Hydrogen Generation Plant Design and Manufacturer Saves Labour Costs by Upgrading Design Software

Identifying goals

Mahler AGS is an international leader in designing and manufacturing hydrogen generation plants, specialising in steam reforming and pressure swing absorption technology. With more than 60 years of experience in the business, the company provides tailored, turn-key solutions for clients across different chemical sectors.

Mahler AGS was employed to design and manufacture a modular hydrogen plant for a leading global company in the palm oil business. The resulting plant is now used to refine crude palm oil and crude palm kernel oil. The plant design is based on Mahler AGS’ HYDROFORM-C hydrogen generation plant series. This is Mahler’s turnkey plant design solution for hydrogen generating plants, focusing on flexibility and full automation. As part of the modular design principle, Mahler preassembled and delivered the plant as prefabricated units.

Mahler AGS was looking for both a new pipe stress analysis software as well as one to replace its existing design software (X-Plant) that included a modern 3D planning solution. The new system needed to be compatible with the previous AutoCAD-based software, easy-to-use, and fast to implement so it could minimise project downtime and delay. Intergraph^® CADWorx^® Plant Professional and CAESAR II^® were chosen due to their AutoCAD^®-based structure, scalability, and suitability for the project scope.

Overcoming challenges

A tight time schedule and mixed existing ASME/DIN EN piping codes affected the design and manufacturing process of the new plant. Meeting the strict project deadlines was ensured by the efficiency and accuracy of CADWorx Plant Professional. As an AutoCAD-based solution, most of the users already had experience with a similar product and were able to get up-to-speed quickly. Even though this was the first of Mahler’s projects in which Intergraph solutions were executed, only a short adoption time was needed because training and design were performed in parallel. Due to the ease of use and quick implementation of both CADWorx Plant Professional and CAESAR II, the design for the new plant was completed within approximately five months from the project start date.

CAESAR II was used throughout the project for all of the pipe stress analysis needs, and provided Mahler with a way to ensure the accuracy and safety of the piping specifications and pipe stress analysis.

Realising results

CADWorx Plant Professional was used to create an intelligent 3D plant model of the new plant, including:

• Intelligent 3D models of equipment, steel structures, and piping
• 2D layout drawings, and civil guide drawings
• Isometric drawings
• Bills of material for piping and steel.

CAESAR II was used for all piping stress calculations, data sheets, and piping specifications. As a default, CAESAR II
creates bi-directional links between plant design and engineering analysis. This enabled Mahler to pass data between different departments without data loss. Training and setup were completed by an employee with previous experience in both CADWorx and CAESAR II. Currently, the CAD department of Mahler has full access to the system.

Ultimately, by choosing CADWorx Plant Professional and CAESAR II, Mahler AGS reduced project man-hours by 10-15 percent, with an additional 25-30 percent reduction in time spent on stress calculations. The latter is attributed to the overarching compatibility between Intergraph solutions, requiring fewer model revisions throughout the design process, regardless of the amount of overall changes.

Next steps

Following the successful Hydroform-C series plant design, Mahler AGS has designed four new plants using Intergraph CADWorx Plant Professional and CAESAR II. The company continues to use the software in all future projects, such as ordered design and manufacture projects for two hydrogen plants, a nitrogen plant, and an oxygen plant.