Intricate Design -Today's chemical engineering companies need to ensure that they achieve the best possible design of their plants and processes in order to optimize capacity from their production and refining assets - no easy task. In their quest to attain efficient production, these companies are facing a more complex mix of challenges than ever before. There is growing pressure on them to create increasingly specialized products to match the precise needs of customers.

In doing this, they need to manage the high costs of raw materials and of the energy required to transform these raw materials into products. And they need to ensure they are using environmentally friendly assets and sustainable working processes while complying with strict limits on waste and emissions. Industry specifications about the permitted quantity limits on various components in final products are becoming ever tougher.

Rapid Reactions

Companies across the chemical industry must be able to cope with all of these issues while still reacting quickly to different business circumstances and opportunities when required. In recent years, it has been a challenge for these companies to conduct the necessary engineering studies quickly enough to support investment decisions and asset operations and to keep pace with growing demand. The chemical engineering industry is also suffering from a significant resource and skills issue. In Europe, many experienced engineers are reaching retirement age. In addition, students across the region are increasingly choosing to pursue business-focused rather than technology-focused degrees and careers.
So, in light of these assorted challenges, how can chemical engineering companies drive through significant process and production efficiencies? They need to find a way to do more with less. They need technology that will enable sustainable engineering best practices. And they need the best possible plant operations and engineering design tools for world-class performance.

The Arrival of aspenONE V7

AspenTech, a provider of software and services to the process industries, delivers the capabilities outlined above through its aspenONE software application suite. Meeting the industry's need for solutions that are integrated and easy-to-use, the suite helps operators to reduce costs, increase capacity and achieve operational excellence by integrating and optimising end-to-end engineering, manufacturing and supply chain operations. The recently-introduced version 7 enables energy companies to generate greater efficiencies across the production facilities and refining assets, and makes it easier for them to achieve operational excellence. In particular, it includes advances in workflow integration, and other major enhancements to help companies create and sustain best practices. Benefits include increased efficiency, lower total cost of ownership, improved operational performance for greater agility, reliability and ultimately profitability.
AspenTech's focus on addressing the challenges facing the process industries including chemical engineering has directly shaped the development of aspenONE. The best practices enabled by aspenONE V7, reflect proven state-of-the-art engineering work processes used by AspenTech customers, including global process industry leaders such as BP, BASF and Dow Chemical.
Jerry Gipson, director of Engineering Solutions Dow Chemical, said: "Over the past several years, Dow has been optimizing its engineering workflow to accelerate the transition from conceptual design to basic and detailed engineering, and we are always glad to see new offerings that support these efforts. The integration of process simulation with model-based economic analysis and equipment design improves our engineering efficiency, and reduces the potential for error from manual transfer of data. Automation of data flow among its engineering tools allows Dow to develop better, more economical process designs with a higher return on capital investment."
Driven by the software company's Engineering Advisory Board the new version of aspenONE effectively makes it easier for engineering teams "to do more with less" in the face of shrinking resources and increasing market demands. In particular, building upon previous innovations from AspenTech, aspenONE V7 incorporates several process engineering initiatives which help streamline workflow and drive more efficient operating procedures for customers. These include:

• An integrated conceptual engineering workflow via a single user interface. This tightly integrates simulation, equipment design and economic analysis, and enables simultaneous rather than sequential engineering
• A patented master data model (MDM) that enables process manufacturers to effectively manage assets across the entire lifecycle - from design through operations
• An industry-standard, vendor-neutral interface (ISO 15926-compliant) that links basic to detailed engineering, enabling workflow across multiple types of engineering teams who need to work together on global projects
• A comprehensive physical property database incorporating over 23,000 components, developed in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), supporting extensive process modelling applications
• The integration of both equation-oriented and sequential modular approaches to simulation for the energy industry to support comprehensive process modelling and optimisation requirements

The software also delivers additional IT and usability innovations that provide fast and easy access for users across the enterprise and simplify deployment and management of the software. These include:

• "Virtualisation ready" software support for leading virtualisation technologies from Microsoft, VMware and Citrix, dramatically reducing deployment time from months to weeks
• The introduction of the Aspen Licensing Center. This graphically displays how aspenONE engineering products are used across the enterprise, making it easier to identify and replicate best practices, and simplifying access of new products through on-demand evaluation 
• New operator training simulation (OTS) with a new model integration framework to help operators develop and improve skills faster and better manage plant performance
• Pop-up viewlets providing instant help and guidance throughout aspenONE V7

In addition, the latest version of the software provides better support in response to environmental regulations - through accurate modelling of CO2 and acid gas removal. By using V7, process industry companies can model the complete production facility, quantify their environmental impact, design appropriate safeguards and contribute to the achievement of local regulatory compliance.

Positive Prospects

Chemical engineering companies today face many challenges ranging from rising energy and operational costs to more stringent safety and environmental standards. To respond to these challenges and to maximize and sustain operational performance and profitability, while also reacting quickly to market changes, companies must focus on sourcing the best engineering design and plant operations solutions to meet their precise needs. If they are able to do this effectively, they will be well placed to overcome the many challenges they face and by so doing achieve competitive edge and long-term success.