From legacy code to digital design tools

Many companies have valuable corporate knowledge captured in legacy process models. Some models are written in general purpose programming languages such as FORTRAN or C++, some are in overextended spreadsheets, and others are held hostage in simulation environments that are no longer actively supported. Though the insights gleaned from these models are crucial to the business, model maintenance is more costly than ever. As a generation of engineers retire, companies risk losing hard-earned knowledge if legacy process models become unusable.

This webinar provides a step-by-step approach to move valuable models from legacy applications to a modern modelling platform. The presentation describes the issues involved for companies considering the move, and the advantages that the gPROMS^® platform and PSE Consulting can bring.

Topics covered

The approach is illustrated with several examples including:

• Migrating a nuclear waste remediation process model from an unsupported simulator
• Migrating a 1970's power station model from FORTRAN
• Migrating an iron making process model from an overextended spreadsheet
• Migrating a Fischer-Tropsch GTL process model from an unsupported simulator

In each example, the new model captures the value of the original engineering work while incorporating the benefits of a modern corporate modelling platform: ease of maintenance and extension, ease of use, speed and stability, dynamics, optimisation, version control, compatibility with current software and hardware, and more.

Presenter(s)

	Bart de Groot is a Principal Applications Engineer for Process Systems Enterprise. He has a M.Sc. from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Bart has more than 8 years' experience providing model-based solutions to the process industries.
	Cristian Triana is an Applications Engineer for Process Systems Enterprise. He obtained both his Bachelor and Master degrees from the National University of Colombia at Manizales. He has a PhD degree in chemical engineering from University College London. His research focused on the optimisation and heat integration of bioprocesses such as ethanol production from biomass.