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F
or grassroots design, defining project scope Introduction
is a straightforward exercise. Grassroots CPD is the most important activity in revamp
projects can follow optimum execution design. Often, its significance is overlooked. As a
procedures for engineering and construction. result, minimum engineering effort is expended
Office-based conceptual process design (CPD) on it, with the expectations that the more
works well because there is no existing unit to detailed process design work can be performed
present unique challenges and obstacles. For a during FEED or the beginning of DE.
revamp, however, CPD demands a much more Consequently, many revamps start with superfi-
detailed attack, because most equipment — with cial process work and little money assigned for
all its possibly hidden shortcomings — already CPD. Often looming behind these seemingly
exists. The only foolproof way of carrying out cost-effective CPD packages are scope growth
CPD for a revamp is to first establish a perform- and revamp cost escalation.
ance base line of the existing unit. This entails CPD largely determines revamp costs and
making a comprehensive test run to gather whether or not the results will meet yield, run
actual field data on temperatures, pressures and length and reliability objectives.1,2,3,4 Failure to
flows. Original equipment drawings, P&IDs and meet any one of these processing objectives can
control room data are not sufficient. Once real- turn an otherwise profitable revamp into one
time field data is obtained, it is used for that loses refiners millions of dollars due to poor
calibrating computer simulations in the design performance or an unscheduled outage to correct
office. All major cost bottlenecks are now identi- revamp design flaws. When done properly, CPD
fied and alternative process flow schemes are will identify all significant process and equip-
evaluated to determine the lowest cost. ment modifications, and scope growth will be
Finally, equipment lists and cost estimates are minimal as engineering progresses.
developed. Admittedly, all this takes time By today’s standards, revamps are deemed
and costs money, but unless such work is thor- successful if: throughput, yield and reliability
oughly and carefully carried out at this point, objectives are achieved, and they are on schedule
scope can grow enormously during front-end and under budget. Large overruns can wreck
process design (FEED) and detailed engineering revamp economics. Volumes have been written
(DE). about cost estimating, cost control, project
This article presents data on a revamp under- management and scheduling. All of these are
taken for National Petroleum Refineries of South important activities that must be executed well
Africa (PTY), (NATREF, a joint venture of for a successful revamp. However, if the CPD is
SASOL and Total Fina Elf) in which a study was poor quality or insufficient in detail, then no
begun to determine whether increasing crude amount of cost estimating, cost control, project
capacity at its Sasolburg refinery was a sound management and scheduling activities will
investment. A NATREF multidisciplinary team prevent scope growth. This article presents
coordinated engineering work with several guidelines for revamp CPD. If these guidelines
contractors to carry through a staged process are executed properly, they will minimise revamp
beginning with CPD, continuing through FEED scope growth. While the examples presented are
and ending in DE. specific to crude/vacuum units and the approach
Semi-detailed estimate
needed?
Preliminary estimate
±10%
When a conventional office-based
Definite estimate
approach is applied to revamp
design, it is common today for a
major portion of the process engi-
neering design to take place in the
Feasibility FEED stage. Only a superficial
Conceptual F.E.E.D.
study
design
amount of process design is
Detailed engineering performed during the CPD, resulting
Start End in a cursory review of much of the
equipment. Consequently, the
Figure 1 Stages of engineering revamp scope of work is poorly
defined. Conventional office-based
used by NATREF, the techniques can be applied CPD focuses on scheduling and cost estimating,
to other refinery unit revamps. not on process design. But if scope is poorly
defined, the estimate will not be accurate even if
Revamp conceptual process design it is expertly prepared with much detail.
Project schedules often demand fast-track revamp During CPD, all related revamp modifications
conceptual process design. Overall revamp dura- must be identified so a cost estimate can be
tions can be as short as one year from beginning prepared. If the scope of work is well defined,
to startup for fast-track revamps (typically under costs can be estimated with a reasonable degree
$20 MM) or longer for larger investments. of accuracy. However, if the scope is incomplete,
Whatever the case, CPD must be fast and efficient. the estimate will not capture all revamp costs.
