Author: Joel Andreani, P.E., Senior Vice President of Knowledge Management, Principal Engineer II
The Equity Engineering Practices® (EEPs) are a customizable set of Best Practices that are currently being used by nearly 60 companies in a variety of industries. The EEPs serve a big portion of the US refining industry but have grown to have a much more diverse clientele, serving hundreds of facilities in petrochemicals, chemicals, renewables, fertilizers, food processing, and other specialty sectors.
The EEPs help owner-users in all these industries to manage their equipment and facilities over the entire lifecycle of their equipment and infrastructure by promoting safety, managing risk, improving reliability, capturing corporate memory, and transferring knowledge. E2G | The Equity Engineering Group, Inc. has taken the EEPs to another level by developing several new collections and other additions to the main set of practices. The addition of Reuse Practices (RUPs) and Midstream or Logistics Engineering Practices (LEPs) further serves our expanding client base. Other additions such as Process Design Practices (PDPs) and AI tools to better utilize the EEPs are coming later this year or in early 2025. This article will focus on the addition of the RUPs and LEPs to the EEPs and will introduce the other enhancements coming later in the year.
The EEPS – A Historic Look
First, a little history of the EEPs. When E2G went into business in the early 2000s, one of the first products we provided was engineering practices. The EEPs will soon be reaching their 25th anniversary. Over the years, the EEPs have grown from about 450 practices and 200 piping classes to over 1000 practices and over 300 piping classes. In addition, the EEPs include over 600 standard drawings. The content covered in the basic EEP collection has grown from the original 15 main subject matter areas to 21 subject matter areas. The added subject areas reflect the addition of clients in logistics, chemicals, and other non-refining industries, as well as growth in the mechanical integrity area of the EEPs. The six additional sections cover Marine Facility Design and Maintenance, Solids Handling, Mechanical Integrity (MI) Programs, Special Emphasis MI Programs, Pipeline Facility Design, and Pipeline Facility Maintenance.
The Reuse Practices (RUPs)
One of the two new collections added to the EEPs in the past year is the RUPs. As clients look to repurpose assets to the production of renewable energy and renewable products, E2G has drawn on our experience in suitability-for-service (SFS) assessments and reuse assessments to develop this new collection. Like the base EEP collection, the RUPs draw on hundreds of years of SME experience, much of which is originated in the experience of E2G Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) with owner companies that were repurposing refinery units.
The RUPs provide clients with the procedures needed to evaluate existing equipment and infrastructure for reuse and repurposing. They can be beneficial in almost any change-of-service scenario. The RUPs consist of about 60 practices in nine of the 15 main subject matter areas covered by the EEPs. These include:
- Structures & Foundations
- Piping
- Rotating Equipment
- Pressure Vessels
- Heat Transfer Equipment
- Storage Tanks
- Material Requirements
- Instruments & Controls
- Electrical (Motors)
In addition, there are RUPs with general administrative information and RUPs covering the purchase of salvaged equipment and the relocation of equipment, both of which require additional due diligence.
The RUPs include three types of documents: basic RUPs (Figure 1) that identify the requirements for the specific reuse evaluation, worksheets (Figure 2) that are used to document information used in the reuse evaluation and decisions made, and checklists (Figure 3) to further assist the project manager in ensuring all necessary information has been gathered and all reuse evaluation steps have been completed. All the worksheets and checklists are in an editable format for ease of use.
The RUPs address the key questions in repurposing evaluations:
- What is the accuracy and completeness of available information? (This should be determined before anything else is done.)
- What is the compatibility of the materials with respect to the new service?
- Are the ratings of equipment and piping satisfactory for the new service?
- Are structures and foundations adequate for the new loads?
- Are there new hazards or risks that come with the new service? If so, how do you mitigate these?
- What is the remaining, useful service life of the equipment, piping, and structures?
- How do you manage interfaces with other existing (or new) equipment, piping, or units?
- What are the economics of reuse versus purchasing new in terms of a total lifecycle cost?
Generally, the evaluation process in each of the RUPs is a structured, four-step process:
- Operations Evaluation: This addresses the new requirements for pressure, temperature, fluids, process duty, horsepower, etc. These new conditions may indicate the need for larger nozzles, modification of internals, catalysts, etc.
- Inspection Evaluation: This includes checking original documentation and nameplates and determining if any modifications, alterations, repairs, or rerates have been made. Key information in this step includes maximum allowable working pressure (MAWP) and minimum design metal temperature (MDMT) information, corrosion rates and allowances, component thickness summaries, service history related to hot spots, flange leakage, localized pitting and/or corrosion, and any components needing replacement, such as exchanger bundles, impellers, and bearings.
