Lecture 7 

 
Page 83, 
1 “The licensor is granted an exclusive right for the know-how or invention for a limited period of
time by a government”
- License owner can keep/use the license for a maximum amount of 17-20 years, so by
performing R&D changes/develops the process a bit and do the patent again. Hence, R&D is
very important.

2 “Licensor is remunerated by payment of a lump sum plus running royalties”

- We need to buy the license at an average of million dollars, but for troubleshooting, extra
payment (otherwise they won’t come) is needed which is called running royalties.

Page 84,  
1 Important to know as a chemical engineer.

Page 85, 
1 How will we evaluate a process licensor? (Not in slide)
From BD point of view, a) How much reputation they have in the world.
b) For how many years it is running and in which places
c) We want to play safe, do not want to experiment by making our plant
guinea pig, so the process might be old, but we don’t mind.

2 “Preliminary evaluation on the basis of feed stock variations, by products, yields etc.”
- Composition may vary in many places such as NG composition, In BD usually NG composition
is fixed

3 “Detailed study of the selected process along with negotiation for a licensing agreement”
- Technology has no standard value, it depends upon your power of negotiation

Page 88, 
1 “Type of know-how and related patents the licensor may possess and R & D efforts being
undertaken to improve the existing technology”
- Might be a proven process, but not every details can be perfected, so there might be small
problems, that is why R&D is important.

Page 89, 
1 “What product yields/qualities are produced?”
- Not only Raw Materials and products are important, utilities are also. Sometimes we don’t
care about utilities but it may happen that utility cost is way more than anticipated. So, we
should be careful while dealing with licensor.
2 “Is the technology flexible with regard to capacity turndown requirements and potential feed
impurities?”

A) Capacity Turndown Requirements - Process can be of 2 types - Single train and 3 “Have
there been any historical problems? Is the technology maturMulti train. Now, single train
means a series connection where at one end it starts, at another end it finishes. Problem
in any stages will have an effect on the production. In case of multi train, you have two or
more path to choose, and keeping one opened and another closed, you can vary the
capacity of the plant. Maximum plants in our country are of single train. So, in BD,
technology is not flexible at all. Also, product demand can be seasonal in BD.

B) Potential Feed Impurities - Feed impurity does not necessarily mean the feed condition
alone, it might be impurities in utility too. Suppose, change in water temperature (Once in
Savar, the temperature of Summer was not considered, so HE was not working, then
another HE was bought to eradicate the problems, the possible reason was mistake in
design basis, not considering the Summer temperature).

C) e, improving, or a first-in-kind prototype?”

- We want to play safe, do not want to experiment by making our plant guinea pig, so the
process might be matured, but we don’t mind. First in kind prototypes are usually used in
developed countries.

Page 90, 
1 “In order to understand the economics of operating the unit in addition to the capital cost, the
number of operators, utilities consumption and production, other chemical additives, catalyst,
etc., and maintenance should be assessed to capture the overall financial scenario
appropriately.”
- Number of operators is not a problem in our country, as labor is cheap, but in other
countries it might be a problem.
- From where does the water come from, how much power is required, if it is not known,
utilities consumption might be expensive.

**2 “If a catalyst is required, is it readily available by one or more vendors or require stringent
process conditions? What is the projected run length and overall catalyst life? What affects the
catalyst life?”
- If the catalyst used has only one supplier, there will be monopoly and thus a lot of money
is required in buying the catalyst. One company of India worked on developing the
catalyst first before working on equipments, which was an excellent approach.

 
Page 91, 
1 How much plot footprint will the unit require?
- Plot footprint - How much land is required in the plot plan, not important in BD as land
can be bought arbitrarily, but in other countries, additional land has to be bought. More
land is usually required for safety purpose.

2 Is the unit too complex to mechanically design or operate? Are there any long-lead
procurement items?
● Long lead procurement item - Some items are of rare/complex design, so if spare parts
are needed, it eventually take a lot of time, they are called long-lead procurement items.

Page 92-94,  
Case studies were not covered in class, but Sir told to read this on our own.
Lecture 8 
 
Page 95, 
1 ​Secrecy agreement​ - It states that you cannot even build a second plant with only one license.

Page 96,  
1 ​Business territory​ - Geographical area where the business would be done.
2 “Advisory services: participation in start-up”
- Start-up is critical, as accidents usually occur more often this time. So, during this time
they should be present.
3 “Process guarantee may be included”
- If the process does not work, the guarantee money would not be refunded to licensor.

Page 98, 
1 Why there were different General Contractor and Engineering Contractor in ZFCL?
- Usually General Contractor is capable of getting everything done. Hence, there is no
need of a different Engineering Contractor. Now, Foster Wheeler was the engineering
contractor, but they had no previous experience of building a big fertilizer plant (What
actually happened was, there were 2 companies named Foster Wheeler, one was British
and another one was American. The American one had experiences to build massive
plants, but World Bank convinced us to make the contract with the British one, which did
not have previous experience of building a big fertilizer plant). So, engineering contractor
was a necessary choice.

