Pigments Reactor Detail Design and Construction Support

Project Synopsis

Project Summary

The client, a world-wide producer of pigments and chemicals, is installing a new/upgraded pigment reactor system.  Process Engineering Associates, LLC (PROCESS) was involved with the concept design and prepared the detailed process design documents for the new reactor and the supporting systems as part of a previous project.  For this project, the client contracted PROCESS during detail design and construction to provide additional process design support, specifically in the design of the system physical layout (equipment and piping), specification and selection of the instrumentation, and development of the control system.  This included working with the client contracted control system programmers directly and participating in the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) for the control system.

PROCESS executed the following tasks:

Piping Design Support

• Reviewed instrumentation and nozzle placement, making changes as needed to eliminate potential piping and instrumentation installation issues.
• Reviewed piping and made changes to reduce dead spots to facilitate the automated cleaning of piping and reduce or eliminate contamination between batches.
• Rechecked pumping capacities with final piping design to identify any required capacity changes.

Instrumentation Review

• Identified alternative sample valves that were available with acceptable lead time.
• Reviewed automated pH and conductivity instrumentation, as well as controllers, and incorporated the required information into an updated RFQ for the automated controls package.
• Revised process control descriptions based on instrumentation placement and function.

Controls Integration

• Acted as the owner’s engineer to oversee and redirect the controls integration for the system, which had gone off track during preliminary detail design.  This involved identifying the separation needed between the control actions of the existing control system and the required actions of the new PLC control system.
• Set up meetings with the team members to facilitate the understanding of the process between the production team and the control integrators.
• Reviewed functional and process module programming documentation prior to the start of programming.
• Participated in the FAT of the control system programming. During this task, PROCESS identified multiple changes needed in both control strategy, recipe programming, and operational functionality to make the system effective in the field.

The reactor is being installed and the client has contracted PROCESS to support the commissioning and startup phases of the project.

Industry Type

Utilized Skills

• Detail engineering & construction phase process engineering support
• Controls system process engineering support
• Owner's process engineer.