Project Synopsis

Develop a process design (FEL-2, FEL-3) and serve as Owner’s Engineer during detailed engineering for a greenfield bio-plastics production plant.

Project Summary

The client, an international manufacturer of bioplastics/polymers derived from plant materials instead of conventional plastics made from petroleum, wished to design, and construct a new greenfield facility in the Pacific rim to produce polymeric lactic acid (PLA) from sugar.  Sugar is first fermented to produce lactic acid (HLA) and then purified.  The purified HLA is then polymerized to PLA.  The client currently operates a PLA-only plant in the U.S. Process Engineering Associates, LLC (PROCESS) was contracted by the client to develop a process design for the HLA portion of the facility based on white paper information and R&D lab testing.  The PLA process was based on existing technology at the client’s US plant and scaled up for desired capacity. Additionally, PROCESS continued as an Owner’s Engineer throughout the remainder of the project.

This project was supported by PROCESS for a 5-year period and was broken into multiple phases.

Phase 1 work provided by PROCESS included:

  • Management of all process engineering activities between client, PROCESS, and SMEs
  • Scoping and execution of trade-off studies
  • Lactic acid technology selection design
  • Modeling of the Reactive Distillation Unit design
  • Technology selection and vendor identification for PLA polymerization
  • Technology selection and vendor identification for post-polymerization unit operations
  • Develop and FEL-2 process design basis
  • Develop preliminary process flow diagrams (PFDs)
  • Develop preliminary mass and energy balance (M&EB).

Phase 2 (FEL-2) work provided by PROCESS included:

  • Develop a lactic acid (HLA) process based on lab pilot data
  • Develop a process simulation model of HLA using CHEMCAD
  • Develop a final design basis
  • Develop a process description
  • Develop final PFDs for HLA (total project PFDs were 50+ sheets)
  • Develop a final M&EB for HLA
  • Develop major equipment list for HLA
  • Transfer HLA design to the client selected EPC for Phase.

Phase 3 (FEL-3) work provided by Process included:

  • Serve as the client’s Owner’s Engineer for overseeing the EPC company in phase 3 for both HLA and PLA processes. During this phase, Process also provided the following services:
    • Develop P&IDs (+400 drawings)
    • Develop process equipment duty level data sheets (+2300 items)
    • Develop vendor packages
    • Develop unit control system functional specifications
    • PHA facilitation/technical participation/scribing/reporting.

Detailed Engineering phase work provided by PROCESS (for HLA and PLA) included:

  • Serve as Owner’s Engineer for the client overseeing the EPC company during detail engineering for both HLA and PLA processes. During this phase, Process also provided the following services:
    • Complete P&IDs
    • Provide inputs on vendor selection (bid tabs)
    • Develop line lists, valve list, equipment list
    • Develop control strategy
    • Lead control system factory acceptance testing
    • Provide PSV sizing scenarios
    • Provide review and inputs on 3D equipment and piping model development
    • PHA facilitation/participation/scribing/reporting.

Industry Type

Bioplastics Manufacturing

Utilized Skills

  • Process design
  • Owner’s Engineer

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