Intensifying Your Process With Modular Plant Design

A modular plant differs from the traditional plant in that the plant is designed and built as portable skids — self-contained process units built within a portable frame structure that can be transported to an end user. A modular plant can be comprised of many unit operations contained in a single skid or multiple skids used to create a larger, more-complex process system. In contrast, a stick-built plant is one in which the process system is constructed entirely at the final location. This article discusses why a company would want to choose a modular design over conventional field construction, how to decide whether or not to go modular, and, once you do decide that modular is the best choice, what steps must be taken to design and fabricate the modular plant.