Project Synopsis
Provide process design and engineering assistance to an engineering firm’s process group by designing certain portions of a cellulosic ethanol plant.
Project Summary
CELLULOSIC ETHANOL PLANT PROCESS DESIGN ASSISTANCE
Process Engineering Associates, LLC (PROCESS) was subcontracted by the client, a major detail design firm, to provide process design and engineering assistance at the client’s corporate engineering office. Specifically, PROCESS was requested to execute a process design for compressor suction drums and intercoolers for a previously purchased compressor train for a cellulosic ethanol plant gasifier product stream. Using data from an existing process simulation mass and energy balance, PROCESS sized the equipment using standard process industry practices and calculations for designing equipment for vapor-liquid separation.
Furthermore, during the course of the project work, PROCESS discovered mass and energy balance discrepancies between two separate simulations of different sections of the plant. PROCESS, using the client’s licensed commercial process simulation software (ProMax) for simulating the Selexol system that was installed upstream of the Fischer Tropsch reactor, rectified the inconsistencies and produced an accurate mass and energy balance for the affected areas of the plant.
Due to PROCESS‘ performance on this project, the ultimate client, an alternative energy technology company, awarded a no-bid contract to the detail engineering firm (to subcontract to PROCESS) for executing pressure relief valve (PRV) calculations and flare system design for the plant. This included the relieving requirements and the design of the Fischer-Tropsch reactor for making two different liquid products.
Industry Type
- EPC Contracting
- Alternative Fuels
Utilized Skills
- Equipment sizing
- Heat exchanger design
- EPC client support