Digitalization in Process Industry

Status and Implementation of Digital Plant Models

Abstract

In the Oil & Gas Industry as well as in the Chemical Industry, there is a growing demand for up-to-date plant models (“as-is”) over the whole life cycle of a plant. Expectations are that these help to meet the increasing requirements of a competitive environment towards the best possible way of resource utilization (energy, feedstock and staff). In contrast to the (discrete) manufacturing industry, the process industry maintains plant life cycles of 50 and more years. The VDI Status Report „Seamless and dynamic Engineering of Plants” [10] describes in a generic way concepts and considerations how within the engineering phase of a plant design an integrated plant model can be developed, and how it can be operated and updated over the whole life cycle of the plant across the more and more permanent interrelated processes between Engineering, Operations and Maintenance.

The following paper discusses, from an operational view, the specific characteristics and requirements of the process industry in the context of application scenarios and roles generically described in the VDI Status report. It translates the generic concepts and considerations into the specifics of the process industry environment. Finally, the abstract is supplemented with an overview of the implementation status of digital integrated plant models in Process Industry. Important drivers in the process industry to accelerate the deployment of plant models over the whole life cycle are: (1) Maintain best-in-class process safety and operational excellence in more complex production processes; (2) Meet increasing expectations of local and federal authorities in permitting processes towards complete transparency and documentation; (3) A digital representation of the whole plant over the whole asset life cycle (Engineering & Construction and Operations including plant modifications) is a competitive advantage, esp. in case the model includes information about possible constraints, context information, different process variations or process alternatives of the respective plant, conceivable and agreed on engineering decisions as well as related potential and real impact on plant operation; (4) A realistic opportunity that the application and approval process for the Licence-to-Operate or related possible enhancements or modifications can be accelerated and thus the approvals from authorities can be granted and adopted faster.