Chemical Engineering December 2018 - 18

Newsfront
Modern Simulation Tools:
Expanding Applications
New user-friendly solutions help chemical processors tackle tasks beyond
design and optimization
IN BRIEF
SOFTWARE ADVANCES
A WIDER BERTH OF
APPLICATIONS
PLANT SAFETY
RELIABILITY
TRAINING
CORPORATE GOALS
Aveva
I
nitially, steady-state simulation
was used in the chemical
process industries (CPI)
to design a plant or a process.
Advances in the technology,
along with the need to produce
more product in a more
efficient and profitable manner,
kick started the trend of using
simulation tools to optimize new
and existing processes. Today's
dynamic modeling, digitalization,
more powerful computers
and swifter calculation capabilities have led
to increasingly prolific use of software by engineers
in all facets of the chemical facility.
Simulation software is now readily available
to help with specific tasks, such as improving
safety, operator training, increasing reliability
and achieving corporate goals, including
sustainability, energy efficiency and, of
course, profitability.
Software advances
While steadystate simulators have been
around for nearly 50 years and are still the
go-to tool for designing and optimizing new
processes or plants, the introduction of dynamic
simulation has led to a wider berth of
applications. " While steady-state simulators
are doing a good job, dynamic simulators
are the way to go for improving existing processes
or checking the operability of a new
plant, " says Marina Velazquez, senior product
manager with Aveva Group plc (Cambridge,
England; www.aveva.com). " Steady state is
typically used early in the design to calculate
sizing parameters and it assumes that
the finished plant, equipment size and piping
are exactly as they were designed. However,
by startup, the location or size of the equipment
and final piping may not be exactly as
expected by the steady-state simulator. A dynamic
simulator accommodates these differences
and can be used to determine whether
18
FIGURE 1. The SimCentral Simulation Platform from Aveva can improve the
workflow, safety and design of a chemical process
the control scheme is adequate, equipment
will perform as expected, interlocks for safety
are properly designed and more. "
Meanwhile, digitalization is further expanding
the use of simulation. The " digital twin "
is an exact replica of the physical plant, not
as designed, but as it actually exists. It also
incorporates live process and operating information
from the operating plant. " The digital
twin provides an accurate representation
that is always 'alive,' " says Rebecca Elgebrandt,
portfolio marketing lead for Aveva's
engineering business. " Since the digital twin
incorporates differences between the design
of the plant and the actual plant, it moves
the simulation needs from steady state to
dynamic and provides the current status of
the true assets, allowing users to run a simulation
with 'what if' scenarios in an accurate
twin of the plant before taking any actions. "
Roger-Marc Nicoud, CEO of Ypso-Facto
(Nancy, France; www.ypsofacto.com) agrees
that digitalization is an important step in simulation.
" With a virtual/digital representation
of a given process, one can easily experiment,
test, train and explore operating conditions
without the time and cost induced by
real-life experimentation and without endangering
real-life production. "
In addition, digitalization allows easy sharing
of information between multiple engineering
disciplines. " Operating processes and
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DECEMBER 2018
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Chemical Engineering December 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering December 2018
