Chapter 3(R)

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

3.1 Introduction
A technical specification states the project or works from a technical point of view.
This is a special document which deals with the technical requirements of the project
in details and provides the basis to measure the completeness of the built plant and
performance thereof.
In case of a contracted job irrespective of the type of contract, the contractor uses the
technical specification for preparing its technical proposal. The technical
specification is finally included in the contract documents and is used as the guideline
for the technical requirements of the project.
During the early stage of the project, related information in the form of notes, reports,
bid documents, studies, minutes of meetings, queries and answers, etc. remain
somewhat disorganized. All these different papers perhaps have been developed based
on different ideas and they may not beself-contained and complete. Therefore, it is
usual to prepare a comprehensive document incorporating all the essential technical
and other requirements of the project to replace these varied documents and papers.
This new document is designated as the technical specification of the project and it
defines the technical requirements of the project in details plus includes the
appropriate engineering studies, job standards, reports, etc. as far as practicable (l, 2).
At the bidding stage, the technical specification is to include technical requirements of
the plant plus specific tests and procedures if required. At the contracting stage, the
technical specification is up-dated by incorporating the new items of the bidder's
technical proposal and it should include items such as licensing arrangement, flow
sheets, related patents and know-how, etc. Issues related to the performance tests,
guarantees, etc. including relevant procedures and conditions are to be dealt in detail
in the technical specification. These will be used to measure the variations during the
performance and guarantee tests of the plant.

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Technical specification includes the following in general:
- technical definition of the project
-design philosophy and principles with description of plant site
-engineering specifications
-process requirements
-start-up, commissioning and performance tests
-auxiliaries, off sites and package units
-basic and detailed engineering definition
-list of drawings, sketches and reports for references, if any.
Each of the above items is described in sections which follow.
3.2 Technical Definition of the Project
This defines the project with respect to production plants, utilities and auxiliaries in
terms of capacity, quality and service conditions.
Definition of production plant consists of:
- Production capacity with reference to a reference day condition (example-
say 300 t ammonia on a summer day having wet bulb temperature 30C and dry
bulb temperature 35C)
- Purity of product (composition, product size distribution if applicable, form,
etc.)
-Intermediate and final products storages when required
- Product transfer systems
- Sources of utilities for the plant

Definition of utilities includes in general:

- water supply and water treatment, cooling water and distribution system and fire
water system
- steam and power generation and sources
- compressed air system and inert gas generation - refrigeration system
- yard piping
- waste disposal system, etc.
These are to be described such that requirements of the plants are adequately met from
point of view of processing conditions and operability of plant. Please see a later
section on auxiliaries and offsite facilities.
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3.3 Design Philosophy

Design philosophy broadly outlines the overriding considerations for designing the
project. Factors for consideration in Bangladesh are: proven process (for established
and new product), reliability, high on-stream time and case of maintenance. Before the
design works start, guidelines for followings are to be established to finalize the
design:
a. Economic evaluation criteria
b. Plant life
c. Machinery and equipment
d. Utilities
e. Maintenance and turnaround
f. Safety, Noise, Emissions and effluents
g. Layout, Coordinates and elevation of the plant site, etc.

3.3.1 Economic Evaluation: Within the overall project, there can always be several
alternatives and options to achieve a given goal. Tradeoffs between operational saving
including maintenance and incremental investment are to be considered before
selecting a system or unit as a matter of good engineering practice. Therefore, it is
necessary to define a period which is to be used to have the incremental investment
returned by an acquired operational saving; such a period may be 2- 4 years. For
simplicity, calculation may be made without depreciation, taxes, inflation or other
financial considerations. Items which are considered in operational saving are: steam,
electric power, make-up water for cooling tower and boiler feed, condensate, fuel, raw
materials, catalyst, chemicals, resins, etc. and each item is to be appropriately priced
for economic evaluation purpose.

3.3.2 Plant Life: The design life of a chemical processing plant in Bangladesh usually
is twenty years and the plant is depreciated over ten or twelve years. While designing
individual unit or equipment and making material selection, a useful life of 10 years or
100,000 hours is acceptable. This means, at the end of this period replacement of the
particular unit or equipment is required. In corrosive conditions, this period is often
less. Economic evaluation of available alternatives can help in making an economic
investment without sacrificing technical quality.

