PROCESS SIMULATION & OPTIMIZATION
Anticipate Challenges Before They Happen
Do you know how a new process or facility changeover will affect the performance of existing process equipment and consumption of auxiliary services? One misstep could cause a catastrophic upset condition, a costly emergency shutdown, or personnel injuries.
In today’s highly integrated global market, process units must meet operational goals to remain competitive. Process simulation is an important step to increasing operational efficiency, lowering maintenance costs, and optimize energy consumption.
At Equity Engineering, our Process Technology team uses process simulation to analyze a process, predict the performance of the operation, troubleshoot operational issues in a process, model pressure-relief and disposal systems, or create heat and material balances. We leverage our industry knowledge and process simulation expertise to create practical optimization studies, delivering safer, more reliable systems while supporting real-time operational decision-making.
Benefits
Identify operational bottlenecks
Predict impact of process condition changes
Assess system performance
Understanding Process Simulation
Process simulation acts like a digital “test drive” for industrial operations. Process simulation provides a clear picture of what’s working, what isn’t, and where are variables that needs to be adjusted to improve efficiency that will save both time and money. By identifying potential process upsets, testing proposed modifications, assessing overpressure scenarios for safety, and predict how energy will be consumed, you will uncover inefficiencies and avoid costly mistakes.
At Equity Engineering, we apply the following process simulation analyses depending on project needs or requirements.
Suitability-for-Service
Commonly used to design and evaluate individual unit operations and chemical processes consisting in multiple unit operations.
Dynamic Analysis
Useful for analysis of control schemes and prediction of the behavior of a unit operation and process at different operating scenarios.
Role of Process Optimization
Process optimization is a systematic approach that involves various steps and considerations to ensure that processes are running as efficiently and effectively as possible. These studies can include energy audits, lifecycle cost analysis, design and operational adjustments, and the use of advanced technologies for continuous monitoring and feedback. A process simulation is one key component of an effective process optimization study.
Equity’s Process Simulation & Optimization Services:
We help optimize your pressure relief and disposal systems, pipe gathering and distribution networks, compression and pumping systems, and distillation columns and reaction loops, among others, against unexpected scenarios. We develop steady and transient flow assurance, overpressure, optimization, thermal radiation, gas dispersion studies, and more with the required accuracy and fidelity.
- Heat and Material Balances for the design and analysis of chemical processes.
- Flow Assurance Studies for piping gathering and distribution networks to identify obstacles and keep operations running smoothly.
- De-bottlenecking and Optimization studies to identify and mitigate process constraints that limit the capacity or efficiency of a process unit or complete refinery.
- Troubleshooting studies to diagnose and resolve process operational malfunctions.
- Overpressure Scenario Analysis to ensure the safety of your system during a power or other utility failure.
- Combustion, Tank, and Flash Emission Studies to identify inefficiencies in energy use and production processes.
- Pinch analysis for efficient energy consumption
Case Study: Process Simulation of Increased Natural Gas Distribution
Issue: The client wanted to increase the peak flow from the production well and expand its natural gas sales through a distribution pipeline; however, they were concerned the gas humidity content may result in potential flow assurance problems.
Solution: We created a process simulation model to study the hydraulics of the pipeline network associated with the three natural gas wells. We helped the client evaluate desiccant dehydration technologies that would remove the excess moisture from the natural gas.
Result: We identified the required operational conditions, asset modifications, and dehydration technologies that allowed the client to achieve the targeted natural gas production flowrates that supported their expansion plan while maintaining an acceptable gas humidity content.
Equity Engineering’s Multidisciplinary Approach
Process simulation and optimization is a valuable multi-disciplinary tool for improving efficiencies across an industrial facility.
– supports the development of commissioning, start-up, shutdown, and emergency shutdown procedures.
helps determine the pressure drop, process velocity, reaction forces, and two-phase flow in critical piping sections.
and damage mechanism reviews are performed to analyze different failures or predict thermodynamic properties.
Collaboration with mechanical integrity experts to develop appropriate asset strategies for a facility’s equipment.
A multi-disciplinary approach to the development of efficient and reliable inspection and maintenance programs with a focus on improving long-term operational efficiencies.
