Study Results

As part of the study a baseline performance report is issued for the plant. This report includes discussion of:

  • The material balance
  • Detailed energy use calculation
  • Furnace performance including coils
  • Catalyst performance
  • Detailed steam balance
  • Turbine calculations and comparison to design efficiency
  • Compressor performance and comparison to vendor curves
  • Heat exchanger performance calculations
  • Cooling water balance
  • CO2 removal system performance
  • Any instrumentation problems
  • Flow schematics with stream assignments
  • Detailed listing of all plant streams including composition, flow rate, and physical properties.

Using this information a computer model of the plant can be built. This model can then be used to simulate the plant in a wide variety of situations including specific projects for energy savings or debottlenecking, alternate feedstocks, the plant balance at a target production rate, impact of catalyst bed replacement, benefit of cooling tower retrofit, or any other situation desired. A number of retrofit designs have been adopted into ammonia, methanol, and hydrogen plants with a high degree of success.