The Role of Process Engineering in the Digital Transformation

The process engineering discipline has been largely excluded from Digital Transformation trends. The objective of this presentation is to provide an overview of the obstacles to Digital Transformation for the process discipline and explain how these can be overcome. A special emphasis will be given on the role of the process simulation tool (white box modelling) as a catalyst for transformational change. The presentation will examine several challenges specific to process engineering: 1) Process simulators are divided into single-purpose point solutions. Separate models may be created for process design, control strategy design, operator training simulation, performance monitoring and online optimization. 2) Process simulators are typically poorly integrated into engineering workflows beyond the process world, and if so, with a single directional information flow. 3) Legacy process simulators are overloaded with niche features and functions only usable by experts. 4) The potential benefits of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for process engineering are not widely understood. Industry stakeholders see the Digital Twin as the most important building block for Digital Transformation of the process industries. While legacy simulators are well-suited to accurately simulate processes, their decades-old architectures mean they are not ideal to serve the entire plant lifecycle and support the Digital Transformation. We will use the AVEVA SimCentral Simulation Platform(4) as an example of how the identified obstacles can be overcome with a next generation process simulator. Case examples from leading companies will be outlined.