Improving Life-Cycle Costs of Large Integrated Capital Projects in the Chemical Industry

A global chemical company employed process modeling and system performance modeling tools in tandem in order to better predict the future performance of a large, integrated greenfield project.

System Performance Modeling Tools can be used to accurately predict production of products and use of feedstocks and utilities while taking into account weather, buffer storage and demand logistics as well as equipment reliability for all of the production units and utilities.

Challenges Included

• Multiple ETC Teams located on multiple continents
• JV Partner relationships and confidentiality
• Complete a very complex unit level model with inputs that were not fixed
  • Gasification Envelope
  • Propylene Envelope
  • Chlorine Envelope
  • Utilities
• New process technologies / sizes being introduced for the first time
• Simultaneous batch and continuous operations
• Optimize Power/Utility configuration & usage
• Frequently update model structure, product mix and results
• Long model run times due to model complexity
• Optimize unit capacity versus capital cost

The client was able to make informed, quantified decisions regarding unit capacities, number of processing trains, buffer storage sizing and production delivery capabilities.