Abstract:

In the industry 4.0 concept, the need for a digital twin has been recognized as a vital enabler to optimize the operation of modern manufacturing plants, where a virtual model of the physical asset is synchronized. This can be realized by utilizing process dynamic simulators. In petroleum refineries, engineers are required to improve the way they operate and troubleshoot the different unit operations in the plant. Rigorous process modeling platforms provide an inexpensive tool to simulate and understand the effect of significant parameters on a unit and the interactions between these parameters. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a dynamic model for a diesel hydrotreating unit using Aspen HYSYS from AspenTech as the first step toward designing a full-scale digital twin. Petroleum reactor models are not supported by the dynamic environment in Aspen HYSYS. This thesis offers a new simplified method, yet reasonable to overcome this barrier, in particular, using a conversion reactor. The results showed that a dynamic model could be developed, and operating scenarios could be tested. However, due to the limitations/challenges of the used platform (i.e., Aspen HYSYS), it was necessary to simplify the model without compromising the accuracy of the predictions as far as possible.