Project Highlights

Project Highlights

Domain Engineering is ready and able to take on major or minor projects that you want to get done on time and on budget. The experience and skill, which are brought to bear on these demanding projects, are belied by Domain's rate sheet. Outlined below are a number of projects where we've played a significant engineering and management role. You may be able to relate to some of the operations support and troubleshooting experiences that are described below as well. Whether troubleshooting or large project engineering jobs are your reason for visiting us today, please contact us. We'd be glad to introduce you to our staff and client references for some of the projects we've completed.

Gas Processing

300 MMSCFD Cryogenic Straddle Gas Plant

Scope of Services: Domain Engineering provided the complete Project Management Team for this grass-roots gas plant located an hour west of Houston, Texas. Detailed engineering for site preparation, pipeline interconnects, and custody transfer metering were also provided by Domain Engineering. The following services were provided:

Project scoping and preliminary economics
Development of engineering & construction specifications
Bid analyses and selection of EPC contractor
Development & negotiation of the EPC contract on Client's behalf
Development of project budget, schedule, and AFE
Engineering review of P&IDs and all engineering documentation
Specification of and procurement support for the following using client's alliance vendors:

Mars^TM gas-turbine driven feed compressor
Manual-operated valves
Control valves
Skid-mounted Motor Control Center (MCC)
Buildings

Coordinate construction inspection including identifying and assisting with hiring the full field inspection team.
Coordinate PHA

Results:

This plant runs on-spec fully-unattended (probably one of the largest unattended operations in the world today).
Budget: Client's actual cost was less than 2% over the preliminary budget for which minimal contingency had been incorporated.
Schedule: Despite heavy rains at the outset of site preparation and construction mobilization, this plant was ready for start-up ahead of the initial schedule.

Recovery Improvement (Profit Improvement) for Deep-Cut Cryo Plant

Scope of Services: Domain Engineering developed process models in HySys^TM and performed rigorous optimization studies for this GSP-type process plant. Strategies for increasing NGL recovery were identified and, at the customer's request, Domain Engineering participated in operation of the facility for two days so as to demonstrate plant performance with optimum set points.
Results NGL recovery increased dramatically with ethane (C2) recovery rising to 80% from its earlier level below 50%.

Petroleum Refining

60 MBD Light Crude Refinery in Western Europe

Scope of Services: Domain Engineering developed the design to expand refinery capacity to 85 MBD
Results: Domain Engineering provided a debottlenecking plan addressing multiple steps of investment opportunities and the corresponding capacity increase for each increment of upgrade.

Deliverables included

HySys model development for a various crude feed scenarios
Process Flow Diagrams & P&IDs in AutoCad format
Updated Plot Plans color-coded to indicate facility changes
Heat exchanger rating, charge heater troubleshooting & upgrade
Hydraulic analysis, detailed line sizing
Equipment sizing and Process Data Sheets
Capital Cost Estimate
Operating Cost Estimate
Gantt-type project schedule

Debottlenecking a Middle Distillate Hydrotreater

Scope of Services: This refiner wanted two plans. First, for the near future, 15-20% extra capacity was needed: how could this be obtained for minimal investment? Second, how would the prescribed modifications be different if investment was made for upgrading to Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD)?
Results: Domain Engineering developed "open technology" strategies for reconfiguring this hydroprocessing unit into a ULSD operating mode. Considerations were given to minimizing hydrogen demand, limited the amine treatment of H2S-rich recycle gas, maximizing catalyst life, minimizing capital outlay and minimizing recycle compression requirements while meeting all the stringent product specifications.

Pharmaceuticals

MDC Recovery from a pharmaceutical manufacturer's waste stream

Scope of Services: This manufacturer needed to recover methylene chloride (MDC) from its waste stream for two reasons--to reduce costly hazardous waste disposal costs and to minimize costly replenishment costs for this expensive solvent.
Results: The Domain Engineering design provided 95% MDC recovery at a purity of 99.8% using unique processing technology specifically designed to remove acetone, methanol and water from the waste stream. Methylene chloride forms azeotropes with moisture and methanol which requires novel engineering strategies to break such azeotropes.
Deliverables: The approach taken by Domain Engineering included process simulation. In this particular case, VLE data was not available in the public sector. Thus, the Domain Engineering approach included lab-based studies to develop the necessary VLE parameters required to support proper design of the processing equipment. The design provided minimum energy consumption for reasonable capital outlay resulting in project payout of just over 1-year.