- Metallurgical Evaluation: This step looks at the adequacy of existing materials. It must also be determined if internals need upgraded or if weld overlays or coatings or other corrosion protection measures are needed.
- Mechanical Evaluation: This step determines the new MAWP and design temperature, the remaining life estimate, whether a brittle fracture assessment is needed, etc.
An economic evaluation may also be needed. Generally, each of the main RUPs provides a flowchart to take you through these steps in a logical fashion. Ultimately, the process documented in each RUP results in the decision point of whether the equipment, piping, or structure is suitable for reuse and/or what changes might make it suitable (Figure 4).
Repurposing allows the petrochemical industry to evolve and adapt facilities to meet the future demands for green energy sources and products. With proper evaluation, reuse of assets can provide a more sustainable solution by extending the life of the assets, thereby improving the use of our resources and further reducing the impact on the environment.
The RUPs make reuse evaluation straightforward. They integrate into the base EEP collection or can stand alone with other companies only wishing to have practices to evaluate reuse. The RUP collection is integrated into the same strong management systems and website tools that E2G has developed for the EEP collection.
Midstream or Logistics Engineering Practices (LEPs)
The other new collection developed and added to the EEPs in the past year is the LEPs. The LEPs are the industry’s first commercially available practices focused on midstream facilities. Engineering practices were largely developed from needs in downstream facilities. A few years ago, E2G invited owner-user SMEs from midstream companies to meet in a focus group that discussed the engineering practices needs of these businesses. From this focus group, E2G began to develop LEPs. One of the key findings of this focus group was that the existing EEP collection covered many of the same design, maintenance, inspection, integrity evaluation, and repair issues as would be needed for their midstream facilities. In fact, it was determined that about 80% of the main EEP documents could be transitioned to a midstream engineering practices collection. Most of these required only minor, if any, changes to develop the corresponding LEP. Less than 10% of these transitioned EEPS required substantive revisions.
The LEPs recognize much of the same RAGAGEP that is applicable in the EEPs but bring in other codes and standards that apply mainly to midstream facilities such as ASME B31.4 and 31.8, NFPA 59A, and API 2610. Regarding additional jurisdictional requirements, the US DOT Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) and related OSHA 49 CFR 192 and 195 are among the main additions to the LEPs in terms of regulatory and jurisdictional requirements that apply to midstream facilities.
The other 20% of the EEP collection could be eliminated from the LEP collection as these practices covered equipment not used in midstream facilities. Additionally, several new LEPs were developed wher gaps existed. For example, additional practices in the areas of pig launchers and receivers, pipeline inspection and integrity evaluations, hazardous area classification for pipelines, and pipeline and marine terminal layout were added. LEPs on custody transfers, metering, and related flow instrumentation were some of the other additions and revisions needed to the existing EEP collection. As a result, a midstream practice collection came to be.
Now, many of our clients with both midstream and downstream facilities as well as clients only with midstream facilities have practice collections that are tailored to their needs. SMEs responsible for midstream facilities and third parties utilizing the LEPs will avoid having to sort through the additional downstream practices not applicable to their facility.
Other Additions Coming Soon to the Practices
Under development and on the horizon for release in late 2024 or early 2025 are PDPs. The PDPs will consist of about 30 best practices on the process side of many of the same industries that are serviced by the EEPs. We will have more information on the PDPs available later in the year on our website.
Finally, E2G is putting our software and research expertise to use in developing AI tools that will benefit the Practices user community. The E2G Practices (EEPs, LEPs, RUPs, and associated products) are already delivered on a state-of-the-art web-based platform that includes advanced search tools. The same software team that developed this innovative platform will be developing AI tools that will further enhance the user experience in everything from developing specification packages for major capital projects to determining needed inspection activities, repairs, and/or maintenance. We’ll have more on the introduction of our practice-related AI tools in a future article.
The E2G Difference
The EEPs and other derivatives of the EEPs like the RUPs and LEPs have been developed and maintained by E2G SMEs with hundreds of years of combined industry experience. Currently, E2G utilizes more than 60 of our SMEs in support of the Practices—add to that input from SMEs at over 50 client companies that has helped direct future development of E2G’s Practices Program. The bottom line is, with subscription levels ranging from the basic to a fully customizable collection, the EEPs and now the RUPs and LEPs (all delivered on a state-of-the-art platform) are the gold standard for all your engineering standards needs.
If you are interested in learning more about the EEPs, including the RUPs, LEPs, PDPs, and AI tools, please join us at the 2025 Equity Symposium, which will be followed by the annual Practices User Group (PUG). Day 1 of the PUG will include updates on all these Practices initiatives. The Symposium will include technical presentations on many of the safety and reliability topics that affect our industry. The event takes place January 28 to January 30, 2025, in The Woodlands, TX.
