The most delicate moment in a plant project is between fabrication/construction and plant startup. Process systems and other critical equipment must be moved, installed, hooked up to utilities and set up correctly for a smooth startup. But surprisingly, it’s not problems in any of those areas that often cause bad or even failed starts.

Poor or skipped pre-commissioning work can have an extreme impact on the probability that systems will start up smoothly, resulting in significant cost increases and delayed project completion. Why is pre-commissioning so critical?

It’s easy to forget that assembling, welding, moving, installing, and hooking systems up to raw materials and plant utilities all represent opportunities for contaminates, part failures, and other problems to occur. Are you making sure that your piping is truly free of debris? Are you 100% sure that all your instrumentation and controls are working correctly?

Pre-commissioning makes sure all systems are up to ISO cleanliness specifications and functioning properly. The easiest way to ruin brand new equipment is to skip this step and not properly clean systems before startup. Do you want to take the risk a random shop rag got left in the mixing tank, or rust from a process connection hose has infiltrated your brand new piping system? Plan to pre-commission your systems and start your systems or plant off on the right foot.