Commissioning and Start-up of

QAFCO 5 and 6
The Process Plants of Qatar Fertilizer Company (QAFCO) are located at 2 sites in Mesaieed Indus-
trial City. The new site for QAFCO 5 and 6 is located at about 3 km west of the old site of QAFCO 1
to 4 Plants.

Q5 and Q6 Projects were the biggest expansion activity ever undertaken by QAFCO, increasing the
ammonia and urea capacities by 1.6 and 2.8 million Metric Tons (MT) per year, respectively. The En-
gineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning (EPCC) contract for this project was
signed with a consortium comprising of Saipem of Italy and Hyundai of South Korea in 2 stages. The
Q5 contract was signed on the 2nd of December 2007. Q6 Contract was signed as an amendment to Q5
Contract on 9th of October 2009.

This paper describes QAFCO’s experience in the commissioning and start-up of the process facilities,
the problems encountered and key lessons learnt during the commissioning.

Ali Abdi Jama

Qatar Fertilizer Company (QAFCO)

5. Two Urea Bulk Storage Halls with

capacities of 100,000 and 175,000
Introduction MT, both with reclaimers and Pipe

Q
AFCO has 2 production sites 3 km Conveyor System.
apart. The sites are separated by other 6. Two independent Urea Export
industrial infrastructure and access systems, with a capacity of 1000
roads. QAFCO 5/6 project, on a MTPH to the export jetties. both
Greenfield area of about 1 million m2, consists using Pipe Conveyors
of the following process facilities: 7. Power Plants consisting of 5 Co-
generation units with auxiliary firing
1. Two Ammonia plants (TopsoeTech- for additional steam production,
nology) with design capacity of 2200 Steam Turbine Generator and 2
metric ton per day (MTPD). Auxiliary Boilers
2. Two Urea plants (Snamprogetti 8. 132 KV sub-station connected to
Technology) with design capacity of Kahramaa (local power company), to
3800 MTPD. 5 new co-generation units and to the
3. Two Urea Granulation units (Uhde existing Qafco distribution network.
Fertilizer Technology) with design 9. Desalination unit of 225 m3/h
capacity of 3850 mtpd capacity.
4. One UFC-85 plant (Perstorp Tech- 10. Waste Water Treatment facilities
nology) with design capacity 85 consisting of Thermal Concentrators
mtpd and Evaporation Ponds.
11. Seawater multi-cell Cooling Tower,
Closed Cooling Water Units and

2014 95 AMMONIA TECHNICAL MANUAL

 Electro-chlorination System for  Melamine and Urea 1 Revamp Pro-
Hypochlorite Production jects - commissioned in 2008/2009.
12. Interconnecting Piperack (ICPR)
carrying the Sea Water, Ammonia QAFCO 3 and QAFCO 4 Expansion Projects
lines, desalinated water and were 2 complete production trains, each consist-
Nitrogen. ing of an Ammonia plant, a Urea plant, power
13. New substation to distribute power generation facilities, Ammonia storage tanks,
to the old Qafco site and complete utility facilities.
14. Two ammonia storage tanks with Qafco commissioning manual describes the re-
steel pressure inner tank and quirements and responsibilities for planning,
reinforced full height independent control, organization, execution, administration
concrete outer protection wall of and documentation of the commissioning activi-
50,000 MT each and with 1000 ties. The commissioning manual has been up-
MTPH loading system for export. dated for Q5 and 6 Projects with the lessons
15. New Jetty extension for Large learned from recent projects and was included in
Vessels. the contract. It was part of the company docu-
16. A CO2 inter-connection line to ex- ments that contractors shall strictly comply
port excess CO2 from old site to with. Some of the key resources involved in the
Q5/6 site. earlier projects were also transferred to the new
Q5 and 6 Project to ensure maximum use of the
For synergy and integration purposes 2 of the relevant in-house experience.
Co-generation units and the items 13, 14,15, and
16 listed above are located in the old Qafco site. The company commissioning planning had 3
critical elements.
The Q5 and Q6 projects were the biggest expan-
sion activity ever undertaken by QAFCO. To- 1. Utilization of Company Resources
gether Q5 and Q6 projects consumed more than for all commissioning activities.
120 million man-hours to complete the con-
struction and commissioning. At the peak of The EPCC contract strategy put the re-
construction activities there were 15000 people sponsibilities for commissioning execu-
from more than 60 different nationalities work- tion on the contractor(s), with a require-
ing on site. ment to use the company human
resources for all the commissioning ac-
tivities. This strategy served QAFCO
Company Commissioning well in the recent major EPC projects
Philosophy like QAFCO 3 and 4. The company per-
sonnel get the necessary training and get
QAFCO has developed a complete commission- engaged in the actual work of commis-
ing manual that sets the objectives of the com- sioning, while the responsibility lies with
missioning activities in its major Projects. The the contractor. The strategy also helps
basis of the commissioning manual is the vast contractors to limit its commissioning
experience QAFCO made from recent commis- manpower to few key resources support-
sioning of major facilities: ed by equipment vendors and process li-
censors. This commissioning strategy
 QAFCO-3 Expansion Projects - requires the contractor and company
commissioned in 1997 commissioning organizations to be close
 QAFCO-4 Expansion Project - and work together as one team. The two
commissioned in 2004

