LAYOUT ENGINEER

DESIGN PROJECT 2023

Refining of cracked Bio-naphtha
LAYOUT ENGINEER SPECIALIST ACTIVITY

Outline

Engineers carrying out specialist function activities are expected to co-ordinate an aspect of the
design, or an activity that is important to the delivery of a successful design, across the entire plant.
To do this, they will need to work closely with all of the Area engineers and to highlight very clearly
how the work they do augments, modifies or otherwise uses work prepared by the Area engineers.

The final week of the project starts with a mandatory design review meeting. Groups are expected to
organise and co-ordinate this in the most effective manner. One model that could be used is for the
process co-ordinator to facilitate the meeting, and ensure that it runs to time, but for each specialist
function to lead the part of the meeting that is relevant to them. Engineers are strongly advised to
ensure that they go into the design review meeting fully prepared; the exact amount, and nature, of
preparatory work will be different for each activity but it is generally acknowledged that there will be
work that can be done during the first four weeks of the project. Examples of preparatory work
include preparing drawing templates, building and testing calculation spreadsheets, researching
control schemes, collating data from colleagues as it becomes available etc.

Layout engineer scope of work

The scope of work for the layout engineer is divided into two sections. The first section relates to
defining the objectives for the design review meeting and the second section relates to the structure
and content of the specialist activity report (please refer to page 4 of the ‘detailed organisation’
document for word limits and report structure).

Objectives for design review meeting

Through discussions with each Area Design Engineer before the Design Review Meeting, prepare
the following items for discussion:
• a first draft of the plant layout (plan view and side elevation);
.

During the design review meeting, there should be a review of material prepared for the meeting, with
the following objectives:
• optimising the plant layout to arrive at a coherent and cost-effective plan for zoning, access
(roads, platforms), pipe racks, buildings and provision of utilities;

Any issues that cannot be immediately resolved in the meeting should be recorded for resolution in
the next design iteration (note: resolution of these issues is not part of the scope of this design
exercise).

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April 2023
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 LAYOUT ENGINEER

Reporting

The layout engineer should cover the points listed below in their report (the approximate mark
distribution within the report is indicated in square brackets).

1. Layout drawings for the entire plant.

• Plan view at A3 size
• Side elevation(s) at A3 size
[40%]

2 A summary of the issues considered (listed below) and the design decisions that resulted. A
properly integrated plant layout scheme should be more than simply a number of individual area
layouts positioned side-by-side. For example, opportunities may exist for sharing structural steel
and access platforms between areas. The chosen layout should take into consideration safety,
operability and economic (capital/operating cost) factors:
• Access (roads, rail, platforms)
• Safety
• Pipe racks, electrical cabling
• Operating cost / complexity
• Bulk material storage
• Drainage / containment
• Venting and flare stack
• Buildings
• On-site utility generation (if any)
• Space for future expansion
[40%]

3 A summary of the outcomes from the design review meeting, with a list of design issues that have
been identified for resolution in the next design iteration.
[20%]

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