Process Systems Enterprise Limited
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News archive 2006

December

22/12/2006 – Seasonal greetings from PSE

PSE offices and technical support desk will be closed for the holidays on 25 & 26 December and also 1 January 2007.

We wish all our customers, partners and associates greetings for the festive season and a prosperous New Year.

06/12/2006 – New-look PSE website

Welcome to the new-look PSE web site! Apart from the obvious cosmetic changes, the site introduces comprehensive new or enhanced information in many areas.

The home page is designed to provide at-a-glance information on the company and our products with immediate access to topics of potential interest, while providing news and other information for regular visitors. A feature area highlights recent advertising, focus areas, new products and forthcoming events.

As well as enhanced information on PSE products, including an all-new ModelEnterprise section, there is more information on how PSE's products and services apply to sectors across the process industries, and to different application areas such as reaction, separation and batch process design. In addition, content in the general areas has been enhanced considerably, and the new navigation tools make it much easier to find information.

As well as enhanced information on PSE products, including an all-new ModelEnterprise section, there is more information on how PSE's products and services apply to sectors across the process industries, and to different application areas such as reaction, separation and batch process design. In addition, content in the general areas and the navigation tools have been enhanced considerably.

The site is extensively cross-linked. Most pages include a comprehensive list of related items, linked to application examples, product information and other topics of interest. Material will be regularly extended and updated, so make sure that you check frequently for new topics. The regular PSEUpdate mailing will also provides extensive links to new information on the web site.

If you wish, you can select which information you receive from PSE by providing brief details and selecting the appropriate options in our mailing application form.

In order to ensure that you receive our our mailings reliably, please flag PSE News [psenews@news.psenterprise.com] as a safe sender in your email browser.

We hope that you will find the new site easy to use and informative. We would very much appreciate your feedback, which you can provide by sending us an email.

October

30/10/2006 – ModelEnterprise v238 released

PSE is pleased to announce the release of v2.3.8 which is now available for download from the support area. This version features a number of bug fixes, notably on ModelEnterprise's Microsoft Excel interfaces. It also incorporates an updated version of the MILP solver Xpress 2005 from Dash Optimization.

27/10/2006 – Süd-Chemie AG chooses PSE & gPROMS [press release]

Süd-Chemie AG, one of the world's key manufacturers and suppliers of catalysts and zeolites, has adopted gPROMS as its company-wide modelling platform. As well as the gPROMS software, Süd-Chemie has licensed PSE's Advanced Model Library for Fixed-Bed Catalytic Reaction (AML:FBCR), and will make extensive use of PSE's expert process and reaction modelling services.

Süd-Chemie will use high-accuracy models of catalysts and reaction systems to enhance its fundamental understanding of catalytic performance. By applying Advanced Process Modelling from laboratory and pilot plant reactors to commercial systems, the company aims to enhance the quality of its after-sales customer-care service, in particular its diagnostic service, and to help customers to optimise their reaction processes. Modelling will also be used to minimise the need for physical testing of new catalysts, in order to reduce time-to-market.

Mr Christoph Bäumler, Süd-Chemie Director of Engineering Services EMEA, says "We are keen to go beyond the black-box approach and provide customers with a real insight into what is happening in their processes from day to day. In particular this will help us to rapidly troubleshoot when there are problems." He says "We were looking for one single environment that is capable of modelling catalytic reaction systems to a high degree of predictive accuracy from lab scale all the way through to complex industrial systems. gPROMS was the obvious contender."

21/10/2006 – Bobby Daswani wins PSE design award

Our congratulations to Bobby Daswani, the University College London winner of the 2005-2006 Process Systems Enterprise Award for best Process Plant Design II Project. The award, a cheque for £200 and a pewter beer mug, is made annually to the student who makes the most innovative use of process modelling using gPROMS within the design project.

The aim of the project was to extend the design concepts from his previous 3rd year design project using recently advanced design techniques for process dynamics and controllability. Students were expected to use a contemporary tool to model the process dynamics - including developing models for complex plant items - in order to develop and evaluate control strategies for the unit section of the plant.

The unit Bobby chose to model with gPROMS was a distillation column for the TiO2 plant. This gave him the opportunity to model a large dynamic system and to analyse its open and closed-loop dynamics. UCL co-founded with Imperial College London (ICL) the Centre for Process Systems Engineering at ICL, where the original gPROMS concepts and software originated. gPROMS is used as a key tool for research and teaching within the UCL Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology.

July

14/07/2006 – gPROMS 3.0.1 now available for download

gPROMS v3.0.1 contains minor bug fixes, improvements to error reporting, and significant speed enhancements to certain parameter estimation applications and activities with a large amount of diagnostic output.

12/07/2006 – Five new Consultants at PSE

We welcome new members of PSE's Consulting team Stepan Spatenka, Rui Tavares de Sousa, Bart de Groot and Alfredo Ramos to the London office. Mothivel Mummudi Boopathy joins the PSE Americas office in Morristown as part of the ongoing expansion there.

