Case Studies Petrochemical Plant Troubleshoots with Aspen Plus and Saves $2.4M USD per Year

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	Petrochemical Plant Troubleshoots with Aspen Plus and Saves $2.4M USD per Year

Petrochemical Plant Troubleshoots with Aspen Plus and Saves $2.4M USD per Year

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Process Analytics Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries	Chemicals Oil & Gas
Applicable Functions	Process Manufacturing
Use Cases	Predictive Maintenance Process Control & Optimization
Services	Software Design & Engineering Services
Challenge	Reliance Industries Limited, an Indian conglomerate holding company, faced a challenge with their toluene separation process. The existing benzene separation column was underperforming, with the benzene content in the bottoms being higher than the required 200 ppm. This resulted in an unsuccessful planned revamp for benzene-toluene separation. The vendor was unable to offer a viable solution to the underperforming column, stating the column was too tightly designed resulting in offsite processing of the benzene column bottoms containing toluene and heavies. Following the shutdown of the offsite processing facility, the revamp for benzene-toluene became essential. Because of heavy losses due to the lack of a local toluene separation facility, an urgent revamp became critical. Read More
About Customer	Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian conglomerate holding company. The company's businesses span across various sectors including hydrocarbon exploration and production, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals, retail, and telecommunications. They strive to maintain innovation-led growth in each of these areas and aim to achieve global leadership by maintaining their position as the largest polyester yarn and fiber producer in the world and a leading producer of ultra-clean fuels. Reliance Industries uses the aspenONE Engineering suite of products in many of their businesses when designing new plants, revamping existing plants, and troubleshooting underperforming units. Read More
Solution	Reliance turned to Aspen Plus and the hydraulic modeling capabilities to troubleshoot the underperforming column and find a viable alternative. This was completed in-house, avoiding the costs and delay associated with getting help from an outside simulation expert. Using Aspen Plus and plant data, Reliance built a model rigorous enough to correctly explain what was occurring in the underperforming unit. They determined that poor benzene-toluene separation tower efficiency was the reason and found the benzene column to be hydraulically limited. Since the separation column required more trays to reach the required performance, a redundant column was identified as a potential alternative to avoid column replacement or re-traying, which would result in further losses in production. By confirming that the redundant column could be used as a stripper and reconfiguring the two columns, Reliance could effectively reach the required separation and locally separate the toluene. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Process Analytics

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Applicable Industries

Chemicals

Oil & Gas

Applicable Functions

Process Manufacturing

Use Cases

Predictive Maintenance

Process Control & Optimization

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

Challenge

Reliance Industries Limited, an Indian conglomerate holding company, faced a challenge with their toluene separation process. The existing benzene separation column was underperforming, with the benzene content in the bottoms being higher than the required 200 ppm. This resulted in an unsuccessful planned revamp for benzene-toluene separation. The vendor was unable to offer a viable solution to the underperforming column, stating the column was too tightly designed resulting in offsite processing of the benzene column bottoms containing toluene and heavies. Following the shutdown of the offsite processing facility, the revamp for benzene-toluene became essential. Because of heavy losses due to the lack of a local toluene separation facility, an urgent revamp became critical.

About Customer

Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian conglomerate holding company. The company's businesses span across various sectors including hydrocarbon exploration and production, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals, retail, and telecommunications. They strive to maintain innovation-led growth in each of these areas and aim to achieve global leadership by maintaining their position as the largest polyester yarn and fiber producer in the world and a leading producer of ultra-clean fuels. Reliance Industries uses the aspenONE Engineering suite of products in many of their businesses when designing new plants, revamping existing plants, and troubleshooting underperforming units.

Solution

Reliance turned to Aspen Plus and the hydraulic modeling capabilities to troubleshoot the underperforming column and find a viable alternative. This was completed in-house, avoiding the costs and delay associated with getting help from an outside simulation expert. Using Aspen Plus and plant data, Reliance built a model rigorous enough to correctly explain what was occurring in the underperforming unit. They determined that poor benzene-toluene separation tower efficiency was the reason and found the benzene column to be hydraulically limited. Since the separation column required more trays to reach the required performance, a redundant column was identified as a potential alternative to avoid column replacement or re-traying, which would result in further losses in production. By confirming that the redundant column could be used as a stripper and reconfiguring the two columns, Reliance could effectively reach the required separation and locally separate the toluene.

Impact #1	Implemented the final proposed design successfully with minimal capital investment
Impact #2	Enabled better control of product quality with new column configuration that matches Aspen Plus software’s predicted performance
Impact #3	Completed in-house, avoiding the costs and delay associated with an outside simulation expert

Impact #1

Implemented the final proposed design successfully with minimal capital investment

Impact #2

Enabled better control of product quality with new column configuration that matches Aspen Plus software’s predicted performance

Impact #3

Completed in-house, avoiding the costs and delay associated with an outside simulation expert

Benefit #1	Increased production resulting in $2.4 M USD per year of savings

Benefit #1

Increased production resulting in $2.4 M USD per year of savings

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Overview

Petrochemical Plant Troubleshoots with Aspen Plus and Saves $2.4M USD per Year

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit