Plant Management
For Yokogawa, new solutions aimed at optimising process industry plant operations are a priority. These are provided as part of the company’s VigilantPlant Services suite that supports safe, stable and highly efficient plant operations. The technology underlying these solutions is Yokogawa’s newly developed Mirror Plant online simulator. The simulator can visualise the
internal state of a plant process and make near-term predictions on plant behaviour. This simulator operates in synchronisation with the plant control system and features the level of performance required in commercial plants.
Based on real-time manufacturing
process information and using a proprietary function for adjusting model parameters, Mirror Plant precisely simulates the state of a plant. Using plant models, it visualises the current state of the plant, the state of the plant up to several hours in the future, and the state at plant locations where it is not possible to measure temperature or pressure. It then displays these results on screen at a Centum VP integrated production control system operator terminal or at a standard PC. Mirror Plant also has an alarm function to alert operators to potential problems. The simulation models used in
Mirror Plant are built based not on statistical data from plant operations, but on physical laws. Thus, says Yokogawa, processes can be theoretically verified, and the simulator can be used for a
broad range of applications such as identifying problems in a process. The optimum operating conditions can then be identified before making changes to items such as the production volume or the feed material composition. Mirror Plant was developed based
on the OmegaLand integrated dynamic simulation environment and its core technology, the Visual Modeler plant simulator. Both software packages were developed by Yokogawa’s subsidiary, Omega Simulation. Meanwhile Finnish company VTT has successfully completed a project with Japanese cement manufacturer Ube Industries to develop a simulation model that helps to identify the best operational practices needed to reduce both energy consumption and emissions. The work was based on VTT’s
existing modelling tool KilnSimu. This models the chemical reactions and phase changes in a rotary kiln, as well as their thermal and energy balances. With Ube Industries, the simulation was coupled with other modelling tools and modified to meet the company’s process parameters and operational experience. The customised KilnSimu tool
predicted successfully cement clinker crystal formation and composition. It also estimated reliably the circulation of harmful sulphate and chlorine species both in the pre-calciner and in the rotary kiln. In addition, it showed how to control the secondary air and fuel inlets to minimise the kiln’s energy consumption. n
Vessel designer saves €232,000/year with Autodesk software C
ameron Process Systems designs oil and water treatment vessels, which are complex as they can have more than 150 nozzle connections each. To speed up the design process the company recently made the move to digital prototyping with Autodesk Inventor. The new software has enabled the company to reuse designs and reduce errors. “With Inventor, we’ve built libraries of models that we can reuse
quickly,” says Gary Foucault, Cameron’s design manager. “That’s a big help when you’re building vessels as complicated as ours. The 3D models have also helped us to reduce design errors and communicate our ideas more clearly to field installers and clients.” Originally, the many nozzle variations meant that the modelling process lasted three to four weeks. Hoping to further expedite the design and drafting phase, Foucault closely examined the XML data
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being generated by the COMPASS calculation software and realised that all the data needed to generate models was already in the application. ”We just needed an intelligent, automated way to pull out the relevant data and use it to generate 3D models, drawings, schedules and part lists,” he added. With Autodesk Inventor Engineer-to-Order, Cameron can now automatically create drawings that offer multiple views of a vessel, nozzle schedules and complete parts lists pulled from the company’s parts database. “With Autodesk Inventor Engineer-to-Order, our office is saving about US$60,000/year (€47,000) in avoiding errors in our nozzle schedules and parts lists. Multiply that by four other offices and we’re looking at savings of up to US$300,000/year (€232,000),” concluded Foucault. n
Aspen Technology’s version 8.6 of its aspenONE software features Activated Dynamics Analysis, which allows dynamic modelling of compressors.
Ube Industries has developed a simulation model that helps to identify the best operational practices needed to reduce both energy consumption and emissions.
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