Refinery Operator Training
Operator training using process simulations is a simulated performance of a real plant process in a virtual environment. The training may be modeled for an existing plant or for a plant under construction. Training includes normal process operation, start up, shutdown, emergency operations and abnormal plant operations.
Process Simulations
You can use simulations to observe a process in action, to examine the operator performance as it runs and to perform analysis on the simulation results. When you make changes to a process or to other model elements (such as available resources) you can then run a new simulation. You can then perform a comparative analysis of the before and after simulation results to quantify the effects of the changes that you made. By doing this, you can assess the benefits of making changes to your processes. Simulation enables process plants to observe how a process will perform in response to variations of inputs to the process, just as in a real-life work environment. Simulation also provides the ability to vary process variables over time by adjusting controls.
Simulation Snapshots
When you simulate a process, the tool adds a simulation snapshot of the process conditions. A simulation snapshot is a record of the complete process model at the moment when you simulated the process. This record contains a copy of all the elements of your process, such as temperature, pressure, reactor yield, valve positions, etc. You may want to create multiple simulation snapshots for the same process after making changes to the process itself, so that you can compare the effect of these changes.
Within the simulation snapshot, the tool also creates the following elements:
The process and control conditions a set of initial preferences for simulation attributes. When you create a new simulation profile for a simulation snapshot, the values specified in the local preferences are used for the simulation attributes of the process and activities within the process.
Engineering and Design
All simulation clients are offered hardware options with customized software solutions or generic training solutions over the web. The customized software is written to add and incorporate your company's many complex systems that may already be in operation at the plant or pipeline. Using the simulation software engineers can design process equipment, control systems, identify bottlenecking and perform 'what-if' studies. Generic simulator training is available over the web for specific commonly used plant units, such as Crude units, Boilers and Fluidized Catalytic Cracker (FCC) units.
Over the past three decades, the control systems have advanced from traditional analog control to Distributed Process Control using multivariable process control, field bus and OPC technologies. Due to advances in information technology, the traditional process controls has been replaced by complex computer based controls. The configuration of these systems requires technical knowhow of the information technology integrated with the knowledge of the Distributed Control System operations.