Reliable digital twins for unit operations and entire processes by means of the development of dedicated differential-algebraic equation models and detailed dynamic simulations. Also, the use and integration of commercial suites as the base for full digitalization are skills of the SuPER team.
“To clarify what a digital twin is, it is worth saying that it is not a process simulation, at least not only, and especially it is not a steady-state simulation; a digital twin must be able to represent the behavior of the plant in all the circumstances, including the hardest transient scenarios such as the start-up and the emergency shutdown. The digital twin is not a realistic representation of the field, again not only; a digital twin is a full immersive environment where the unit operations and the instrumentations are enabled for interactions and every action imposed to them is directly connected with the process simulation. At last but still not least, the digital twin is not a framework that can predict the future trends or drive the plant in optimal way; the digital twin is an environment where all the operations, decisions and actions are implemented in realistic manner for time and entity of effects.”, Manenti et al. (2021) subm. paper.
Steady-state and dynamic process simulation
We own a deep and broad-spectrum knowledge in steady-state and dynamic process modeling and simulation. We are able both to employ commercial packages (e.g. PRO/II, Aspen Plus, DYNSIM etc.) and to develop custom-made first-principles models, which can be embedded within commercial simulation frameworks.
Dynamic simulation provides several advantages over standard steady-state approaches, such as start-up and shut-down operations optimization. Moreover, especially in the case of biorefineries, where significant and frequent load changes have to be addressed, this kind of simulation turns out to be much more accurate and close to reality.
3D and virtualization
The digital is completed when the three-dimensional realistic environment is wearing the physical-chemical model operating in the background. A dedicated avatar is currently available at the SuPER Centre thanks to the tight collaboration with AVEVA / Schneider-Electric. With Oculus and high-computing machine, the interacting realistic environment allows to aprioristically validate decisions and operations.