AMMONIA TECHNICAL MANUAL 96 2014

 commissioning teams were each headed tractor commissioning manager and ad-
by a commissioning manager who re- ministratively to company commission-
ported to their respective project man- ing manager. Figure 1 describes the
agement. The company commissioning Commissioning Organization adopted
resources, operators and technicians, for the Project.
were functionally reporting to the con-

Figure 1 - Simplified Commissioning Organization

jor project about 12 months before the

2. Engaging Company start of the commissioning. The logic is
Commissioning Resources during to give the operation staff enough time
Construction Phase to complete all the training requirements
and participate in important construction
The second critical consideration was activities.
the selection and deployment of the plant
operators and technicians well before 3. Selection of Commissioning Teams
commissioning activities. The objective
was to give these company resources the The 3rd critical element is the selection
full grasp of the project by having them of the commissioning teams. The for-
experience the construction and commis- mation of the commissioning team start-
sioning phases. This prolonged exposure ed with the selection of the commission-
has given the operating staff insight into ing manager and other key operation
the equipment design and valuable train- personnel that had relevant experiences.
ing opportunity. Part of the team was tasked to participate
in the detailed engineering activities at
As a rule of thumb, QAFCO has been the contractor’s headquarters. The rest of
deploying the operation staff to the ma- the team was tasked to build the new or-

2014 97 AMMONIA TECHNICAL MANUAL

 ganizations, and source 50 % of the op- 2. Assist Construction Activities
erators and technicians from the existing
QAFCO plants. Based on company ex- The commissioning teams were deployed to the
perience with similar projects, a decision project during construction phase, as discussed
was earlier made to transfer 50% of the above. The teams were engaged in a number of
operators and technicians from existing construction and pre-commissioning activities
QAFCO plants, and complement with required for the mechanical completion mile-
the other 50% new recruits to get an ide- stone.
al mix of experience and youth.
The commissioning teams were tasked to lead
The entire batch of shift supervisors and the punch list walk downs, punch list clearing,
operators was transferred to Q5 about 10 air blowing, hydro test follow up, reinstate-
months before the start of the first com- ments, cleaning of the tanks and vessels, water
missioning activities in the utility plants. flushing, inerting and preservation of equip-
ment, lube oil flushing and motor solo runs.
After a brief introduction to the project
followed by project safety training, the A multi discipline walk-downs were carried out
commissioning teams were divided into for the punch listing of each commissioning
groups led by a supervisor. The teams package. The shift supervisor was appointed as
were each assigned to a number of oper- the team leader responsible for the management
ation units (called systems), and were of punch items. Once the punch items were rec-
given the following 2 sets of responsibil- orded in the master punch list, it was his respon-
ities, with the objective to have them sibility to follow the corrective actions and sub-
ready to take control of Operations: sequent closure. Most of the time multiple
verifications were required to complete and
1. Get On-the Job-Training clear punch items.

