Chemical Engineering December 2011 - 24

Honeywell
Newsfront
SIMULATION SPREADS ITS WINGS
Simulation software is not just for
designing plant layouts anymore. Enhancements
and integration capabilities allow it to help out
in any number of ways around the facility
ecause the benefits are many,
roles for simulation software
tools exist from planning and
design of facilities through operations
and everything in between.
And thanks to enhancements,
B
it's
becoming easier to use simulation
alongside other software packages,
while niche simulation tools are making
complex processes easier and less
expensive to implement.
In general, process simulation software
lets users solve problems faster
than would be possible by hand.
" There are many problems that are
not feasible or even possible to solve
by hand without these tools, " notes
David Hill, manager of technical support
with Chemstations (Houston).
" For example,
rigorous distillationcolumn
modeling could take months
without these tools because there's so
much math involved. For this reason,
the biggest benefit process simulation
brings to the table is time savings.
Hundreds of man hours could be
spent using paper and pencil or trying
to make a large calculator for process
engineers to use. "
And, this time-saving potential leads
to lower costs when using simulation to
design a facility or process or manage
functions beyond design, says Peter
Henderson, UniSim product manager
with Honeywell (Morristown, N.J.). In
process and equipment design, before
the plant is built, simulation provides
an environment where you can make
a lot of decisions based on reflection of
design requirements that allow you to
build an optimal plant virtually before
you spend any money on construction
or equipment purchases. " If you can
imagine,
debottlenecking and optimizing
plants before you even build
ensures you have the lowest capital
costs to build. "
Another objective, he says is to have
the ability to increase yield and plant
performance before you purchase
the equipment. " The cost savings is
in buying the right equipment for
each process, which allows the operating
company to produce a product
economically right from the start, " explains
Henderson.
Simulation meets control
" At this early level, chemical engineers
are looking at the entire process
in one glance, every step from raw
materials to finished products, " says
Scott Thibauld, vice president of sales
and marketing with CPFD Software
(Albuquerque, N.M.). " For these purposes,
1D process simulation tools are
typically employed. Since the design is
very conceptual at this point, there is
less that can be done to affect things
such as energy costs, capital expenses
24 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM DECEMBER 2011
FIGURE 1. Honeywell's UniSim will
soon be linked to a 3D visualization
technology, providing a virtual environment
that can be used to design, analyze,
and verify plant operations, as well
as to prepare operations teams for safe,
reliable and efficient operations
or operating expenses, though the type
and number of specific steps required
will provide insight into this. "
However, advanced simulation users
are adding simulation tools to their
process control system, data historian
or other software tools that let them
use the simulator as a software-based
sensor, says Hill.
The benefits of this type of action
are many. " By using a dynamic simulation
of the process with an emulated
online control system, users can test
their automation system through various
scenarios, whether it's the start
up of a [petroleum] refinery or running
through all the cycles in a batch
plant, " says Martin Berutti, president
and COO of Mynah Technologies, LLC
(Chesterfield, Mo.). " Testing in this
way allows them to be sure all controls
and automation strategies are linked
and designed correctly to provide effective
control of the process. "
This allows users to cut down on
the time required to make process
control changes or recover from process
control changes or validate a control
system change without affecting
the process.
Simulation models can also be used
as a virtual instrument to predict
things that may be hard to measure
in a real plant, says David Tremblay,
director of product management with
AspenTech (Burlington, Mass.). Chemstation's
Hill agrees: " Simulation provides
the ability to calculate hard
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Chemical Engineering December 2011

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