There is no time for re-engineering. Poorly defined scope is the number one cause of
CPD costs must also be controlled. At the revamp cost escalation. It is the conceptual proc-
conceptual design stage, the revamp has not yet ess design, not cost control or project
received full funding (see Figure 1). If engineer- management activities, that defines the flow
ing costs are excessive and the revamp does not scheme and therefore the revamp scope.
get funded, money is wasted. However, there is For grassroots design, defining the scope is a
some minimum amount of engineering that must straightforward exercise. Grassroots projects can
be performed to sensibly direct the capital follow optimum project execution procedures for
expenditure. Otherwise, all major scope-related engineering and construction. The office-based
items may not be identified and the process flow CPD approach works well because there is no
scheme selected may not be minimum cost.5 existing unit with its many challenges and obsta-
Minimum CPD cost and sufficient engineering cles. However, project execution procedures that
are always competing objectives during the work well with grassroots design must be altered
conceptual design stage. The trend has been to for revamp design. Revamp CPD demands a
reduce the cost of CPD by pushing essential proc- more detailed process design because most of
ess engineering evaluations into FEED and DE. In the equipment exists. Revamps present
many revamps, this has resulted in either scope unknowns, constraints and problems that are
growth or scope rationalisation, where many common within an existing operating unit. The
pieces of equipment were removed to control conceptual designer must maximise the use of
costs. At this point, it may be well to ask if equip- existing equipment (or minimise new equip-
ment can be removed to control costs without ment) to implement a cost-effective revamp.
impairing the process scheme, and why the equip- Otherwise, revamp costs can be excessive and
ment was specified in the first place. In corollary, jeopardise the chance for approval. Revamp
if the process scheme will be impaired, how can conceptual designers must therefore understand
removal be justified? A more intelligent, efficient existing unit performance and constraints in
New line
Crude
charge
23.5
Desalter
17.0
22.5 21.7 21.2 20.8 20.4 19.9
Flashed crude
vapours
Flashed crude
because the designers or project management do constraints can be a significant portion of the
not see the value added. The conventional total revamp cost. However, crude hydraulics are
wisdom is that a simulation can be generated rarely reviewed during the CPD at the level of
with information that is extracted from the as- detail necessary to identify all hydraulic-related
built data sheets and drawings, original scope of work changes. But sensible decisions
equipment specifications and limited plant data about the revamp flow scheme cannot be made
(office-based approach) and, therefore, test runs without understanding the impact of crude
are deemed wasteful. This is a terrible hydraulics. An office-based method of evaluating
misconception. hydraulics consists of collecting the equipment
Simulations that are built with the office-based as-built data sheets and piping isometrics and
approach rarely represent actual operating unit rigorously calculating the system pressure drop.
performance. It is ironic that more effort is not While this approach may be very scientific, it is
put into generating an accurate simulation, since not practical because it consumes many man-
the simulation is the main process tool that is hours, is too expensive, takes too long for the
used to evaluate process changes that will ulti- CPD stage, and does not necessarily reflect actual
mately define the revamp scope and installed unit hydraulics that are affected by fouling.
cost. True, conducting a performance test run These rigorous calculations are more appropriate
will be more expensive and time consuming than for the DE stage, where a final check of all
an office-based conceptual process design system design is warranted.
approach that pushes the majority of meaningful A more efficient method of identifying
process engineering into FEED and DE. hydraulic constraints during CPD can be accom-
However, planning and executing a comprehen- plished by using field-measured performance
sive test run is the most cost-effective method of test run data. One of the performance test
performing the minimum amount of conceptual run objectives is to develop a complete hydrau-
process design required to fully define the lic profile of each circuit. Once hydraulic
revamp scope at the CPD stage. profiles are developed from the performance
test run, the conceptual design engineer can
Hydraulics scale the baseline hydraulic profile up or down
When crude/vacuum units are revamped to to quickly and accurately evaluate revamp
increase throughput, crude hydraulics are almost hydraulics.
always a unit constraint. Capital expenditure Heat integration
necessary to overcome crude hydraulic In another completely different crude/vacuum
Relocated
exchangers
Desalters
Raw
crude
Flashed crude
vapours
Flashed crude
Flashed crude
vapours
160 130 90
40
120
50
Flashed crude
vacuum pumparound systems may involve required to evaluate them in enough detail to
adding additional exchangers to satisfy revamp determine equipment scope even though he may
heat balance requirements. Adding additional be proficient at modelling and developing heat
exchangers to the preheat train affects crude and material balances. Yet, in an effort to mini-
hydraulics. mise cost, equipment specialists may not get
involved in CPD. Therefore, heater and column
Fired heaters and distillation column internals internals scope is often poorly defined.
