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Global Trend for FEED projects in Process Industry

A White Paper for Engineering and Construction Companies written

by Pepi Edlinger, Vice President of Engineering Projects (ASDGlobal)

Worldwide the demand for energy is rapidly increasing. The lack of

alternative resources and production capability is pushing the cost of oilhigher and higher. Until alternative energy can be developed the Process

Industry must respond by quickly accelerating the buildup of new

production facilities. This trend requires a fresh look at how these facilitiesare being design, engineered and constructed. Owner / Operators are

planning to rapidly build new facilities and meet the demands. Engineering

companies worldwide are responding to manage the request for engineeringand construction, however, available engineering resources are becoming

limited.

A new category of projects are being awarded to EPCs called FEED

(Front End Engineering Design) with an accelerated approach to enablebetter planning, optimized engineering, and accurate cost estimates for new

facilities.

Historically EPCs have used a manual work process for their single line

routing studies, material take-offs etc. - or are using detail design tools suchas PDS to produce the deliverables for front-end design. However, detailed

3D model systems are not effective, difficult to use, lack change control, are

expensive and time consuming.

Owner / Operators are starting to demand from their selected EPCs to use

more effective methods and tools for FEED projects. (Last FIATECHConference 2007)

The deliverables and objectives of FEED projects are very different fromproposal on one hand and detail design on the other.

The objective of FEED projects is:

confirm and develop quality and optimized 3D layout

considering down stream design constraints

use results for detailed design

enable and validate concurrent engineering (plant design, structural

etc.)

Unfortunately the current tools, which are sold by large CAD vendors, are

inferior and inefficient even though the need for a suitable solution is great.

Current 3D CAD detailed design systems are clearly the wrong tool for

FEED projects for the following reasons:

Geometry only No Engineering Analysis embedded and configurable

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Rising demandfor Energy

requires newapproach for

Engineering

Companies

Existing manualmethods or using

detailed design

3D CAD toolsare wrong for

FEED Projects

O/O Companies

demand moreeffective toolsfrom EPCs for

FEED projects

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No layout/piping practices embedded in 3D CAD

No optimization for space/cost

Too complex and difficult to use for non-CAD Engineer

High cost of 3D CAD (Lic +Training+ Administration Cost)

Slow in project use (does not allow comparing several options)

Ineffective Change Control

Not optimized for FEED workflow

Manhours and Schedule required for model creation does NOT matchthe manhours and schedule provided in a FEED project.

Intergraph, Aveva as well as Bentley, all are now considering FEEDsolution as a very important stage and trying to fill this need. However,

lacking enough built in plant layout/design knowledge and engineering rules

make their solution not so good". Its also counter-productive to theirlarger marketing goal of selling detail design seats, so less money and

resources are dedicated to a good FEED solution.

Many EPCs such as Linde, Bayer, Foster Wheeler, ABB, Shaw group,CB&I, SNC, Jacobs, Kaverner have tested and rejected as very poor

Intergraph's Routing Technology packaged with Smart Plant, due to its

basic functionality and very short development cycle.. They have comparedSmart Plant Layout system against ASD's solution and found the OptiPlant/

Pipe Router based FEED solution as much superior with respect to

functionality, rule-base, and ease-of-use.

One of the greatest risks: Using the wrong work process or automation

tools during conceptual FEED projects (manual or detailed CAD designtools). Without tools enabling consistent best engineering and design/layout

practices the accuracy and quality of FEED projects is at jeopardy

What EPC companies need is are engineering automation tool specific forthe FEED phase of projects.

This is why ASD has spent over 15 years in developing their FEED solutionbased on cumulative layout and engineering knowledge with cost

optimization in their OptiPlant (Pipe Router)

ASDs OptiPlant integrates all facets of front-end engineering process from

conceptual 3D modeling to plot plan optimization to structural analysis to

3D automated piping and pipe support optimization. By using plant design,plant construction and engineering experience based rules combined with a

data centric architecture and an easy to use GUI, OptiPlant is clearly the best

automation tool for FEED in industry.

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ASD is clearly theLeader for FEED

Solutions

The process industry

is starting to realizethat lack of

automated tools for

the FEED phase

Most EPCs arelooking for newsolutions to help

them.

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EPCs must provide the following:

Have a suitable FEED solution which will cover easy 3D plant

modeling and powerful pipe auto routing with design validation to

produce quality piping layout at much less man hour.

Consideration of alternate layout is given to improve Plantfunctionality, operability and constructability.

FEED should include more engineering and design validation

concurrently done with Piping Layout to eliminate recycling of Plot

plan many times into detail design

The solution has to have enough project application background in

all categories of projects to add to its robustness.

ASD's FEED solution has already been applied in over 20 projects worldwide in varieties of project types, from FPSO, grass root refineries, LNG tomany Bio fuel and Mining and metal.

Proven trend for FEED:

SNC Lavalin in Calgary has completed multiple FEED projects using the

ASD FEED Solution. Specifically, for the FEED phase of a refineryupgrade, SNC was able to accomplish the following:

Modeled 18 areas

Automatically Routed over 6000 lines Maintained and met schedule of 12 months

Required 18000 piping manhours to completeIf they had executed this by using traditional methods of a Detail Design

tool, they estimated that it would have required 44000 piping manhours.

Therefore, they saved 26000 manhours, which is a 60% savings.

In addition to these savings, additional values included:

Ability to optimize the layout to REDUCE overall material

Incorporating changes in process and P&IDs as they occurred

Identifying design issues at an early stage

ASD is clearly becoming the leader in FEED solution and as we have

understood and incorporated many of Leading EPC's design guidelines and

specifications , it is well positioned to fill the gap created by FEED projectexecution needs worldwide.

Jan 2008 Walnut Creek, CA 94596

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EPCs are changingtheir approach for

FEED project

And ASD provides

the best Solution.

Proving the Trend!

SNC Lavalinsuccessful

completed FEED

projects providingoptimized

Engineering and

saving Schedule

and Cost