Specialty Chemicals

Plant-wide pinch analysis

Scope of Services: Domain Engineering was asked to quantify minimum utility requirements for the entire bio-polymer plant and identify feasible energy saving opportunities for Clients three plants-- two US-based, one based in Western Europe--in hopes of reducing operating costs.
Results: Using its own proprietary pinch analytical software, Domain Engineering quantified the minimum energy requirements. Inefficiencies in the existing heat exchanger network configuration was identified (i.e., difference between then-present utility usage and minimum required by pinch calculations). Opportunities were characterized totaling from $US 0.5-million to $US 1.3-million per year for each plant.

There's Trouble A-Brewin' (Operational Support)

Often times, the most challenging work we encounter are those problems that come directly from the field. Operations organizations sometimes become used to dealing with problems after numerous half-hearted attempts to fix them fall short. These inconveniences can routinely cost a lot of money, or they can become serious safety concerns that cannot be ignored. Some snooty engineers will then say, "If they'd only given us the resources and information to design this plant properly in the first place . . . "; the VP of Operations says, "Surely they can bring those operating costs down, . . . maybe I should get out to the plant and help out (read micro-manage)", while the old salts of operations will rebut, "Them #@$%^& engineers couldn't bust their way out of wet paper bag, and tell them managers to get outta my hair, send us some money to fix this place up and then they can get back to checking on their stock options!" And don't say this never happens at your company!

The fact is that each group's perspective has an element of truth to it, and continuing economic pressures and problems often raise the level of rhetoric to unreasonable levels. Sometimes what's needed is a focused effort that ties together the business objectives and incentives, good engineering analysis and practices, and the experience gained after years of operations. Domain Engineering excels at such efforts. Call us with your worst problems and we'll solve it by bringing our experience, skill, and focus to bear on your headaches; working side by side with you and your organization.

The Quick & Easy Pitfall

"Let's just pipe up the glycol reboiler vent stack to the new thermal oxidizer to deal with the BTEX" — that was the gist of one company's approach to an environmental problem, not unlike many others trying to comply with BTEX regulations in their glycol dehydration facilities. The simple solution in their eyes was a valve, and insulated pipe. After an unsuccessful start-up, a blower was seen as the answer. The shortfalls of these steps soon became evident when a good engineering analysis was done. The un-coded vessel now was subject to credible contingencies that could over pressure the reboiler or allow a significant vacuum – neither of which could be handled by the vessel. Further, this insulated pipe just happened to be a couple hundred feet long and just happened to be subject to high winds and cold ambient temperatures. So the system was not safe and it wouldn't work in cold weather. Domain Engineering stepped in to work with the client to design a system that would use the newly installed piping, protect the reboiler, and deliver the vented vapor to the thermal oxidizer, even during cold weather. Retrofitting a design like this is not an efficient way to execute a project, but sometimes what appears simple is not – that's when Domain Engineering can help.

Slugging It Out

Liquids and reciprocating compressors don't mix to put it mildly, sometimes they meet with costly, spectacular . . . and dangerous results. In the gas processing industry, there often is a lot of uncertainty about new streams of gas brought into an existing system, or the initial gas system design did not adequately address liquid slugs from pigging or poor dehydration facilities. A South American company was enduring significant events that were dangerous and costly to fix – high pressure reciprocating compressors being torn apart by pipeline slugs of condensate. Domain Engineering helped devise a piping and separation plan to deal with these liquid slugs, protecting the employees and the processing equipment.

Pipeline Conniption

Q: What do you get when you cross wet NGL with high CO2 NGL? A: Acid . . . and a bunch of angry joint venture partners . . . and a nervous operating company . . . and a pipeline wall thinning faster than a forty three year old hairdo. So that may not be the politically correct answer, but it's true. After a lot of analysis and contentious debate, the problem was remedied at substantial cost to some of those involved. The most surprising aspect of the whole mess was that all the parties were on test. The NGL pipeline specification was broad enough to allow some suppliers to pump in NGL that had no free water and others to pump NGL with significant CO2 content. Mixing the two might not be too much of a problem as long as no free water forms, but unfortunately the pipeline was exposed to sufficiently cool river water that free water and corrosion were assured. Domain Engineering was the primary architect of the solution (even if the answer wasn't popular with everyone involved).

Domain Engineering Inc. 406 South Boulder, Ste 234 Tulsa, OK 74103 USA

(918)-582-4280 (918)-582-4283 fax