 To fully study the systems allo- Air blowing and water flushing activities were
cated to them. part of mechanical completion. After each ac-
 To assist in its mechanical com- tivity a certificate was prepared and loaded into
pletion (punch list walk downs, the project management system. Mechanical
punch list clearing etc.) completion was declared only when all the cer-
 To prepare commissioning pro- tificates have been loaded into the system. The
cedures for their systems. commissioning team was fully involved in these
 To conduct internal presentations activities.
and training material of the allot-
ted system. Lube oil flushing of the compressor common
 To develop its operating instruc- lube oil system, air blowing of the process pip-
tions. ing and steam blowing, were some of the long-
 To develop its field and control est time-consuming activities. For some ma-
room log sheets. chines the oil flushing continued for more than
three months. Continuous monitoring was re-
 To participate in its functional
quired for this important activity.
checks, develop and correct its
DCS graphics.
Steam blowing was included as a commission-
 To carry out all the commission-
ing activity where special attention was re-
ing activities related to that sys-
quired. This activity required close coordina-
tem.

AMMONIA TECHNICAL MANUAL 98 2014

 tion with other plants as well as good planning. new site. The commissioning needed careful
The circuit to be blown was identified and logical sequence to meet the demands for other
marked. A temporary silencer was installed at utility systems. The following sequential
the blow-off points wherever required. All the commissioning order was decided and the
wooden scaffoldings or any other flammable construction organization was directed to
material were removed from the vicinity of the deliver the process areas based upon
selected circuit. Wherever possible, the insula- commissioning priority.
tion was completed. Area was barricaded at the
steam release point.  DCS systems for utilities and cogen-
Most of the steam blowing was done during the eration units
mid-day break or during the night when the  Desalinated water storage and pump-
number of workers at site was minimum. Few
ing
failures of the internals of silencers were experi-
enced as shown in figure 2.  Sea water launching pumps
 Instrument air system with tempo-
rary cooling tower
 Nitrogen system and fire water sys-
tem for Cogen-2 area
 Water Demineralization systems
 Waste water system
 Natural gas system
.  Auxiliary boilers with temporary
cooling tower
Figure 2 - damaged steam silencer
 Steam system
 Desalination Plant
Operator Training Programs  Sea water cooling system
 Closed cooling water system
Training was an integral part of the preparation
for commissioning activities. It was a require-
ment that all the training for the company opera- This sequential commissioning order shown in
tion and maintenance staff had to be completed Figure 3 was followed.
before the start of the commissioning activities.
Programs were a mix of specialized vendor and
licensor training, process training and in-house
training derived from the writing of the operat-
ing instructions for all plant systems. A series of
discussion workshops were conducted when
each operating instruction was completed.

Commissioning Sequence

All of the start-up utilities, except the initial

desalinated water used for flushing activities
and sea water cooling had to be produced at the

2014 99 AMMONIA TECHNICAL MANUAL

 Commissioning Packages ( CP)
The project commissioning organization has
broken down plant systems into smaller packag-
es called “Commissioning Packages (CP)”. A
CP is defined as smallest practical scope of
work unit for commissioning constituting a
functional unit, which will be tested by commis-
sioning to prove its suitability for operation.

The commissioning (dynamic verification) ac-

tivities would normally follow the mechanical
completion of systems, and the construction or-
ganization would then declare a system (pack-
age) complete and ask for Certificate from the
commissioning organization.

The following Commissioning Packages (CP)

have been established for the Project.

