1) Raw Materials Availability

The source of raw materials is the most important factors to

determine the plant location. To reduce the cost of feed transportation, it
is vital to make sure the plant or company that produce the raw materials
needed are placed close to the location of plant. Chemical reaction to
produce ethyl acetate is as shown below:
CH3CH2OH + CH3COOH CH3COOCH2CH3 + H2O
Ethanol and acetic acid are abundantly available throughout our
country and being produced every day by various chemical companies.
Nevertheless, the expenses for the delivery of these chemicals should be
taken into account. It is an advantage to have these chemical companies
nearby the plant since it can cut cost of the transportation. Based on the
survey through internet, most of these companies are located in Selangor
and Kuala Lumpur. Besides, there are also companies situated at
petrochemical zones such as Kertih, Terengganu, Gebeng, Pahang and a
new-opening largest oil and gas sites, Pengerang, Johor. By considering
this information in choosing plant location, it is believed that the
availability and supply of raw materials would be sustainable.
2) Markets
The demand of ethyl acetate by the market is also one of the
essential factors to be considered. Since the main business of the plant is
to get return from the products, it has to be ensured that ethyl acetate is
tradable and manage to gain revenue in order to cover up the capital.
Ethyl acetate is an important organic solvent widely used in the
production of varnishes, ink, synthetic resins, and adhesive agents. Based
on these requirements, it is recommended to build the plant around
places with companies that used these chemical as raw materials. It is
found that Selangor or Pengerang, Johor is the most suitable place that
satisfy these condition.
3)Energy Availability

Since the plant require high amount of power and steam in

industries to fully operated, it is essential to have the supply of these two
requisite near the plant. Fuel and coal is necessary to generate power and
steam. Local cost of power can help to determine whether power should
be self-generated or purchased. In Pengerang, the supply of these energy
has been established since there are plenty of plant started to operate
there.
4) Climate
Climate factor is also essential in considering plant site. Hot climate
is preferable as it is necessary to run the plant as usual. Abnormally low
temperatures when the plant is located in cold climate will require the
provision of additional insulation and special heating for equipment and
pipe runs whereas high temperature when the plant is located in hot
climate will require special cooling towers to cool down the overheated
plant. As Malaysias weather is tropical climate with high temperatures
and high humidity throughout the year, it should be no problem in
selecting suitable plant location.
5) Transport Facilities
Plant location should have easy access to main road for ease of
transportation of finished product such as Railways, roads and seaport.
Access to harbor or airport is highly advantageous as the product can be
transported to other countries as well. Given that the chemical is naturally
present in many organisms, so there is only little risk of toxicity. Therefore,
this ester could be transported normally like the other chemicals, through
land transportation or railways or sea. These facilities are available both at
Selangor and Pengerang.
6) Water Supply
A plant requires a large quantity of water for cooling, washing,
steam generation and also as raw material. The water supply can be used
to provide cooling in order to prevent the risk of explosion. If the water
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source are available nearby the plant site, few factors such as extraction
and transportation of the water to the plant should be considered.
Nevertheless, the purity of water supply should be taken into account, as
it will affect the quality of the products formed. Also, we need to estimate
on the water requirement of the plant for the present and future need to
ensure the continuity of clean water provided. Both Selangor and
Pengerang have adequate water supply and efficient water supply system.
7) Labor Supply
It is always important for a company to consider the human
resources need and accessibility. It is highly required to survey on the
availability of worker or labour around the proposed place before the
decision to choose the site being made. As regards the availability of
skilled labour, the existence of technical training institutes in the area
proves useful. Besides, labour relations should be studied through
turnover rates, absenteeism and liveliness of trade unionism in the
particular area. Such information can be obtained from existing industries
working in the area. Whether the labour should be rural or urban; also
assumes significance in selecting the location for ones industry.
Ideally, the site should not be too far from housing area and some
basic facilities to attract skilled personnel to work as the plant operator. It
must be ensured that the locals are able to cope with the jobs in the plant
as such the company can save the expenses to invite professionals for
training sessions on the jobs. It is believed that such labour need and
requisite would be fulfilled at Selangor or Pengerang.
8) Waste Disposal
Every plant will absolutely release or produce any type of
waste/pollutant to the environment as the by-products of the process. It is
very important to highly supervise the management of these leftover and
prescribe any safety measures, as it could pollute and harm our beloved
environment. Therefore, waste disposal is a significant point to ponder
when setting up a new plant as there are different laws, standard
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practices and environment policy in each country regarding the disposal

