PD-06-102 Using Dynamic Simulation to Validate the Design and Operations

Description:

Increased demand for oil and gas has renewed interest in the technical development of refineries and gas plants with an emphasis on streamlining operations and improving process design which has led to tighter bounds on process design. Dynamic simulation is a proven tool for evaluating basic design of a plant during its evolutionary phase and simulating plant response under normal and critical situations. Dynamic simulations can also be used to perform controllability and operability studies. This paper discusses engineering studies performed at Bechtel to validate process design and operation of an atmospheric distillation unit with a diluent rectifier column. A high fidelity dynamic model of the process plant was developed and used to study operability and controllability for various transient scenarios. Additional control strategies were tested and recommended to complement the existing control systems. Early operational guidelines were established based on these studies.