Figure 3 - Actual Commissioning Sequence

Systems Q5 PROJECT Q6 PROJECT TOTAL

No. of CPs No. of CPs No. of CPs
Total 956 444 1400
Operational systems 900 428 1328
Utilities 166 55 221
Ammonia-5 86 0 86
Ammonia-6 82 0 82
Power generation and distribution 225 75 300
Urea 5 (incl UFC) 87 2 89
Urea-6 0 116 116
Ammonia storage 19 0 19
Material handling 16 14 30
HVAC 25 15 40
Instrumentation 103 115 218
Electrical field 83 35 118
Buildings 8 1 9
Non operational systems 56 16 72
Instrumentation 5 0 5
Civil 51 16 67
Table 1 - Breakdown of Project CP’s

AMMONIA TECHNICAL MANUAL 100 2014

 The project had 1400 CP’s of which 1328 were Commissioning dates”. The following commis-
operational systems and 72 non-operational sys- sioning profiles show the planned commission-
tems. The largest numbers of CP’s were the ing and the actual profiles achieved.
power generation and distribution plants.
The deviations in the planned and achieved pro-
Commissioning Profiles files are indicative of the extent of delays that
part of the project has experienced during con-
As part of project planning the CP’s were as- struction.
signed specific “commissioning start and finish”
dates at the project planning stage. These dates
were logically linked to the planned “Mechani-
cal Completion and Hand-Over to

Commissioning Profiles

10‐Jul‐12

1‐Apr‐12

23‐Dec‐11
Commissioning Start Dates

14‐Sep‐11

6‐Jun‐11

26‐Feb‐11

18‐Nov‐10

10‐Aug‐10

Utilities Actual Urea 6 Actual Urea 5 Actual Ammonia 5 Actual

2‐May‐10 Ammonia 6 Actual Utilities planned  U6 Planned Urea 5 Planned
Ammonia 5 Planned Ammonia 6 Planned

22‐Jan‐10
1 21 41 61 81 101 121 141 161
Commissioning Packages

Figure 4 - Overall Commissioning Profiles

2014 101 AMMONIA TECHNICAL MANUAL

 Utilities_U6 Commissioning Profiles

26‐Jan‐13

10‐Jul‐12

23‐Dec‐11
Commissioning Start Dates 

6‐Jun‐11

18‐Nov‐10

2‐May‐10

Utilities Actual Urea 6 Actual Utilities planned  U6 Planned

14‐Oct‐09
1 21 41 61 81 101 121 141 161
Commissioning Packages

Figure 5 – Utility Systems and U6 Commissioning Profiles

A5_A6_U5 Commissioning Profiles

01/04/2012

23/12/2011
Commissioning Start Dates

14/09/2011

06/06/2011

26/02/2011

18/11/2010
Urea 5 Actual Ammonia 5 Actual Ammonia 6 Actual
Urea 5 Planned Ammonia 5 Planned Ammonia 6 Planned

10/08/2010
1 21 41 61 81
Commissioning Packages

Figure 6 – A5, A6 and U5 Commissioning Profiles

AMMONIA TECHNICAL MANUAL 102 2014

 Commissioning activities of all process facilities compliance with all HSE training programs was
have progressed in parallel and uninterrupted as required.
can be seen in the profiles. The organization
was well focused and well trained to perform. Project Safety Performance
Urea-6 plant commissioning was completed
ahead of schedule as many of the lessons The project safety performance was excellent.
learned in Urea-5 commissioning have been Table 2 has the summary data for both Q5 and
considered. In all other areas (A5, A6, U5 and Q6 Projects.
Utilities) there have been some delays in com-
Cumulative Targets
missioning. Main reasons for the delays in HSE Performance Statistics
Q5 Q6 Q5 Q6
commissioning were:
Man-hours Worked (Const+Commiss) 104,152,200 16,032,390

