Chemical Engineering December 2019 - 22

Emerson
new asset before it is even built and
operating " (Figure 6).
FIGURE 6. A new release of Emerson's Mimic makes it easier for plants to develop a more accurate digital
twin
between sustainability and profitability, "
he says (Figure 4).
Maintenance. Maintenance is another
area that can now take advantage
of simulation and its ability to
directly connect to the process, says
Ed Fontes, chief technical officer with
Comsol (Stolkholm, Sweden; www.
comsol.com). " Once connected to
the process, the model is not generic,
rather it's a detailed replica of
the specific process, making it possible
to monitor and plan maintenance
of a reactor, process or plant, " he
says. " Following equipment, such as
a reactor, with a connected simulator
will allow you to see what is happening
with that reactor in a more useful
way than just using measurements
or a digital twin alone. Integration of
the two has led to the practice of running
large processes with very few
engineers because everything is optimized
and controlled using models
and sensors instead of having employees
looking at individual displays.
Everything is centrally connected to
the computer systems, which are
connected to the model allowing
users to see what all that data means
for the process and maintenance of
the reactor " (Figure 5).
He continues: " The digital twin of
the plant or of the different units within
the plant can even be run in advance
of the actual process so that the process
can be watched in detail and
users can estimate when the equipment
will be subjected to fatigue or
failure and take maintenance action
before that happens. Or, you can
know in advance when there will be
22
deactivation of the catalyst and know
how much time you have before you
have to change or regenerate it. Connected
simulation allows you to do
these maintenance tasks with greater
accuracy by continuously monitoring
the equipment, process and plant
with simulation and sensor measurements
to provide a detailed view of
what will happen and prevent shutdowns
before they occur. "
Training. Simulations of the control
systems can also be helpful for
training operators. " In the past, the
digital twin was used to train panel
operators and provide that plant interface
with the offline control system
environment, but now, using predeveloped
3D CAD [computer-aided
design] drawings and software tools
that automatically generate the 3D
environment, it provides a very highresolution,
high-quality virtual-reality
view of the plant, allowing users to
bring field operators into the same
environment, " says Mart Berutti, vice
president of process simulation with
Emerson (Austin, Tex.; www.emerson.com).
" This means that without
even having the plant built, users can
have a virtual control room with a
control system simulator with a panel
operator in there interacting with the
control system in a high-fidelity simulation
of the process. Field operators
can be working in the same virtual
environment doing simulated field
routes. The cost basis of this solution
has come down drastically and
the time to build it has also been reduced,
so it's a cost- and time-effective
way to get operators trained on a
Amanda Thompson, SIMIT product
marketing manager, USA, with
Siemens (Plano, Tex.; www.siemens.
com) agrees that control-system simulators
are advancing training. " It provides
the opportunity for extremely
realistic operator training because
the operator training system is based
on the same control system they will
use in the real plant, " she says. " It
shows the same operator screens so
they learn how to navigate through
them. They can address alarms and
work different operator procedures all
in the same environment they would
use in the real plant, but without the
risk of performing training in a real
plant situation where a training error
could result in negative impacts to
the process or safety. Simulation allows
them to redo the operating procedure
over and over until they learn
how to do it correctly. "
The future
And, experts say that due to the
easier-to-use features and ability to
integrate simulation with other programs,
the list of useful applications
will continue to grow in the future. " In
reality, everything can't be measured
and everything can't be simulated, so
the real crux of the issue is how can I
use what can be measured and what
can be simulated in a hybrid fashion, "
asks Ravindra Aglave, director,
energy and process/computational
fluid and particle dynamics, simulation
and test services, with Siemens.
" The problems processors face are
complex and can't be solved via one
single software platform. Instead,
it is a portfolio containing many different
softwares, each intended for
a specific engineering aspect of the
chemical process. These softwares
have all existed for decades, but with
today's outlook on digitalization and
having a digital thread throughout
the lifecycle of the plant, more and
more software platforms are becoming
integrated and compatible, allowing
processors to work in a co-simulation
environment which can plug
results from one study into the next
and so on for all kinds of improvement
opportunities in the future. " n
Joy LePree
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
DECEMBER 2019

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Chemical Engineering December 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering December 2019