Chemical Engineering September 2022 - 14

FIGURE 2. Virtual reality technology supports 3D
visualization of a digital twin
tal twin. The concept of digital twin
has been around for nearly a decade
but is now having a profound impact
across industries, " says Gulati.
" By aggregating physical, behavioral
and process data, digital twins allow
chemical facilities to visualize and
then extract additional context in
never-before-seen granularity. Digital
twins enable engineers to design
processes and identify the best approach
to achieve a quality outcome
without increasing the costs.
" Digital twins are the natural solution
to continuously optimize equipment
and feed-critical data to plant managers, "
Gulati continues. " Further, plants
have been able to reduce unplanned
downtime and have achieved ROI
[return on investment] more quickly,
meaning delays in production do not
become delays for the consumer.
For companies looking to achieve
climate goals and increase visibility,
digital-twin technology will be key in
enabling educated decision-making.
Executing projects and operations on
time and budget matters, but companies
are facing increasing pressure
to also minimize their carbon footprint
and environmental impact. "
'Best possible' versus 'actual'
According to Russell Byfield, Global
Process Simulation leader at KBC
(Walton-on-Thames/London, U.K.;
www.kbc.global), a Yokogawa Company,
the process digital twin is an
automated running of a process
model that compares the " best possible "
with the " actual " to continuously
determine opportunities for improvement
and to monitor or predict
deviations or anomalies early enough
before they become expensive problems.
But integrating simulation with
ML/AI is not a " magic wand, " he
14
warns. " Knowing which mathematical
approach is best applied to solve
which problem is the fastest route to
a reliable solution, " he says.
" ML, for example, provides benefits
in specific nonlinear, highly
mathematical situations that require
rapid calculations, " Byfield explains.
" Since, by definition, a digital twin is
fully automated, it can run itself, either
on a scheduled or when-needed
basis. This automation also saves
engineering time, enabling engineers
to spend more time solving actual
process or operational problems,
rather than just
trying
to
identify
problems. Digital twins, in general,
provide permanent, continuous tools
enabling chemical processing plants
to drive toward more reliable and, ultimately,
optimal operation, " he says.
Real-time corrective actions
Vineeth Ram, chief revenue officer at
OLI Systems (Parsippany N.J., www.
olisystems.com), elaborates on how
current simulation solutions can provide
significant benefits across the
lifecycle of an asset. " Process modeling
software has moved from being
a simple design or simulation tool to
being part of the daily operation/optimization
of a chemical plant. Operations
measures its success in various
ways. However, there are areas
where instrumentation is impractical.
Process simulation can now provide
calculated parameters, or " soft sensors, "
which are useful to create a set
of diverse indicators and influence
decision making for areas that cannot
be directly monitored, " says Ram.
" In addition to the core simulation
technology development, the ability
to deliver process simulation insights
anywhere, anytime to any software
application or end user by leveraging
cloud platforms and state-of-the-art
data integration capabilities is accelerating
digital transformation of these
organizations, " Ram continues.
" They can now use real-time monitoring
and automation to provide digital
twins of their operations and take
corrective actions in real time. "
Determining a model's value
" At its core, a process model is a
digital twin, " according to Steve
Brown, president of Chemstations,
END USERS CALL FOR OPEN
AND SUSTAINABLE DIGITAL
TWINS
In a recent development of note, a group of
subject matter experts from several leading
global energy and chemical industry
companies created the Sustainable Asset
Digital Twin Working Group to discuss
common needs and provide guidance to
the vendor community. (Note: This working
group, composed largely of process industries
end users, is not related to the various
working groups previously established
by the Object Management Groups' Digital
Twin Consortium, which has a somewhat
different focus and membership.)
According to an April 2022 ARC Advisory
(Dedham, Mass., www.arcweb.
Group
com) report, the Sustainable Asset Digital
Twin Working Group's goal is " to create a
vision that can clearly articulate the needs
of owner-operators and asset owners related
to digital-twin technologies and speak
with a focused voice to the vendors providing
digital twins solutions. "
In a workshop at the 2022 ARC Industry
Forum in Orlando, Florida this past June,
subject matter experts from Dow, ExxonMobil,
Shell and Chevron presented the
working group's vision for more open and
interoperable
digital
twin
solutions
that
help ensure a smooth transition from design
and build through operate and maintain
and sustain value across an asset's
entire lifecycle. In his opening remarks at
this workshop, ARC Analyst Peter Reynolds
commented, " The implications for
this new initiative are far-reaching into the
operating and business systems of energy
and chemicals producers and their technology
suppliers. Asset owners want to
eliminate barriers to the interoperability and
contextualization
of disparate data sets
while optimizing and automating business
processes. " (For more, see:www.arcweb.
com/industry-best-practices/moving-toward-sustainable-asset-digital-twins).
❐
Inc. (Houston; www.chemstations.
com). " The level of detail and fidelity
used by the engineer(s) to build
the model determines the value of
the resultant model. By that I mean
that a quick and dirty model will often
return qualitative results that can be
valuable at various phases of either
design or operation of a facility, while
a very detailed and rigorous model
can provide quantitative results that
can be integrated into SCADA/HMI
displays, business-level
decisionmaking,
or even operator training. "
Brown also points out that performance
still counts and new multicore
processing capabilities enable
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
SEPTEMBER 2022
http://www.arcweb.com http://www.arcweb.com http://www.olisystems.com http://www.olisystems.com https://www.arcweb.com/industry-best-practices/moving-toward-sustainable-asset-digital-twins https://www.arcweb.com/industry-best-practices/moving-toward-sustainable-asset-digital-twins https://www.arcweb.com/industry-best-practices/moving-toward-sustainable-asset-digital-twins http://www.chemstations.com http://www.kbc.global http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering September 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering September 2022