 A general delay in the Hand-Over from

Construction due to factors like local Total Accidents 2656 195

summer weather conditions of high Fatalities @ 0 0

temperatures and high humidity which Lost Time Accidents 22 3

restricted working hours. First Aid Cases 2356 170

 Number of Engineering and Design Medical Treatment Cases 34 7 -

Restricted Work Cases 91 7

changes executed locally.
Fire Incidents 39 4
 Rearrangement of the commissioning
Property Damages 87 3
sequence and availability of Temporary
Environmental Releases 15 1
Commissioning equipment.
Traffic Accidents 12 0 -
 The failure of the Waste Heat Boiler of
A5 early in the commissioning phase
Days Lost 1076 215
(Sept 2011) and the subsequent long re- Lost Time Accident Frequency Rate
pair time required had affected the over- (LTFR) = Number of LTA x 0.211 0.189 0.4 0.4
1,000,000) / Total Worked Man-hours
all commissioning progress of the A6 Total Accident Frequency Rate
and U5 plants. (TAFR) = Number of Accidents x
1,000,000) / Total Worked Man-hours
25.5 12.1 35 35

HSE Training Requirement Table 2 - HSE performance statistics for Q5 and Q6 Pro-
jects
The training on HSE construction and
commissioning requirements was mandatory for
all the commissioning staff. A training passport The notable statistics extracted from the table
was issued to each individual. In the passport all are:
the training programs attended were marked and
stamped in the passport. It was mandatory to 1. Q5 and Q6 projects, together consumed
carry the training passport on site. The HSE more than 120 million man-hours to
department carried out random checks on the complete the construction and commis-
passports. Any deficiencies found were referred sioning. At the peak of construction ac-
back to the training center where all the training tivities there were 15000 people from
programs were scheduled six days in a week. more than 60 different nationalities
Records were kept in a master list, and one working on site.
could find the status at any time. 100% 2. No work-related fatalities in the whole
project. There were, however 4 cases of

2014 103 AMMONIA TECHNICAL MANUAL

 sudden deaths experienced with worker derground pipe corridors, high tension cables
population during the project. Investiga- and industrial service roads.
tions concluded that these sudden death
cases were not work-related incidents.
3. A total of 25 Lost Time Accidents
(LTA) with 1291 days lost have been
recorded during construction and Com-
missioning.
4. Only 6 and 2 LTA’s have been recorded
respectively for Q5 and Q6 during the
Commissioning period.
5. Target Performance of Lost Time Acci-
dent Frequency rates (LFTR) and Acci-
dent Severity Rates (ASR) have been
achieved. Figure 7 – Interconnecting Pipe Rack (ICPR) between the
6. 20 Million (20,005,170) and 5.2 Million QAFCO Sites
Man hours (5,220,130) without LTA has
been accumulated respectively for Q5
and Q6 Project. A New Greenfield Site
Q5/6 site was a Greenfield area, which means
Challenges Faced that all needed commissioning utilities had to be
internally generated at site. To meet the desali-
There were many challenges the project has nated water requirement was especially chal-
faced. In this chapter we will cover some of the lenging. The initial requirement of desalinated
main ones that had direct consequences on the water was met by importing from QAFCO site
commissioning and start-up activities. via the interconnecting piping between the two
sites. An initial requirement of 50000 m3 was
Size of Project was a challenge imported at a rate of maximum 60m3/hr for
flushing activities and starting of the first de-
Execution of a project of this size – 2 Ammonia mineralization plant. It was evident from the be-
Plants, 2 Urea plants, UFC 85 Plant, 200 MW ginning that for the sustained operation of the
Power Generation and distribution systems, in- first auxiliary boiler, it was necessary to produce
tegrated steam and utility network, Storage and desalinated water internally at site.
Export facilities - on a Greenfield site is a big
challenge as described in the introduction chap- Temporary cooling tower sourced from the lo-
ter. cal market had been erected for the initial cool-
ing water supply for the initial start-up of in-
Interconnecting Pipe Rack (ICPR) strument air compressor and auxiliary boiler, as
the permanent cooling water system was not
The 2 QAFCO sites are more than 3 km apart.
available due to construction delays. The tempo-
They are connected by the ICPR on which the
rary tower was about 5 tons and
vital communications links, flow of products
6mx2.4mx2.89m in size.
from Q5/6 site and utility inter-change between
the sites are supported and managed. The new
The commissioning sequence had to be re-
site fully depends on the availability of the
viewed to reflect these commissioning needs.
ICPR, which runs over third party land with un-

