Technical Specification

CHAPTER 3 OF YOUR TEXT

Technical Specification

It is a special document that deals with the technical requirements

of the project in details and provides the basis to measure the
completeness of the built plant and performance
The contractor uses the technical specification for preparing its technical
proposal
Technical Specification Includes
 Technical definition of the project
 Description of plant site
 Design philosophy and Guidelines for design
 Engineering specification
 Process requirements
 Start-up, commissioning and performance tests
 Auxiliaries, offsites and package units
 Basic and details engineering definition
 List of drawings, sketches' and reports for references
Technical Definition of the Project

 Production capacity with reference to a reference day condition

 Example 300t ammonia on a summer day having wet bulb temperature
30oC and dry bulb temperature 35oC
 Purity of product ( composition, product size distribution, product
form etc.)
 Intermediate and final product storages when required
 Product transfer systems
 Sources of utilities for the plant
Definition of Utilities
 Water supply and Water treatment
 Cooling water and distribution system
 Fire water system
 Steam and Power generation
 Compressed air and Inert gas system
 Refrigeration system
 Yard piping
 Waste disposal system etc.
Auxiliary and Offsite Facilities in a Grass-Roots
Project
 Facilities for support services
 Jetty
 Laboratories
 Maintenance shops
 Garage and vehicular parking
 Warehousing
 Communication
 Utilities for housing colony
Auxiliaries, Offsite and Package Units
 Water treatment plant
 Cooling tower
 Steam generator/boiler
 Electric power generator
 Compressed air unit
 Instrument air unit
 Inert gas generation plant
 Refrigeration plant
 Incinerators
 Flares and stack
 Effluent treatment plant
 Packaging or bagging plant
 Uninterrupted power supply etc.
Description of The Plant Site
 Source and supply of raw materials (Gas, Liquid or Solid?)
 Source and supply of raw water (e.g. River water)
 Product transportation (Roads, Railway, River Transport or facility for
Sea-going vessels)
 Design site condition (mostly for utilities)
 Wind velocity and directions (any history of cyclones?)
 Seismic conditions (any history of earthquake?)
 Site datum level (how much above sea level?)
Chhatak cement: Ropeway Raw Material
Transport

Lafarge Surma: Conveyor belt

Product Delivery : Jetty
Design Philosophy
 Factors of consideration in Bangladesh
 Proven process
 Reliability
 High on-stream time
 Ease of maintenance
 Any other factor you can think of for Bangladesh?
Economic Evaluation
 From several options trade offs between operational savings including
maintenance and incremental investment are considered
 incremental investment to be returned by operational savings in 2-4
years
 Items of operational savings include utilities, raw materials, fuels,
chemicals, resins etc.
Plant life
 Design life of a chemical plant is 20 years
 Plant is depreciated over 10-12years ( economic life)
 For unit and equipment a useful life of 10 years or 100,000 hour are
acceptable
Machinery and Equipment
 Installed spares
 Production and safety units
 Fouling factors
 Turndown ratio ( maximum and minimum operating range)
 Consumption of utilities (please note that for a “Grass Roots” plant 40-
50% of the initial investment is for utilities – power generation and
distribution, water supply, purification, cooling, etc.)
Maintenance and Turnaround -
Criteria for choosing machinery

 The interval of Turnaround of machineries - two years or more

 Classification according to maintainability
 A complete change out after a given cycle
 Replacements of components of parts after a given period of
operation
 Period after which a regular overhauling is needed
Safety
 Inherent safety
 Loss prevention studies
 Normal and emergency conditions are to be considered
Layout Considerations – Plot Plan considerations

 Plant and immediate surrounding

 Battery limit plants
 Open areas for construction and turnaround
 Auxiliary facilities
 Internal battery limits layouts
 Expansion for future
 Minimum capital investment and a safe, efficient and reliable plant
Other Factors
 Coordinates and Elevations of the plant site
 Plant arrangement criteria
 Piping, electrical lines, drain, vents arrangement for inspection, services
and maintenance
 Safety features and considerations

