Why engineers need integrated, simplified process simulation tools

Posted: July 19, 2023

Engineering is a difficult job from the very beginning. Engineering requires dedication and focus, starting with college classes and exams, then moving on to intense design projects and internships. And that’s all before you graduate. Once you start working as a process engineer, an entire plant operation process can rest on your shoulders. Designing optimal processes, identifying key parameters, equipment selection, and performing mass balance calculations to ensure your product is on spec and your plant is profitable is no easy feat. While engineering is complex by nature and should have a high bar for entry, I believe we’ve grown far too accustomed to difficulty in our day-to-day activities.

If we expect engineers to develop and launch new innovative processes and products, we need to provide them with innovative process tools that allow us to move beyond linear, wasteful workflows and enable us to design the plant of the future. With AVEVA™ Process Simulation, we can reduce process design complexities and deliver sustainable processes, plants, and products at the speed the market demands.

Here are four ways AVEVA Process Simulation can enable high-quality, sustainable design.

1. One simulation tool across the entire plant lifecycle

When Apple released the first smartphone in 2007, it changed how we interact with technology. Now, multiple functions are consolidated into a single device, allowing us to make calls, listen to music, take photos, and download apps—all in a convenient and cost-effective way. Just like Apple, we’ve integrated numerous process design functions into AVEVA Process Simulation. With AVEVA’s platform approach to process design, you can build an integrated digital twin of your process to replace dozens of specialized programs or use steady state and dynamic modes across the entire plant lifecycle.

With AVEVA Process Simulation, you can increase your engineering efficiency by reducing redundant simulation efforts. For example, Promon Engenharia cut engineering hours by 15% and project implementation time by 60%.

2. Built-in sustainability

New environmental regulations and internal company ESG goals have increased the urgency to transition your process plant to support sustainable technology. Now, companies must find alternative ways to design plants and processes while also reducing emissions. With built-in hydrogen processes, renewables, and GHG calculations, AVEVA Process Simulation allows you to future-proof your plant to keep up with the rapidly evolving sustainability landscape. Maximizing your decarbonization efforts to reach net-zero goals, enabling a circular economy, and designing and delivering mature, sustainable plants, processes, and products has never been easier.

3. Simplicity and ease-of-use

AVEVA Process Simulation was designed to be simple and easy to use. With open modeling, role-based user interfaces, and a fully open platform, AVEVA Process Simulation reduces the learning curve to enable widespread adoption, boosts productivity by prioritizing engineering problems, not software complexities, and minimizes errors so you can stay on time and on budget. Using our intuitive workflows and automated features, you can focus on building and simulating complex processes and perfecting your designs before rollout.

4. The AVEVA advantage

AVEVA Process Simulation integrates seamlessly into the AVEVA ecosystem. By integrating with other AVEVA products, you can break down silos, improve collaboration, accessibility, and the user experience, and enable your digital twin. Quickly bring simulations online by inputting real-time operations data from AVEVA™ PI System™. Give your engineering teams cloud-based access to a single source of trusted standardized data with AVEVA™ Unified Engineering. Or, use Predictive Analytics to leverage real-time simulation and AI models to predict equipment failure.

As engineers, we’ve gotten too used to things being hard. By streamlining and integrating our processes around AVEVA Process Simulation, we can remove our daily complexities so we can focus on designing and executing flawless plants, processes, and products.