AMMONIA TECHNICAL MANUAL 104 2014

 Challenging Installations Sea Water Cooling Towers
The location of the new facilities at QAFCO has Situated at around 3 km away from the sea, the
generated a number of unique engineering solu- cooling needs of the new facilities at Q5/6 could
tions that posed a challenge during the commis- not be supplied by a “once through” sea water
sioning phase of the project. Two of these Chal- supply system similar to the ones installed at the
lenging installations are the Urea Product Pipe existing production trains. The lack of land for
Conveyor Systems and the Sea Water Cooling the sea water pumping station, environmental
Towers. constraints and the impossible task of routing
multiple large diameter supply and return sea
Pipe Conveyor Systems water lines from the sea front to the new site
under existing underground pipe corridors, high
Urea product from Urea 5 and 6 is stored in two tension cables and other underground installa-
bulk halls E and F with capacities of 100000 tions meant that another cooling solution had to
and 175000 MT respectively. Bulk urea export be found.
from QAFCO is being done via two Jetties. A
network of enclosed trough conveyors allows The selected solution was a multi-cell cooling
urea 5 and 6 plants to send their product to ei- unit evaporating sea water to achieve the cool-
ther of the bulk halls E and F. Pipe conveyor ing needs of the new facilities. A set of 2 sea
system was selected as the obvious solution to water launching pumps supply make-up of
move granular urea in a single go from the bulk 10.000 m3/hr through two 36 inch supply lines
halls E and F to the Jetties. This selection elimi- to the cooling towers. The make-up lines and 2
nated the need for multiple transfer points and blow-down lines from the cooling towers are
conditioned galleries. Urea product is reclaimed routed on the ICPR under the urea pipe convey-
from the bulk halls and transferred to the pipe ors.
conveyor which envelops the product, thus pro-
tecting it from dust and humidity. Two pipe The sea water system at Q5/6 consists of two
conveyors are used to send urea products from independent circulation loops, each one supply-
Q5/6 to either Jetty 1 or 2. The conveyors snake ing one train and the common utilities.
through 2.8 km of twists and turns. They cross
third party land, roads and pipelines on an Inter- The two sea water loops circulate around 120
connecting Pipe Rack (ICPR) without the need 000 m3/hr of sea water and evaporate around
for a gallery, transfer points or any other protec-
tion from the elements. 2000 m3/hr depending on the weather condi-
tions. The system is balanced by 8000 m3/hr of
blow-down and 10 000 m3/hr of fresh sea water
make-up.