3.3.3 Machinery and Equipment:

Attention is to be focused on the following:
-installed spares (standby unit)

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 -production and safety features
-fouling factors
-turndown ratio (maximum and minimum operating range)
-consumption of utilities

3.3.4 Utilities
In a grass-roots type process plant, a significant percent of initial investment (as
much as 40 to 50%) is required for generation, distribution and control of utilities
(steam, electricity, water (for cooling tower and boiler feed), inert gas, instrument and
plant air, etc.). Stable and trouble-freeoperation of the plant is very much dependent
on the supply of utilities. Excess capacities of utilities and qualities of utilities are to
be established at a very early stage of preparation of technical specification. Qualities
of utilities are based on proven practices.

3.3.5 Maintenance and Turnaround

Criteria for the selection of machineries and equipment are to be such that scheduled
turnaround need not be required at shorter interval. Usual interval is two years or
more. But certain equipment may require turnaround at a shorter interval.

Classification and identification of equipment and machinery on the basis of

maintainability are needed. Considerations are:

1) complete replacement after a given cycle

2) replacement of components or parts after a given period of operation
without the complete shutdown of the plant
3) period after which a regular overhauling needed

3.3.6 Safety, Noise, Emissions and effluents

The engineering design, selection of equipment, materials of construction, inspection,

erection and testing should attach great importance on the avoidance of danger to
personnel along with good loss prevention practices for equipment, catalysts and
chemicals. Normal and emergency conditions are to be considered.

Noise levels within the plant, whether generated by machinery, equipment, piping
systems or otherwise, are to meet the regulations of OSHA to limit workers' noise
exposure.

Limitations of all gaseous and liquid emissions are to be established for their disposal.
Limits are to be established for emissions prior to dilutions and after dilutions.
Limitations set by environment protection authority arc to be met by the plant also.

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3.3.7 Description of the Plant Site, Layout, Coordinates and Elevation
Description of plant site begins with an outline of project location such as
geographical position, site characteristics and area, etc. Factors discussed in the
description of plant site include

- Source and supply of raw materials and raw water

- Product transportation
Design site condition (for cooling tower, compressors, fan, turbines, process,HVAC,
etc.)
- Wind velocity and directions
- Seismic conditions
- Site datum level, etc.

Design engineers, in principle, should verify above information on site If possible, the
design engineering group must visit the plant site to get acquainted with the
characteristics of the site which may help in avoiding costly modifications during
construction. The engineering contractors always visit the proposed plant site before
submitting the bids.

For determining the layout, the design and planning shall consider the plant and its
immediate surroundings, requirement for open areas for construction and turnaround,
auxiliary facilities, internal battery limit layouts and reasonable space for expansion in
future for minor equipment additions. Minimum capital investment and a safe,
efficient and reliable plant which meet the requirements of regulatory authorities is the
goal.

Within battery limits and in yard areas piping, electrical, drain, vents and other
services shall be arranged to allow easy access for inspection, cranes, servicing,
maintenance, replacement, cleaning and removal of individual components. Piping
systems and equipment handling hazardous or flammable materials shall be designed
and installed to minimize hazards from leakage. Protective devices such as hydrants,
scrubbers, flares and monitor nozzles are to be provided where required.

3.4 Engineering Specifications

These specifications encompass the general technical requirements for design,

fabrication, manufacturing, assembling, inspection, erection and tests for the materials
and the equipment for the project as a whole. The specifications in general cover the
following:

. Codes and standards for the project

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 1. Units
2. Language for documentation
3. Testing procedures
4. Design pressure, temperature and materials of construction
5. Rating of equipment (heat exchangers, pumps, blowers, fans, compressors,
turbines, etc.)
6. Special fabrication techniques to be followed, if any

For a process plant, there will be a large number of engineering specifications

covering the whole range of process equipment and services. These have been
discussed in detail later. Codes and standards are used to guide the designer to
design safe and operable equipment with right type of materials to fulfill the
requirements of process conditions without excessive over-design or factor of safety.
These have been discussed in detail in Chapter 8.

3.5 Process Requirements

These establish the design basis of the plant such as:

- plant capacity per day with reference to a defined day
- plant capacity per year
- operating days in a year
- provenness of the process with respect to design practices and equipment
- quality of all products (intermediate and end ones)
- operating life of catalysts if used
- capacity of individual process steps if different from the rated plant capacity

Technical description of the process defines the process to be used in the plant. The
description is to be presented in an orderly sequence encompassing all process steps
whether unit operations or unit processes involved. Each process step is to describe
normal processing conditions and start-up problems.

