INDUSTRY: Chemical | SERVICES: Multiple Engineering Disciplines | Project Management | Construction Management
ABOUT THE CLIENT
Our client owns and operates an independent soybean crush facility & biodiesel operation that provides the latest soybean processing technologies and a high-quality renewable fuel source for industries around the country. EAD supports our client’s mission to become the world’s largest soybean cooperative by supporting them with world-class engineering, project management, and safety consulting.
PROBLEM TO SOLVE
Our client wanted to beat their competition and design a commercial biodiesel facility under a tight schedule. They needed a way to make refined & bleached soybean oil from their crude oil to use as feedstock for their biodiesel plant. EAD was hired to not only design the biodiesel facility but the oil refinery as well.
APPROACH & SOLUTION
EAD pulled out all of the stops to ensure our client could beat out their competitors and meet the condensed timeline. Looking to speed up the time it took to fabricate tanks, our engineering teams designed all of the tanks in-house and hired a local fabricator rather than a commercial fabricator to build them. EAD worked around the clock in order to ensure the design was completed on a just-in-time basis. We even stationed field engineers on-site to minimize construction delays. Out of this, EAD developed our “15 minute rule”. Our rule is that when a client or contractor calls, we respond within 15 minutes regardless of whether we have an answer. If we did not have an answer, we tell our client or contractor when we will have the answer and we make it happen. This “15-minute rule” significantly improved project related communication between the engineer, owner, and contractors.
RESULT & BENEFIT
EAD successfully completed the design of the oil refinery on schedule. By the end of the project, the biodiesel plant operated using our client’s own refined soybean oil. We continue to serve our client with engineering services, HAZOP revalidations, maintenance management services, troubleshooting, and as a PSM consultant to this day.