Figure 8 – Pipe Conveyors for Bulk Urea

2014 105 AMMONIA TECHNICAL MANUAL

 The leak could not be attended online and after
stopping the plant it was discovered that the
Waste Heat Boiler was leaking. Internal inspec-
tion revealed failure of inlet tube tube-sheet
joints, damaged refractory and broken ferrules..
The unit was repaired and plant was restarted
and operated at reduced capacity. Two subse-
quent failures and repairs were experienced with
A5 WHB.
After the 1st failure of A5 WHB, A6 unit was
inspected and some tubes have been plugged as
a result.
Figure 9- Sea Water Cooling Towers These frequent failures had negatively impacted
the start-up of the other Ammonia and the Urea
Weather Conditions during Summer Months plants. A5 WHB was replaced in February of
2014. A6 WHB was also replaced in April 2014.
Local climatic conditions are a major challenge
during the hot summer season in Qatar. A num- Corrosion in a Medium Pressure
ber of measures were implemented on site in or- Decomposer (MPD) of Urea Plant
der to minimize the impact on commissioning Right from the initial start-up, excessive corro-
and construction activities during the time when sion rates were experienced in the Medium
the Heat index (temperature/humidity combina- Pressure decomposer (MPD) of both Urea
tion) exceeded the allowable limits. These in- plants. The corrosion products from the MPD
cluded measures for limiting outdoor activities were changing the urea product color. The cor-
to those that have direct impact on schedule, en- rosion rate accelerated when the plant load was
increased and the temperatures of the conden-
forcing frequent rest periods, providing shaded sate at the inlet of medium pressure decomposer
and cooled areas near to the areas of activity and increased.
making sure people are kept hydrated through- After the onset of the corrosion process (loss of
out the day with ample supply of cool potable passivation layers) affecting the material chosen
water. for the MPD unit, process adjustments and tem-
porary measures could not stop the corrosion.
Failure of Waste Heat Boilers (WHB) of Both MPD’s have been replaced, in Nov 2013
Ammonia Plants and Feb 2014 respectively for U6 and U5.
Tubes of the new units are made from urea
On the evening of September 8th 2011 A5 plant grade stainless steel material 25:22:2 Cr/Ni/Mo.
was running with normal process conditions at
approximately 100% load. At around 20:30hrs,
during his routine plant survey, one of the field Lessons Learned
operators observed a small fire at the E0309 1. Deploying Company Commissioning
(HP-steam super heater) channel flange. He Resources early during Construction
immediately informed the shift supervisor and phase offers the best training opportuni-
the DCS operator via the radio and the fire was ties and reduces construction mistakes.
put-off shortly after by operational staff using 2. Shift from construction to commission-
dry chemical powder extinguisher. ing site - the whole Construction site

AMMONIA TECHNICAL MANUAL 106 2014

 was brought under commissioning re- References
sponsibility at about 70% overall pro-
gress. From that point the operation staff 1. Project Contract Commissioning Manual
was engaged and the Commissioning Appendix E 35 - Q5-PT-M000.01003
Work Permit Rules applied. This shift 2. Project HSE Manual for Commission-
had positive safety implications as the ing.
incident rate significantly dropped. 3. Sudden Death Cases on the Project Site–
3. Aligning construction and commission- Contractor Report L-SH-PT-05592 dated
ing priorities. It is important that Con- March 2010.
struction is flexible enough to respond to 4. A5, A6, U5, U6 and Utilities Commis-
the Commissioning requirements sioning Reports.
through 5. Commissioning Records
4. Contracts to include commissioning re- 6. Project Management Documents.
views sessions during engineering to
identify how the facilities will be com-
missioned and the modifications needed
Acknowledgements
to allow quicker and more systematic We acknowledge all the colleagues that contrib-
commissioning of the facility. uted to this paper. We are especially thankful to
5. Temporary Equipment – Proper planning A5, A6, U5, U6 and Utility Head of Sections
of temporary commissioning equipment and their teams for the excellent summary in
like boilers, cooling towers was critical their areas, Project Engineering and Construc-
during early commissioning phase, to tion Manager, HSE Manager for their useful
avoid operating process units outside comments, Mr. B.R. Patil for the paper reviews,
operating limits. Mr. Roycie Angeles and Mr. Edren Maun for
6. Commissioning Spares - insufficient their excellent drafting and setting up of the pa-
commissioning spares can lead to delays. per.
7. Preservations – Lack of proper preserva-
tion of some equipment resulted in leak-
ing of many ball valves, control valves
and blockage of caged valves.
8. Lack of drain points in the steam system
resulted in longer heating time for some
machineries.
9. Collect Trip and Interlock logics and di-
agrams in one area/document. – There
was confusion as logic blocks are de-
scribed in separate vendor documents,,
and may not be reflected in the main
plant shut down logics.
10. OTS - Operator Training Simulator –
OTS was not delivered at the right time
for operator training during the commis-
sioning phase. An OTS to be effective
training tool should be delivered and set
up early, preferably during construction
phase.

2014 107 AMMONIA TECHNICAL MANUAL

AMMONIA TECHNICAL MANUAL 108 2014