Project Synopsis

Provide process design, vendor selection, operating procedures, and startup assistance for a new cooling tower at an FDA regulated edible oil manufacturing plant.

Project Summary

COOLING TOWER REPLACEMENT PROCESS DESIGN AND ENGINEERING

The client, an edible oil manufacturing facility, contracted Process Engineering Associates, LLC (PROCESS) to provide a lead process engineer for the design and installation of a new cooling tower for the facility.

Specifically, the project tasks PROCESS performed included:

  • Equipment Specification – Reviewing existing mass balance data (developed during a previous project) and prepared an equipment duty specification for the new 30 MM BTU/hr cooling tower.  The specification was submitted by the client to vendors to solicit bids.  PROCESS also provided on-going support during negotiations with the vendors and once a vendor was selected, acted as the process lead for continued coordination during detail design of the system.
  • P&ID Development – Generating new P&IDs for the cooling tower and coordinated revisions to the client’s existing P&IDs for tie-ins to the facility processes.  As part of this effort, PROCESS also prepared a detailed tie-in list for the piping designer and contractors.
  • Coordination of a phased installation approach – Developing a phased approach to installation of the cooling tower modules to minimize the facility’s downtime and to help ensure that there was adequate capacity at peak demand during startup of a new Deodorizer process.
  • Preparation of Instrument Specifications – Generating instrument duty specifications for the new instruments required that were not supplied by the cooling tower vendor.
  • Preparation of a Functional Specification and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) / Work Instructions (WIs).
  • Process engineering assistance during commissioning and startup of the new system.

The facility is FDA regulated and follows cGMP guidelines.  The new cooling tower was installed to replace an old/failing system and to provide additional capacity as needed for new processes.  The system was installed in three (3) phases to maximize plant on-stream time and provide sufficient capacity during peak demand on startup of one of the new processes (Deodorizer).

Industry Type

  • Food Products Manufacturing

Utilized Skills

  • Process design
  • Vendor selection support
  • Installation planning support
  • Process engineering startup support

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