The new consultants bring a range of domain expertise in polymer modelling, fuel cells, biotechnology, microkinetics and supply chain optimisation.

10/07/2006 – Voith Paper adopts gPROMS [press release]

Voith Paper Heidenheim GmbH, one of the world's key manufacturers and suppliers of paper machines and paper plant, has adopted Process Systems Enterprise's (PSE's) gPROMS® Advanced Process Modelling (APM) software as its company-wide modelling platform. PSE will also provide extensive modelling services, training and knowledge transfer.

Voith Paper intends to enhance operations throughout all its divisions - research, engineering, control and eventually operations, operator training and sales & marketing - through the extensive application of Advanced Process Modelling.

May

10/05/2006 – PSE wins London Development Agency grant

PSE was a recent winner of a prestigious London Development Agency Research and Development Grant. The grant is helping to finance fundamental R&D PSE is currently performing in the area of equation-based modelling.

The Grant for Research and Development was introduced by the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in 2003 to help address the challenge of funding small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the London region in activities that do not generate immediate revenue. The 2005 competition attracted 88 applications with 29 winners Picture of Professor Heinz Wolff and Mark Matzopoulossuccessfully securing funding, an impressive six of which are from the Imperial Innovations' portfolio of spin-out companies from Imperial College London.

Mark Matzopoulos, PSE Marketing Director, said "We are thrilled that the technological innovation and commercial potential demonstrated by PSE has been recognised by the LDA in awarding this grant. As a company we spend a large proportion of our revenues on R&D, and assistance such as this can make a big difference". He adds "PSE is a significant employer of highly qualified engineering and science graduates in the West London region, and the high proportion of exports in our revenue stream ensures that we contribute a strong positive balance into the local economy".

The award was presented to Mark Matzopoulos on behalf of Process Systems Enterprise by Professor Heinz Wolff, Emeritus Professor of Bioengineering at Brunel University at a dinner held in London last month.

April

17/04/2006 – gPROMS v3.0 is here! [press release]

gPROMS version 3.0 for is now available for download, prior to its official launch at the PSE Annual Meeting in London.

v3.0 is a major milestone, introducing graphical ways of working at all levels while retaining the power and flexibility for which gPROMS is renowned. As well as many general environment and workflow enhancements, there are significant advances in model validation, to support gPROMS' leading role in Model-Based Innovation.

Click here to learn more about gPROMS v3.0 and find out how you can arrange an on-site workshop.

January

04/01/2006 – PSE assists BP in Texas City accident investigation

PSE was called upon to provide expert information for the team investigating the fatal BP Products Texas City Refinery accident of 23 March 2005, where an explosion occurred during the start-up of the Isomerization Plant. The explosion was believed to have been caused as a result of undetected overflow of liquid from the Raffinate Splitter.

PSE was chosen to undertake the work after an initial scoping showed that the complexity of the modelling task and short timescales required were beyond the capabilities of standard dynamic flowsheeting tools. In addition to its state-of-the-art gPROMS technology, PSE has a Consulting Group with an unparalleled track record in detailed process modelling.

Working from first principles, with no a priori assumptions regarding the magnitude or direction of liquid and vapour flows in the system, PSE Consultants developed a high-fidelity gPROMS model of the raffinate splitter. The model included a detailed two-phase hydraulic representation of the tray active area and downcomers for all trays, as well as a full tray-by-tray vapour–liquid equilibrium (VLE) calculation over the column.

Particular emphasis was placed on the effects of hydrostatic pressure. This led to the understanding of the latter’s role on initially suppressing boiling at the bottom of the column. It was also crucial in permitting the identification of the sequence of events that took place once hot liquid let out from the bottom of the column was allowed to exchange heat with inlet feed. This had the effect of transferring heat to parts of the column which were subjected to much less hydrostatic pressure, and were therefore closer to boiling.

Detailed dynamic simulations showed that, contrary to expectation, hydrocarbon liquid did in fact fully reach the overhead line at the top of the column. This was to some extent caused by vaporisation in the bottom trays (from reboiler input) lifting liquid up the column, a process which was accelerated by vaporisation at the feed tray.

The model pressure profile predictions closely matched the observed DCS/PI process data recorded during the period leading up to the incident. Further analysis suggested that it was likely that a 1½ inch vent was open in the system (this was suspected) and that the possible presence of free water had little significant effect.

Click here to download the Fatal Accident Investigation Report in pdf format. The full PSE report is attached as Appendix 15.

03/03/2007 – Model-Based Innovation features at daratechPLANT2006

PSE has been invited to showcase Model-Based Innovation in the Emerging Technologies Pavilion at daratechPLANT2006 in Houston.

MBI is widely tipped as the technology to watch, on the strength of its role in the design of innovative reactor and crystalliser configurations, new catalysts and advanced separation processes.