Besides process itself, all the utilities required during processing shall be described
and how they are linked to and balance in the process arc to be explained to have a
trouble free operation. Start-up features involving initial charges of end product or
intermediate products are to be also discussed to plan the start-up inventory. Process
requirements may also demand certain engineering requirements to be fulfilled based
on process itself and on the past experience. Amongst those are:
- Piping
- Electrical (UPS, emergency power generation, start-up power, etc.)
- Instrumentation (type, monitoring, analytical instruments, alarms, control instrumentation, instrument air supply,
relief valve, etc.)
- Buildings (control, compressor, motor control centers, chemical storages, analyzer rooms).
- Safety (fire, toxic gases/products, etc.)

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 - Effluents (gaseous, liquids or solids)
- Vents and stacks (safe location and safe disposal of vented streams)
- Type of equipment (centrifugal compression, etc.)
- Quality of utilities (steam, water (boiler feed and cooling water), voltage levels, inert gas, instrument air, fuel, etc.)

Process requirements are specific to individual process and they will vary from
process to process. For example, in a fertilizer plant producing urea and ammonium
sulfate process requirements for ammonia, urea, sulfuric acid (if produced) and
ammonium sulfate sections will be different. However, a design engineer makes
efforts to standardize items like instruments, piping, electrical, etc. for all the sections
of such a plant as far as practicable.

3.5 Start-up and Performance Tests

All manuals and documents for start-up and performance tests are to be prepared to
minimize mistakes and confusion. Operating manuals attempt to cover all aspects of
operations including start-up, plant upsets, emergency, shut-down, etc. Performance
tests include the performance of the project as a whole as well as the performance of
identified equipment or units.

The objective of any performance test is to establish that the project or unit is capable
of meeting the requirements as per technical specification. Different types of
performance tests which are undertaken before the final handing over of the plant by
the contractor to the client have been discussed in detail in a separate chapter later.

3.6 Auxiliaries, Off sites and Package Units

The terms “auxiliary” and “offsite” include utilities and all other services for the plant
not included in the definition of the plant battery limit. Many of the utility units and

services are standardized in respect of design, model and capacity. Reputed

suppliers would supply reliable units. In a grass-roots plant, auxiliaries/off sites will
involve considerable capital expenditure.

Auxiliary and offsite facilities in a grass-roots project would consist of:

- facilities for support services such as administrative, plant engineering and technical
services, security, canteen, first- aid, etc.
- jetty (if required), laboratories, maintenance shops.
- garage and vehicular parking warehousing (long term and short term needs)
- communication (telephone, paging, fire alarm, remote trouble surveillance for plant
units)

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- utilities for housing colony, etc. (if required)
These units and services are procured from specialist suppliers or manufacturers on a
turnkey basis. Therefore, these are to be described and defined in sufficient details.
For the purpose- of procurement, basic engineering for these items/facilities are
usually completed along with the definitions of scope of work and supply. Since these
arc often procured as package or skid mounted units (fully shop fabricated and
assembled), they are commonly known as package units.

3.7 The package units (auxiliaries/off sites) include in general:

- Water Treatment Plant

- Cooling Tower
- Steam Generator/Boiler - Electric Power Generators
- Compressed Air Unit
- Instrument Air Unit
- Inert Gas Generation Plant
- Refrigeration Plant
- Incinerators
- Flares and Stacks
- Effluent Treatment Plant
- Condensate Polisher Unit
- Packaging or Bagging Plant
- Uninterrupted Power Supply, etc.

For example, in case of CUFL, each of these units/plants as applicable was procured
from specialist manufacturers or suppliers on a turnkey basis. Off sites for CUFL
included items like water intake station (located about 25 km away from the plant
site), 25 km long water pipeline system along with pumping facilities, etc. But the jetty
for product shipment and bagging plant (located about 2.5 km from the plant battery
limit) were called auxiliary facilities.

Beneficial Occupancy: The completion of and acceptance by the client of the

different auxiliary and offsite facilities are categorized by the term "Beneficial
Occupancy". "By completion" one means that a facility is complete in all respects per
the documented definition of the facility' (4).