Page 99, 
1 What is the difference between Palash Fertilizer and Shahjalal Fertilizer?
- Both were done by Chinese Company. Palash Fertilizer was done without license and it was
told that it was given at Friendship Price (Not any kind of profit, just the cost price), though they
refused to tell that it was without license. But Shahjalal Fertilizer was properly licensed.
Actually, Chinese companies are govt. owned but there are 2/3 companies of same type/thing,
so there is competition as well as efficiency. So, we have to consider it while dealing with
Chinese companies.

Page 101, 
1 Left side of table (BED),
Preliminary works are usually done by the client, client usually fixes what is to be done.

2 “Preliminary line sizes”, here line means pipeline.

2 (Q) - Why Detailed Engineering is not done directly/ Why Basic Engineering is necessary?
- Basic Engineering predicts how much work is needed to be done. Detailed Engineering
huge work, without some previous output, we cannot go to the next step. During BED, all
the items must be there so that nothing can be missed.

Page 104, 
**1 “It is reflected in equipment, machineries and facilities through the use of specified codes
and standards and engineering specifications and summarized in Job standards and methods.”
- Codes and standards are maintained for safety, which were made from experience of
years.

Page 105, 
1 Utility schematic for tentative plant
- For a grassroot plant, utility takes up almost 40-50% of total cost.
2 Effluents
- Must be approved by the government

Page 107,  
1 ​Bid documentation - For every works, we will invite tender, what will be written in the tender is
the subject of bid documentation.
2 ​Operating manual - The procedure of how the machine should be driven. SOP means
standard operating procedure, it includes testing and preparation, startup and shutdown etc.

3(Q) Suppose, a Sulphuric Acid plant has been running, now you shut down the line of the feed,
what will happen?
- Nothing will be burnt in the furnace, everything will be freezed/ solidified, everything in
the HE will be solidified too, the unconverted Sulfur dioxide in converter will be risen up
etc. From above discussion, it is clear that shutdown is a science. In big plants, there are
two different books for startup and shutdown.

 
 
Lecture 9 
 
Page 110-112, 
1 This table is not from book, rather taken from industry. It is a typical outline/ layout of Basic
Engineering Design report. Use it as a resource, not for cramming.

Page 113,  
**1 Front End Engineering Design
- Suppose, while designing HE, you calculated a number of tubes by following a standard,
now the vendor has different tubes other than your requirements, so you have to do the
revised calculation back & forth according to the data of vendor. This is known as FEED.

2 “Preparation of tender packages for the main equipment.”

- Tender package - To write the description such that no item is missed, company being
able/ready to submit the tender.

3 “Development of detailed plot plans and hazardous areas.”, What portions in the plant should
be made free from hazard?
- Restroom of operators
- Cafeteria
- Control room (In Palash Fertilizer to reach the control room, you have to step up a lot of
stairs, which have the potential problem that in case of emergency, you cannot go down
quickly).

** BED, DED, FEED - Clear Idea + Consists of what + Definition

Page 114, 
1 Drawing mentioned in this slide are sectional drawings, usually printed in A3.

Page 116, 
1 “Procedures for normal and emergency shutdown”
- Emergency shutdown needed when there is fire/ Storm Signal Number 9 etc, procedures
written in the book of shutdown must be maintained in every aspects, you cannot do it
whimsically (ইে মেতা ব কের িদেল হেব না, বইেয়র িনয়ম মেন ব করা লাগেব)।

Page 117, 
1 ​Conceptual Model - Not an engineering design, rather artistic design. The boss might not be a
chemical engineer, making it understandable to the boss/ mass people is the target of
conceptual model, just to illustrate the concept. Coordination of architect and engineer is
necessary to draw this.
Page 118, 
1 In the figure, there is no power generation section, as power comes from national power grid
here.
 
Page 121-122, 
1 Technip is a French company, services offered by Technip is listed here, just for comparison
with the listed things in our book. Technip was chosen because information of this company was
available, no other reasons.

Page 123,  
1 First, let us talk about the first row, it indicates that upto the end of feasibility/ inception of
EPC, the job is of client, they should do everything needed. After BED, the job is of the EPC.

Then, second row shows the time span of different things, such that cost estimation, which is
present for the whole time, because it is updated/ revised now and then. BEDD/PFD would be
there after completion of conceptual design and will be there for the rest of the time.

Lastly, third row shows the accuracy which is a clear indication that, from conceptual design to
BED to EPC, the estimated accuracy is increased.

In every cases, we have ignored O & M column, as this does not belong to our textbook/out of
our syllabus.

Page 127-129, 
1 Use it as a resource, not for cramming.