Why Second Hand Plants aren't a Good Idea?

Please read my earlier post on Design Life, before going further.Many secondhand plants from the developed world have found a haven in India. Dismantling and disposing old chemical plant and machinery is expensive in the developed world because of stringent environmental regulations and hence are often available at bargain prices to importers of secondhand plant and machinery. Many of these find a ready market in our country because of lax regulations. We also seem to take pride in importing vintage plants and making them operational again.

While it can be argued that secondhand plants will be inspected and refurbished before being put to use again, we need to remember that a chemical plant has thousands of components and each component has a different useful life. Electrical systems and components are known to have a shorter useful life than rest of the plant. The chink in the armour will be exposed only in the real battlefield and not in mock practice. Remember the nursery rhyme, which spoke about a kingdom being lost for the want of a nail. 

Another drawback of secondhand plant is the availability of spares. When a secondhand plant is relocated, it rarely comes with original spares, for it is already at the end of or beyond its useful life. Many OEMs would have phased out the old models of machinery and spares would be difficult to procure, especially in a new geography. Thus when a secondhand plant breaks down, spare parts will have to be often improvised at local workshops. Not only does this lengthen the plant outage, it also further diminishes the reliability. Operating a plant that is well past its useful life with improvised replacements also makes it very unsafe. The cardinal lesson from the infamous Flixborough accident is that modifications should be designed, constructed, tested and maintained to the same standard as the original plant.

Yet another problem with secondhand plant pertains to documentation, or rather lack of it. Original specification and drawings to which the plant has been built are rarely available. We are talking about pre-computer days here. Even if documents are available, they are not complete and not easy to decipher. They are also not in English, posing an additional problem. In the absence of complete and authentic as-built documents, it is extremely difficult to understand the plant let alone troubleshoot it in the event of underperformance. Procuring replacements and spares can be very arduous. Engineers who designed and operated the plant are mostly dead and gone and are not available to consult.

Ageing and secondhand process plants operate sub-optimally on obsolete technology compromising safety, efficiency and reliability. Getting more out of less is the prime business objective, but this should not be at the expense of safety, efficiency and reliability.