of waste products and the method of disposing them from the process
industries. The site that is suitable to set up a plant should have well
equipped with complete package of waste disposal methods and facilities.
For some specific processes in which the waste product requires
additional process to be properly disposed, additional facilities should also
be available on site to ensure there is no pollution done to the
environment. Nevertheless, ethyl acetate is an organic compound with
characteristics of sweet smell, low in toxicity and produced alongside
water as its by-products. Thus, it should be no problem in handling the
waste of this ester.
9) Taxation and Legal Restrictions
In every country in the world, taxation is one of the source of
income for the government to administrate the country. Yet, different
country applied different taxation systems as well as different laws. As it is
concerning cash and cost, taxes like income tax, sales tax, property tax,
severance tax, vehicle fuel tax, import duties and unemployment
insurance have become the dominant decisional factors in determining
the plant location. In Malaysia, the Government has gazetted a few places
as free industrial and free commercial zone such as Stulang Laut at Johor
Bahru, Bukit Kayu Hitam at Kedah and Pengkalan Kubor and Rantau
Panjang at Kelantan. Thus, it is highly recommended to consider these
places as the plant site. Taking taxation into consideration prior to the
setting up of the plant could greatly benefit the companys income and
would be able to offer higher salary to attract top engineers to join the
company.
Setting up a new plant would require compliance with various legal
restrictions and laws. Some of the laws have prohibited the setting up of
polluting industries in prone areas particularly which are environmentally
sensitive. As the matter is concerned, ethyl acetate plant would only

require minor or lenient safety regulations and laws since it is not

hazardous chemical that could bring harmful effect to the environment.

10) Site Characteristics

The land characteristics at the suggested plant site should be
scrutinised properly. The site can be affected by soil and drainage
conditions and access restrictions which can affect the original cost
estimates. The amount of excavation, piling and foundation activities
required are particularly affected by poor ground conditions. Consequently
it is highly suggested to have a site analysis first before making the site
selection. Generally, the more secluded a project is, the more expensive it
will be because of the cost of transporting construction materials and
equipment to the site. In an urban location, land costs are usually much
higher.
The land should be ideally flat, well drained, have load-bearing
characteristics and supplementary spaces available. It makes future
changes desirable and new sections can be added if the demand for
product increases and efficiency of the plant need to be enhanced in order
to maximise the production of the desired product. Also, the proposed
development site should have little intrinsic value to nature conservation
as to not disturb the local wildlife. Not to forget, the locals or indigenous
people who lived there for a long time ago, the company should negotiate
with these group of people in finding a win-win solution among both side.

11) Flood and Fire Protection

Many industrial plants are situated close to rivers to in order to allow
adequate cooling water supplies. This causes the plant to possess
inherent risk of flooding. Thus it is an important step before selecting
plant site having regional history of natural events like floods to be
examined. Floor protection system in the plant should be equipped with
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pump station, storm sewer return, flood wall and flood berm. The pump
station will allow the facility to remain operational during high-water
events allowing the treated wastewater and storm water that falls on the
facility to exit the plant. The storm sewer modifications in storm sewer
return will allow storm water falling on the site to be pumped over the wall
to avoid internal flooding. The flood wall is designed to protect the plant
from river levels whereas the flood berm is designed to work in
conjunction with the flood wall to protect the plant from high river levels.
Active fire protection systems such as water sprinkler, spray
systems and fire alarm are vastly recommended to be implant in the
process industries for protection of storage vessels, process plant, loading
installations and warehouses. The duty of the fire protection system may
be to warn people when the fire occur, extinguish the fire, control the fire,
or provide exposure protection to prevent domino effects. The availability
of a fire or HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) department are essential
in monitoring and promoting health and safety culture in workplace to
prevent any hazards from occur, apart of resolving any emergency cases
involving the plant.

12) Community Factors

The degree of dependency upon community may vary from industry
to industry, yet it cannot be denied that the community factors plays a
deciding role in the location selection of a plant. The community should be
aware on the plant and ensure their acceptance on the existence of this
plant in their community area. Full consideration must be given to the
safety of the location of the plant so that it does not impose additional
risks to the community. Cultural facilities of the community are important
to sound growth of the plant. Masjids, libraries, schools, colleges, theatres,
malls and other similar groups, are important for recreations among the
workers. Lack of these facilities makes people hesitant and disinterested
to move to such locations for work, in fact demotivated the present
workers.
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Plant Layout

Diagram 1: Non Process Area

Diagram 2: Process Area

Conclusion
Selangor is a developing state which could provide sustainability of the
raw material as there are various types of industries located there, both
for supplying raw materials and to market ethyl acetate to these
companies. Selangor also located near to the sea and it has its own port,
Port Klang, which is necessary for shipping the chemicals for import or
export purposes. As Malaysia has a conducive environment with good
weather and climate while having proper topography of the tract of land
and the soil structure, thus it is an advantage to freely choose any places
that is suitable for this kind of chemical reaction plant. Nevertheless, it is
believed that Selangor owns the greatest potential to have this plant
assembled.
In a nutshell, it is proposed to place ethyl acetate plant in Selangor as it
fulfils all the 12 factors mentioned above.
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