PSE plant optimisation services

Reducing cost and maximising ROI

Petrochemical profitability is suffering badly in the face of poor demand, the ongoing impact of the credit crunch and the weakened oil price

Nigel Davis, ICIS Chemical Business, January 2009

PSE Plant Optimisation services are aimed at increasing return on investment for process manufacturers by improving plant profitability.

Plant Optimisation uses PSE's Model-Based Engineering approaches to reduce costs, increase throughput or quality and support capital decisions.

How does it work?

Model-Based Engineering uses detailed predictive models of the process (or key elements of it) to identify significant improvements.

These often do not involve capital expenditure – they may identify actions as simple as changing process operating temperature and pressure, or implementing a new seeding policy for a crystallisation process.

In many cases the same model can be used for many different investigations, or applied on a regular basis as market conditions change, generating multiple return on investment in modelling activities.

What are the benefits?

There are many benefits to optimising your existing process using model-based process improvement techniques.

For example, modelling can often identify ways to achieve the following without significant capital expenditure:

Polymer process optimization – detailed model

Reduce costs, improve quality. This polymer process batch time was reduced by 35%

increase throughput or quality
reduce energy costs
reduce raw material costs
improve return on capital employed
extend catalyst life, reducing cost
enhance compliance with environmental or safety requirements.

Example

Typical examples are the many plant optimisation projects for cost reduction in terephthalic acid production.