Enhancing PDH Plant Performance with Real-Time Dynamic Simulation Models

Type of service:  Digital Twins

Inprocess client:  Propane Dehydrogenation (PDH) plant producing polymer-grade propylene 

The challenge in context:

Optimizing an energy-intensive distillation section (Depropanizer, Deethanizer and Propane–Propylene Splitter) critical for product quality and profitability, while improving reliability, measurement accuracy, and early detection of operational issues. The plant required better visibility into real-time performance and more robust decision-making tools to avoid off-spec production and inefficiencies.

Results and Benefits:

• Deployment of an online Digital Twin on the client’s server by connecting the dynamic simulation model of the distillation section to real-time plant data.
• The Inprocess Infrastructure Suite (IIS) is the software that enables model execution and facilitates data exchange between the model and the plant’s real-time database.
• The application has been running continuously for more than one year,  with data exchange occurring every 2 seconds. 
• Improved product quality assurance through continuous prediction of properties and impurities (e.g. propane losses at the Depropanizer column bottoms were reduced by 10%)
• Reduced risk of off-spec production with analyzer backup and virtual sensors
• Increased measurement accuracy via flowmeter correction and enhanced mass/energy balances
• Early detection of instrumentation issues and operational instabilities (e.g. flooding)
• Enhanced equipment performance monitoring (pumps, compressors, heat exchangers)
• Better operational reliability and energy efficiency across the distillation section
• Real-time tracking of environmental KPIs supporting reduction strategies (e.g. benzene content in the wastewater was significantly reduced using Digital Twin results)

Discover how we present it at OPTIMIZE26: https://inprocessgroup.com/enhancing-pdh-plant-performance-with-real-time-dynamic-simulation-models/