3.8 Basic Engineering

Basic engineering encompasses process and other engineering including engineering

and other studies required for economic implementation of the project. These include:

- General Engineering (Job standards and methods for the plant)

- Process
- Engineering Data
- Engineering and Other Studies
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 - Civil and all other Engineering
- Bid Documentation
- Operating and Other Manuals, Analytical Data, etc.

All these activities under basic engineering lead to preparation of documents to give
the project a firm basis to proceed further. A major portion of process engineering
works and engineering decisions to realize the project form the bulk of basic
engineering. Contributions from the process licensors are basic engineering in nature
and these are made available at the very early stage of job [Link]
standards (codes, standards and engineering specifications) and design basis are two
important items of basic engineering and these influence the design and performance
of the project as a whole and the individual units.(See Chapter 7)

3.9 Detailed Engineering

Detailed engineering includes those items mentioned under basic engineering as well
as others to complete engineering for the project. These include detailed calculations
and drawings. Detailed engineering of individual equipment like heat exchanger or
reactor will enable a vendor or a manufacturer to submit a quotation, and to establish
the extent of detailed engineering still to be undertaken by him if the job is awarded.
Detailed engineering also includes all types of manuals, instruction and drawings, etc.
for erection, start-up, operation and testing of individual unit as well as of the plant.
Items not included in basic engineering but considered in detailed engineering are:
- mechanical catalogues
- structural and foundation designs
- Piping and instrumentation
- electrical and insulation
- painting
- vendor's drawings, manuals, etc.
- conceptual and piped models

However, a significant length of detailed engineering is to be completed before orders

for purchases are placed. If this is not done, there is a tendency to over-order bulk
materials in order to avoid delays during erection and installation. (See Chapter 7)

Process licensors also often carry out detailed engineering if required or check the
developed detailed engineering on the basis of their basic engineering. Under certain
circumstances, the process licensor carries out detailed engineering of process critical
equipment and proprietary equipment of its own.

3.10 List of References, Drawings, etc.

Whatever information already available on the project at the time of preparation of

technical specification may be included for use, e.g,
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 process flow sheet and material balance (if available)
feasibility study (if any)
site survey report, seismological data, meteorological data (if
available), raw water analysis, etc.

All these documents and references are generated during the prefeasibility, feasibility
and project appraisal stages.

3.11 Bangladesh Experience

Public sector enterprises/corporations employ expatriate consultants to prepare

technical specifications for externally funded projects. These documents reflect the
experiences and practices of the consultants. With respect to process requirements and
job standards, they tend to incorporate their preferences. The local experiences,
preferences and requirementsbased on the operating plants are hardly incorporated in
the specifications. In absence of documentation in the operating plants and
engineering department, local needs are incorporated on ad hoc basis. We have thus
far failed to establish our requirements even for repeated jobs.

The situation in the private sector is bad. The existence of technical specification for
the project is an unknown entity to the client. The plant suppliers prepare the technical
specification on behalf of the client. The requirements of the client with respect to
process, job standards, performance tests, engineering, process license, etc. are hardly
specified and they are not even mentioned in the specification. This results into a
specification which can only be met by the originator itself. This has resulted into
plants which have failed to complete performance tests, utilize capacity and operate
smoothly. Many of these plants have become economic failures for the entrepreneurs.

Irrespective of the type of procurement, whether a turnkey or other type, the necessity
of a technical specification for a project, small or big, can hardly be ignored. It is
unfortunate that we have failed to recognize its potential as an indicator for checking
procurement, plant performance and contractual obligations of the contractor. The
country as a whole should have a model specification for each sector of process
industries to establish our minimum requirement till in-house engineering and design
activities are established.

References
1. Model Form of Conditions of Contract for Process Plants Suitable for
Reimbursable Contracts in UK, IChE (1976)
2. Model Form of Conditions of Contract for Process Plants for Lumpsum
Contracts in UK, IChE (1981).
3. Ulrich, G.D., A Guidc to Chemical Engineering Process Design and
Economics, John Wiley & Sons (1984).

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 4. Technical Specification of CUFL Project. (Materials from the technical
specifications of projects such as CUFL, ZFCL, UFFL, ERL, Gas Processing Plants of
Petrobangla, NDL, etc. were used in preparing this chapter)

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