LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Process Systems Enterprise (PSE), the Advanced Process Modelling company, is the first winner of the newly-established Hydrocarbon Processing Best Automation & Modeling award. PSE won the award for its new CrackingMonitor virtual multisensor technology, which combines plant data and high-fidelity models of ethylene cracking furnaces to improve operation by producing accurate real-time measurements for key operational variables.
CrackingMonitor, a core component of the company’s new gPROMS Olefins suite, addresses the challenges of obtaining critical measurements and performance information in the harsh environment of a cracking furnace. Because reliable, real-time measurement of key variables is highly problematic, it is difficult to achieve fine control of production rates, resulting in lost profit. By providing better and more timely information on quantities such as ethylene and propylene yield and tube metal temperatures, CrackingMonitor enables tighter furnace control, resulting in potentially multi-million dollar annual profit improvement with no capital expenditure
CrackingMonitor utilises PSE’s unique Dynamic State Estimation technology coupled with a high-fidelity mathematical model to reconcile plant data and model predictions in order to calculate a consistent, accurate set of real-time performance metrics. It also accurately monitors coke build-up over time along the furnace coil, making it possible to optimise furnace cell operation to control coking rates.
The 2017 Hydrocarbon Processing Awards event, which honoured the downstream energy segment’s innovations as voted for by the publication’s readers, was held on the last night of the International Refining and Petrochemical Conference in Vienna, Austria.
Steve Hall, PSE’s Director of Engineering Solutions and manager of CrackingMonitor’s initial deployment on a large-scale Middle Eastern plant, says “As far as we know, this technology is the first of its kind, and has the potential to be a key component of the olefins Operational Excellence toolset in the future. It is a very practical example of applying digital technologies to improve operations”.
Mark Matzopoulos, head of PSE’s Chemicals, Petrochemicals & Refining business, adds “The underlying technology can be applied to any complex operation – for example, furnaces, catalytic reactors and spray dryers –as a means to determine KPIs in real time and calculate variables that cannot easily be measured. We are working with a number of companies in different sectors to implement virtual multisensor technology”.
