PROjEN Wins 2005 BE Award; GlaxoSmithKline Glass Condenser Replacement Named Top Project in ''Plant: New Technology Adoption'' Category.

EXTON, Pa. -- PROjEN, a leading project management company, has won a 2005 BE Award for its Glass Condenser Replacement project for GlaxoSmithKline in the United Kingdom. The award category was "Plant: New Technology Adoption." PROjEN used Bentley software to help upgrade core equipment in an existing research and development center, increasing safety and protecting plant uptime.

The BE Awards of Excellence, which are selected by an independent jury of industry experts and presented at an evening ceremony during the annual BE Conference (www.be.org), honor the extraordinary work of Bentley users improving the world's infrastructure. These projects set benchmarks for their industries, and showcase the imagination and technical mastery of the organizations that created them.

According to David Berry, PROjEN mechanical project manager, the use of Bentley software played an important role in meeting the difficult demands of this project. Said Berry, "The use of AutoPLANT and other Bentley Plant applications allowed PROjEN to define and deliver a technically complex project using multidisciplined contractors, working in a confined work area, safely, on time, and within budget."

PROjEN's GlaxoSmithKline condenser project involved the replacement of forty 12-year-old glass condensers tightly housed in nine chemistry pilot plant (CPP) modules. The modules are located in an R&D facility that provides more than half of the company's pilot plant capacity of drug substance used for clinical trial.

A failure of the aging glass coils in any of the condensers would have caused heat transfer fluid, a flammable irritant, to spill into the CPP's containment system, forcing the plant to shut down for up to two weeks. This, in turn, would have slowed processing at the plant, delayed chemistry projects, and disrupted production schedules, resulting in significant financial loss.

PROjEN's assignment was to replace the condensers with units that are safer, more robust in design, and fabricated from Hastelloy and tantalum. The new condensers would enable the company to achieve the required safety, environmental, and business protection needed to ensure the continued production of New Chemical Entities.

The piping and layout arrangement in the modules is complex, space is at a premium, and a lot of equipment and piping had to be temporarily moved. In addition, the majority of the piping is made of glass and had been produced by a specialized manufacturer. As a result, it wasn't included in any of the standard catalogues.

Within three weeks, the Bentley Plant application engineers in Manchester were able to develop and produce from scratch a new glass piping bill of materials and specification. "Without such a response from Bentley," said Berry, "it would have been impossible to complete the project within the limited time available, or to have delivered the glassware's detailed isometrics to the manufacturers on time."

AutoPLANT was used to generate detailed isometric drawings of the pipe routes. The model generated proved to be accurate to within a few millimeters, minimizing rework of pipe spools and components.

The PROjEN project team also needed to complete an as-built survey. A digital photogrammetric approach was used to develop 3D models of the modules using dedicated software and AutoPLANT. The models aided visualization of the demolition and construction, as well as communication among the stakeholders.

For more information on PROjEN's winning project and all of the other 2005 BE Award projects, visit www.be.org/2005beawardwinners.

About PROjEN

Founded in 1978, PROjEN PLC is a leading multidisciplined professional project management company geared to providing best-value, low-cost solutions for industrial projects. The company can work independently or alongside the client project owners, providing expert advice from day one. Its core business is the successful delivery of projects from feasibility, capital justification, front-end engineering, and detailed design, through to full turnkey project completion, providing the client with single-point responsibility.

PROjEN can also offer full design responsibility across all disciplines (process, control and instrumentation, mechanical, electrical, civil and structural) in addition to construction supervision, health and safety, procurement and commissioning. Its extensive experience across a wide range of industries encourages cross-fertilization of ideas and adoption of best-practice techniques. For more information, visit www.projen.co.uk.

About the BE Conference

The BE Conference, which consistently scores a 99 percent attendee satisfaction rating, is a once-a-year learning opportunity for Bentley users and their managers offering professional training, technology updates, keynotes, and best practice sharing. At these sessions, attendees better themselves, better their organizations, and better the ways they can improve the world's infrastructure.

To pre-register for BE Conference 2006, go to www.be.org/preregister.

About Bentley

Bentley Systems, Incorporated provides software for the lifecycle of the world's infrastructure. The company's comprehensive portfolio for the building, plant, civil, and geospatial vertical markets spans architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) and operations. With 2004 revenues exceeding $300 million, Bentley is the leading provider of AEC software to the Engineering News-Record Design 500 and major owner-operators.

To receive Bentley press releases as they are issued, visit www.bentley.com/bentleywire. For more information, visit www.bentley.com.

Bentley, the "B" logo, BE, BE Awards of Excellence, AutoPLANT, and Bentley Plant are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.