Unless properly designed and built, complex piping configurations can invite their share of headaches throughout the process plant This article reviews an array of best practices, and offers practical recommendations for pipe-design teams. It discusses such challenges as designing piping runs with proper orientation and elevation in mind, predicting the effects of thermal expansion and contraction, accounting for complex piping interferences, and making major and minor process equipment and instrumentation connections.

Inadequate or poorly prepared scope-of-work documents are often to blame for inaccurate cost estimates with capital projects. The close relationship between scope-of-work determination and cost estimating is discussed here, and practical guidance is offered.

Accurate, timely chemical-inventory data is required by process-plant operators to ensure predictable operations and to satisfy site-specific operating permits and other environmental regulations Reviewed here are several types of software that can help operators keep track of what chemicals are stored and used onsite.