Heat exchangers (HX) remain a key asset in the process industries, vital to ensuring energy efficiency and proper functioning of the plant. With the industry’s focus on sustainability and the challenges posed in developing novel sustainability projects, optimal HX design and operation are even more critical.

Shell recently completed a pilot evaluation of Aspen Unified Planning™ (AUP) and Aspen Unified Scheduling™ (AUS) at the Pernis and Moerdijk manufacturing complexes. The objective of the project was to simplify and streamline the deployment of newer software versions to enhance the efficiency and usability of its planning and scheduling tools.

Designing a distillation column requires balancing thermodynamics, hydraulics, internals, energy use and cost—often with limited information early in a project. Decisions made at this stage play a critical role in shaping capital investment, efficiency and long-term operability.

Frequent shifts in market dynamics and operational constraints make refinery decision-making increasingly complex. Traditional methods for refinery cost analysis and margin modeling struggle to keep pace, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities.

The process industry faces unique and complex transient operational challenges—especially during critical phases like start-up and shut-down.

Microgrids are a hot topic for energy-intensive companies—and for good reason. Industrial assets from refineries and data centers to critical infrastructure must run continuously to meet not only production targets but also net-zero goals.

As grid complexity accelerates with DERs, renewables and bidirectional power flows, utilities like Ameren and TenneT are turning to standards-based network model management to replace manual, siloed processes with a single, continuously updated source of truth for grid data.

In complex, integrated and dynamic industrial systems, decisions made during design, operations & maintenance and supply chain planning can significantly impact business performance.

The world’s power grids must keep pace and expand rapidly.

AspenTech’s Digital Grid Management team and Portland General Electric (PGE) have partnered since 2006 to ensure reliable, safe and advanced real-time operations of PGE’s electric grid serving over 1.9 million people with over 21 MW-hours generated and delivered across 1,250 miles of transmission line and 28,800 miles of distribution line.