Fired heater and distillation column internals
modifications can be significant revamp cost Average radiant flux rate
items. Major modifications in these areas can Average radiant flux rate is the heat duty
extend turnarounds and require special plan- absorbed in the radiant section of a heater
ning. Fired heater and distillation column divided by the surface area of the radiant section
internals must be evaluated in enough detail tubes (see Figure 7). Average radiant flux rate
during CPD to identify modifications and define rules-of-thumb are used in the refining industry
revamp scope. But sadly, fired heaters and to give only very general guidelines for heater
column internals are often only reviewed with capacity. Sometimes, conceptual designers do
cursory calculations or rules of thumb during use average radiant flux guidelines to determine
CPD. This approach can result in scope growth. heater capacity during CPD. But when heaters
Abbreviated or rule-of-thumb evaluations, such operate with flux imbalances, using average radi-
as use of average radiant heat flux or percentage ant flux rate alone can lead to grossly incorrect
of flood, can be very misleading and result in conclusions about heater capacity. Average radi-
incorrect conclusions about fired heater or distil- ant flux guidelines assume even flux distribution
lation column performance. Good field data and in the radiant section. In reality, many heaters
a detailed review of the specific equipment operate with flux imbalances that result in a
parameters that determine ultimate capacity are difference in pass flow rates as high as 50%
what is really needed to determine maximum between radiant passes.13,14 Flux maldistribution
heater or distillation column capacity. is a function of firebox tube geometry, pass
Fired heaters and distillation column internals layout, burner operation, number of burners and
pose a real challenge to the conceptual design burner location (see Figure 8). The vacuum
engineer. Many times the conceptual design heater in Figure 9 operated with average radiant
engineer does not have the equipment expertise flux rates of 9000 Btu/hr-ft2, within the guide-
Reformate Blender
FCC gasoline Regular
Sat. gasoline
Reformer
gas
FCC
Crude
oil Blender Diesel
LVGO
Vacuum MVGO Distillate
unit HVGO
hydro-cracker
Fuel oil /
RCD asphalt
Naphtha
Crude
oil
Gas
‘Cold’ Kerosene
exchanger
train
LVGO
Light Light
diesel diesel
Heavy MVGO
diesel
Desalter
HVGO
Pre-flash
Desalted crude AGO gas oil
exchanger train
VTB
paralleling or replacing equipment with larger ied, with the selected process flow scheme shown
pieces of equipment is almost never cost effec- in Figure 15. The most cost-effective revamp
tive when there are major unit constraints. used two preflash columns: an atmospheric
Finding the least-cost flow scheme requires preflash and a vacuum preflash. The atmospheric
extensive crude unit revamp experience. This is preflash column would eliminate vapourisation
critical to cost control. at the heater inlet, debottleneck crude hydrau-
Two major bottlenecks were the atmospheric lics, reduce crude column overhead condensing
and crude vacuum column diameters. Both duty, reduce loads in the crude column, allow for
columns had to be paralleled or replaced if the changes to the preheat train that would increase
existing process flow scheme were maintained. heat recovery, and require no new heaters. The
The engineering company that performed the vacuum preflash column would pre-flash atmos-
feasibility study had decided to parallel the pheric residue before the vacuum heater and use
vacuum heater and vacuum column. But revamps the idled RCD vacuum column. This enabled
should maximise the use of existing or spare crude throughput to be increased without
equipment to minimise cost. During the CPD, a exceeding the vacuum heater, transfer line and
survey of all idled equipment was done. NATREF vacuum column ultimate capacity. The vacuum
was modifying the reduced crude desulphuriser heater would need to be revamped; however, no
(RCD) unit, and several pieces of its equipment other heater changes would be needed.
were available for use in the crude/vacuum unit. Identifying the right process flow scheme thus
The most significant was the RCD vacuum minimised revamp costs.
column, which could easily be modified for use Once the least-cost PFD was identified, equip-
in the crude unit. ment lists and cost estimates were completed.
Practical flow scheme alternatives were stud- These were relatively straightforward activities.