 Emissions and effluents : compliances

 Noise: OSHA compliance
Engineering Specifications
 Codes and standards for the project
 Units
 Language for documentation
 Testing procedure
 Design pressure, temperature and materials of construction
 Rating of equipment
 Special fabrication technique to be followed
Broad Groups for Engineering Specifications
 General: relevant to the whole project
 Furnace
 Boiler
 Pressure vessels
 Storage tanks
 Heat exchangers
 Rotating machines
 Reciprocating machines
 Piping
 Instrumentation and controls
Process Requirements
 Establish design basis
 Plant capacity per day with reference to a defined da
 Plant capacity per year

 Operating days per year

 Provennness of the process with respect to design practices and equipment

 Quality of all products ( intermediate and end products)

 Operating life of catalyst if used

 Capacity of individual process steps if different from the rated plant

capacity
Start-up and Performance Tests

 Manuals and Documents for start ups and performance tests

 Operating Manuals

 Objective is to establish that the project or unit is capable of meeting

the requirements as per technical specifications

 Whether the equipment are adequately sized for rated design

 All manuals and documents including operating manuals, start-up,

plant upsets, emergency shut down etc. must be included
Other Items in Technical specifications
 Beneficial occupancy: completion and acceptance of different auxiliary
and offsite facilities by the client
 Basic and detail engineering (IMPORTANT)
 List of references, drawings
 Process flow sheet and material balance
 Feasibility study
 Site survey report
 Seismological data
 Meteorological data
 Raw material analysis
Design Basis
CHAPTER 4 OF YOUR TEXT
Design Basis
Site conditions, utilities, raw materials etc. which influence the process
design and the design of individual unit, equipment or facility of the over
all project

Site conditions are established by analyzing and interpreting data and

information collected over ten years

A design engineer always looks for worst conditions and the design is
made to accommodate those conditions
Components of Design Basis
Geological data
Climatic conditions
Utility conditions
Structural design
Raw materials
Geological Data

 Site characteristics: influences plot plan, foundation

structural design, earth work needed, underground
work and facilities
 Soil type: load bearing capacity, corrosive tendency,
basis for surface drainage system etc.
 Seismic conditions: structural and foundation design

 Jetty design: current forces, water levels, tides etc.

Climatic Conditions
 Design conditions for equipment or facility
 For cooling tower and compressor fans, gas turbine, diesel generators,
process equipment: Maximum wet bulb and dry bulb temperatures, relative
humidity in summer, minimum dry bulb temperature in winter
 A base temperature for thermal expansion and insulation is to be
established
 Design conditions for building
 Ambient conditions for HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning)
load calculation
Case Study: Wind Direction and KAFCO Plant
Layout
Annual Wind Direction in Chittagong Airport
Risk Score considering Toxic Release and Explosion
Utility Conditions
 Steam: Pressure, temperature and use (to drive steam
turbine, process fluid or heating medium) Silica, TDS
and conductivity
 Water:
 Cooling water: Pressure, temperature, fouling factor. PH,
conductivity, suspended solid, TDS, alkalinity, hardness
silica, COD etc.
 Demineralized water: total hardness, Fe, Cu, SiO2,
conductivity
 Potable water: meet the WHO or national standards
 Treated water: turbidity, PH, color, residual chlorine
 Fire water and raw water
Electric Power
 Voltage, phase and cycle for power source or power generation,
motors, normal lighting, instrumentation and control
 Main power source as well as emergency source such as diesel
generator, GTG and UPS should be considered
Air, Inert gas and Fuel
 Instrument air: pressure, temperature, dew point
 Plant air: pressure, temperature
 Inert gas: pressure, quality, high and low pressure and temperature
 Fuel: Composition, calorific value, pressure and temperature
 Natural Gas
 Refinery gas
Chemicals
 Water treatment chemicals and processing aids
 Sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid, chlorine, hydrazine, tri-sodium or
disodium phosphate, ammonia
Structural Design
 Design live loading
 Design wind loading
 Requirements for grating for platforms and stairways
 Compressive strength
 Weight of insulation
Raw Materials/Emissions and Wastes
 All raw materials to be carefully specified
 Emissions and wastes should not exceed prescribed values of DoE
 Boiler blow down, metal cleaning, discharge from ETP, blow down from
cooling towers etc.
Conclusion
 Design basis should be verified before initiating basic engineering
 Process licensors MUST be provided with accurate design basis before
start of any design work
 Similarly the GC/EPC MUST be satisfied that it has received the
accurate design basis – otherwise any shortcomings during the
Performance Guarantee Test will be deemed to have been due to
wrong design basis provided by the client.