Engineering Design and Project Management for Chemical Manufacturers

Chemical manufacturing carries a regulatory burden that few other sectors match. A single change to a process, a new product, a larger inventory, a substance reclassified, can move a site across a COMAH threshold, invalidate a hazardous area classification, or trigger an environmental permit variation. The engineering and the compliance case have to be developed together, because a design that cannot be justified to the regulator is not a design.

Projex Solutions provides multi-disciplinary engineering design, process safety studies and EPCM project delivery to chemical manufacturers across the UK. We work from concept through to commissioning, and we work to the standards your regulator, your insurer and your own process safety team will hold you to.

The pressures our chemical clients are managing

COMAH 2015. The Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 2015 define the operating envelope for most UK chemical sites. Lower tier duties centre on the Major Accident Prevention Policy; upper tier adds a safety report, which must be reviewed at least every five years and revised before any modification of significance. Inventory changes that look commercially minor can carry a disproportionate regulatory consequence.

DSEAR and hazardous area classification. The Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002, with ACOP L138 (second edition, 2013), require a documented assessment of every dangerous substance on site and a defensible classification of hazardous areas.

This is where a lot of sites are currently exposed. BS EN IEC 60079-10-1:2021 superseded the 2015 edition and changed the evaporation-rate methodology, removing the safety factor k from the charts. The Energy Institute’s EI 15 reached its 5th edition in October 2024. If your area classification drawings predate those changes, they cannot simply be assumed still valid, and in our experience they are among the last documents to be revisited.

Environmental permitting. Part A(1) installations operate under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 (as amended), with permit variations required for capacity increases, new emission points and abatement changes.

UK REACH and GB CLP. Transitional registration deadlines are confirmed to be extended to 2029, 2030 and 2031, with implementing legislation expected. GB CLP changed on 21 May 2026, removing the HSE notification requirement and moving Annex 6 technical notes into the GB MCL List.

Where we add value

Hazardous area classification and DSEAR assessment. Area classification to BS EN IEC 60079-10-1:2021 and EI 15 (5th edition), DSEAR risk assessment, zone drawings, equipment selection by zone and category, and revalidation of legacy classifications against current methodology. Our engineers hold CompEx certification.

Process safety studies. HAZOP and HAZID facilitation with an independent chairman, LOPA to establish where protection layers are genuinely independent, and SIL determination and verification to BS EN 61511-1:2017+A1:2017.

Feasibility and FEED studies. Front-end work that gives you a cost estimate you can take to a board. We agree the level of definition up front, so that the number is understood in the context it was produced in rather than quoted out of it.

Detailed design across disciplines. Process, mechanical, electrical, control and instrumentation, and civil and structural, coordinated in-house. Pressure systems designed with the written scheme of examination in mind, not bolted on afterwards.

3D laser scanning and modelling. Accurate as-built survey of congested plant, so tie-ins are designed against reality rather than against drawings that stopped being true a decade ago.

CDM 2015 duty holder support. Design risk management and Principal Designer duties on process plant, shutdowns and tie-ins, where CDM meets a live COMAH site.

EPCM delivery. Engineering, procurement and construction management under a single accountable team, with ISO 9001:2015 certified project methodology.

Sub-sectors we work across

Chemical manufacturing is not one discipline. The regulatory profile of a speciality batch plant is not that of a commodity continuous process, and a coatings site presents solvent risks that a polymer plant does not.

• Speciality, fine and commodity chemicals – Batch and continuous production, pilot to commercial scale-up and debottlenecking.
• Coatings, paints, inks and surface treatment – Solvent inventory, area classification and fire protection your insurer will sign off.
• Chemical formulation and blending – Transfer, dosing and static control, and the inventory that determines COMAH tier.
• Downstream petrochemical derivatives – Turnaround scope and delivery, pressure systems and ageing plant.
• Polymers, resins and elastomers – Exothermic reaction hazard, thermal stability and dust explosion protection.
• Industrial gases – Compression, cryogenic storage and distribution, PSSR and oxygen enrichment.
• Battery materials and electro-chemical processing – Dry room design, solvent recovery, and combined dust and thermal runaway risk.
• Agrochemicals and crop protection – Containment for toxic actives, and exposure control that has been verified rather than assumed.
• Adhesives, sealants and construction chemicals – Reactive chemistry, isocyanate exposure control and powder handling.

See all the sectors and industries we work in

When clients typically call us

• A COMAH tier determination has changed, or is about to, and the safety report needs to reflect it
• Area classification drawings predate the 2021 and 2024 standard changes
• A HAZOP or LOPA needs an independent chairman and a competent multidisciplinary team
• A permit variation is required and the technical case has to be built alongside the design
• A project needs scaling from pilot to commercial without the regulatory position being discovered late
• An ageing asset needs debottlenecking, replacement or a considered end-of-life plan

Why chemical manufacturers work with Projex

We are an engineering business, not a consultancy that hands over a report and leaves. Our teams work in Brighouse in West Yorkshire and at the Wilton Centre in Redcar, which puts us alongside the chemical clusters in both regions.

We are certified to ISO 9001:2015 and SafeContractor approved, hold a Bronze EcoVadis sustainability rating, and are an award-winning engineering business recognised within the UK process manufacturing sector.

Above all, we are safety-minded by default. In this sector that is not a value statement, it is the job.

Frequently asked questions

Do you work on COMAH sites?
Yes. A significant proportion of our chemical work is on lower and upper tier COMAH establishments, including projects that interact directly with a live safety report.

Can you chair a HAZOP?
Yes. We provide independent chairing and scribing, and we can supply the wider multidisciplinary team where a client cannot resource one internally.

Our area classification is from 2016. Does it need redoing?
It needs reviewing. BS EN IEC 60079-10-1:2021 changed the underlying methodology, and EI 15 moved to its 5th edition in 2024. That does not automatically mean your zones are wrong, but it does mean the basis on which they were derived is no longer current.

Do you take on small projects?
Yes. We deliver projects up to around £20 million in value, and we are equally prepared to take on one-off, small-scale or difficult-to-implement contracts.

Talk to us about your project. Request a call