects the Project Engineering Manager will coordinate BOD development. On smaller
projects, the Project Manager (or designate) will coordinate.
• The draft BOD must be produced by or communicated to the lead discipline engineers as early as
possible in the project and must always be approved by the customer before detailed design
commences.

Key Elements

The key elements of the BOD are described below:

Introduction

The Introduction should provide a basic outline of the contents of the BOD and details of the site location.

General Information

This section should include any general information such as abbreviations, units, language and definitions
to be used on the project.

Codes, Standards, Specifications and Regulatory Requirements

The reference Codes, Standards, Specifications and Regulatory Requirements to be used on the project
should be presented here (by Reference to Appendices where necessary). It is important that this
documentation is readily accessible to the engineering team.

Environmental and Geotechnical Data

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 Development of Basis of Design for projects in fertilizer industry

Environmental and geotechnical data that is critical to the design shall be presented in this section. Data
includes seismic, wind, soil conditions (contaminates, resistivity, hydrostatic pressure etc), wave, current,
tide etc. This data is normally obtained from the customer or by site investigation but can also be sourced
from past projects or from government bodies (eg Bureau of Meteorology).

Facility Functional Requirements

This section presents the target functional requirements for the facility including design life, design rates,
turndown, product specifications, availability, operability and maintainability.

Process Fluid / Material

In the event of process fluid(s) or material throughputs, the details of the fluid(s) and/or materials shall be
presented. This information is critical to the process design for the facility. Process fluid(s) and or
materials details are normally provided by the customer.

Note: AmmoniaKnowHow.com document as part of FIORDA database multiple incidents that could pe
prevented if accurate process fluid(s) composition is provided to the design team and fi the designer is
diligent and perform all his modelling analysis and material selection impact based on accurate stream
composition.

Design Requirements

Specific customer-specified design requirements for each discipline shall be presented in a number of sub
sections. Project requirements (i.e. requirements relating to sustainability and social and environmental
performance) shall be embedded into the relevant discipline subsections. Typical subsections include:

• Health, Safety and Environment

• Loss Prevention Design
• Process Design
• Layout Design
• Mechanical Design
• Piping Design
• Electrical Design
• Instrumentation and Control Design
• Civil and Structural Design
• Telecommunications Design
• Transportation Requirements

Discipline-specific Design Criteria should be documented in separate Design Criteria document(s)

referenced from the BOD.

Task Deliverables

Basis of Design

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 Development of Basis of Design for projects in fertilizer industry

Other Considerations

Cost, schedule and quality control: carrying out the design in compliance with the approved BOD is
important in order to control costs and schedule in compliance with the approved budget.

Any deviations to the BOD shall be discussed with the Project Engineering Manager or the Project
Manager, depending on project size/ value, and should be the subject of the Management of Change
process.

For revamp projects it is strongly recommended that a comprehensive site survey shall be done by the EPC
contractor and further recommendation shall be raised with the purpose to increase safety and operability
of the plant.

Safety studies and risk analysis shall be performed as design evolve to capture all potential risks identified
by the project team.

The process safety related documentation that a major project might be expected to generate would
include:

• Terms of reference for the design

• Basis of design data
• HAZID (Hazard identification), HAZOP (Hazard and Operability) studies
• Detailed process design data
• PFDs, P&IDs
• Project safety and environmental philosophy
• Process design philosophy, process control philosophy
• Relief and blowdown study
• Cause & effect diagrams, emergency shutdown philosophy
• Layers of protection analysis/SIL determination

There could be additional documentation such as:

• Materials selection
• Operation and maintenance philosophy
• Outline operating instructions
• Other safety studies

Additionally, there will be significant documentation generated in the mechanical, electrical and civil design.
Eventually the project would be expected to generate a commissioning philosophy and plan with detailed
instructions.

6. RESPONSIBILITY

Basis of Design is a document owned by the Engineering department within the organization. They are
responsible to develop the procedure for Projects and Facilities to support the delivery of projects.

7. DEVELOP YOUR OWN ORG ANIZATION PROCEDURES

Although templates can give you a head start on procedures development, other factors must be considered
as you write your own internal documents.

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 Development of Basis of Design for projects in fertilizer industry

One factor is your organization’s culture. Organizational attitudes toward procedures determine the
spectrum. On one end of the scale are companies that have a procedure for everything. On the other end
of the spectrum are companies that only have only a few guidelines (only those required by the laws that
are relevant to that company). Most companies fall somewhere in between these two extremes. The
manager writing any guideline needs to understand where on the spectrum the company it falls and how
the policy can be made to fit the organization’s culture to enhance compliance.

Other two factors to be consider when developing guidelines and procedures are the fertilizer technology
that company employs and local and international standards applicable to the industry. Internal standards
and procedures must be developed in line with these factors, being applicable for your own plants and in
line with regulatory requirements.

The last, but not least, factor when developing your own procedures is the best industry practice that you
need to employ. Liaison with your fertilizer association, participation in industry meetings and conferences
and using fertilizer industry consultants can bring a fresh eye, new ideas and enhance the quality of your
own guidelines and procedures.

8. DEFINITIONS

BOD Basis of Design

EPCM Engineering, Procurement, Construction & Management

FIORDA Fertilizer Industry Operational Risks Database

HAZID Hazard Identification

HAZOP Hazard and Operability

PFD Process Flow Diagram

9. REFERENCES
1. AmmoniaKnowHow.com, Safety in Design Standards series
2. John Martin, Chris Flower. ABB Consulting A Method for Project Safety Design Verification Across A
Global Organisation, IChemE HAZARD 23 Symposium Series No. 158
3. Vince Briones, and Dave McFarlane, Technical vs. Process Commissioning, Basis of Design, ASHRAE
Journal October 2013.

Disclaimer

The information contained in this document is given in good faith and while every care has been taken in preparing these documents, UreaKnowHow.com
and AmmoniaKnowHow.com make no representations and give no warranties of whatever nature in respect of these documents, including but not limited
to the accuracy or completeness of any information, facts and/or opinions contained therein. Both companies, its subsidiaries, the directors, employees
and agents cannot be held liable for the use of and reliance of the opinions, estimates, forecasts and findings in these documents.

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Fertilizer Industrial Services Ltd
Venture House, Arlington Square
Downshire Way, Bracknell, RG12 1WA, UK
P: + 44 (0) 7494 783 534
Web: www.fertilizer.services
E-mail: dan.cojocaru@fertilizer.services