Process Design
Tailored Process Designs Aligned with Your Project Goals
At PCE, we know that each facility has unique goals and constraints. Our team of experienced engineers delivers custom process design solutions that align with your specific operational, technical, and business requirements—whether for system upgrades, debottlenecking, expansions, or new projects . We work closely with your team to ensure every design is practical, efficient, and scalable.
When planning a new plant, pilot facility, or major expansion, it’s common to face more questions than answers. Is the concept technically sound? Should the process be batch or continuous? What are the cost implications?
At PCE, we bring clarity to these early-stage decisions. Our engineers work alongside your team to evaluate technical options, explore process configurations, and identify the most viable paths forward. Once alternatives are defined, we conduct rigorous techno-economic analyses to compare system performance, reliability, capital investment, and operating costs.
Using a structured front-end loading (FEL) approach, we guide you from concept development through to detailed process design—ensuring each step adds value, reduces risk, and supports smarter investment decisions.
Our comprehensive services include:
FEL-0 & 1: Conceptual Process Design
In the initial phase, owner-operators evaluate the conceptual design to determine the project's viability as a capital investment. Stakeholders define the business framework, establish success criteria, and estimate the resources — including labor and effort — needed to achieve those objectives.
Industrial projects typically aim to boost revenue, reduce costs, expand capacity, or improve efficiency and reliability. Clients assess value, risk, and uncertainty, making high-level screening or conceptual process design critical for comparing options consistently.
This phase involves:
Additionally, PCE helps identify potential risks—such as weaknesses in the design basis or insufficient lab data—so that mitigation plans can be put in place before the next project phase.
- Identifying promising chemical conversion pathways or licensed technologies
- Batch vs. continuous processing
- Different separation techniques (e.g., extraction vs. distillation, adsorption, membrane or filtration)
- Narrowing the project down to one or more feasible options
- Outlining major equipment requirements
- Developing block flow diagrams
- Providing an Order of Magnitude cost estimate
FEL-2: Preliminary Design & Feasibility Study
In this stage, various process alternatives are explored, with a deeper assessment of value, risks, and uncertainties. The goal here is to finalize one process concept for advancement into the Detailed Process Design phase. A more detailed cost estimate and project timeline are developed, typically within an accuracy range of +/-20% to +/-30%.
Key deliverables at this stage include:
- Process Design Basis
- Summary of Process Alternatives Evaluations
- Initial Process Simulation & Heat and Material Balances
- Process feasibility studies
- Process Technical and Economic Alternatives Evaluations
- Preliminary process flow diagrams (PFDs)
- Mass and energy balance
- Preliminary Equipment List & Conditions of Service
- Preliminary Process Design Packages
- Preliminary Capital Cost / Operating Cost Estimates
- Summary of Raw Material & Utility Requirements
- Process Risk Assessment & HAZID
The most promising options move forward to the next Phase.
FEL-3: Detailed Process Design (BEP, PDP)
At this stage process design package is generated.
- Process Simulations / HMBs
- Process Flow Diagrams (PFDs)
- Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs)
- Process Controls Design Services
- Equipment & Instrument Specifications and Lists
- Equipment Plot Plans and Layout Drawings
- Process Design Level Cost Estimates
- Preliminary Standard Operating Procedures
- Relief Device Sizing & Flare System Design
- Detailed Design Owner’s Engineering Support