Increasing Agility with Integration

Significant fluctuations in energy prices today due to global and various regional economic and political environments necessitate agile response from businesses to remain profitable. Oil companies must adapt to changing product demand and raw material prices. In order to adapt accordingly, the refiner must completely understand the process. The only way to do understand the process is through simulation. However, the simulation of the process is only as good as the feedstock information.

Integrating crude assay knowledge management databases with simulations has a tremendous impact on the bottom line. Using actual crude assay data in your simulation makes your simulations more accurate, enabling superior process design and process optimization. Integration also allows oil companies to evaluate potential feedstocks using accurate models of their refining operations to judge the impact of each potential feedstock. This allows the business to adapt, by selecting feedstock over another or modifying the process to take advantage of alternative feedstocks.

Integration between Spiral CrudeSuite, PRO/II, and ROMeo from Invensys, assists refiners in meeting the increasing demands of today’s operating environment.  This integration provides accurate crude feedstock information to process design and optimization simulations that greatly increases the accuracy of the models. Together, CrudeSuite, PRO/II and ROMeo provide enhanced accuracy in design and optimization. 

Integration of these Invensys solutions increases the accuracy of refinery simulations allowing refiners to adapt. Adapting allows refiners to increase profitability by providing accurate process simulation.



About PRO/II: PRO/II is the major product in the Process Engineering Suite (PES). This process simulation software optimizes plant performance by improving process design, operational analysis, and performing engineering studies. It is designed to perform rigorous heat and material balance calculations for a wide range of chemical processes. PRO/II allows users to evaluate the use of heat integration with case studies, rigorously evaluate process improvements with the help of a process flow diagram (PFD), or model crude distillation units. PRO/II offers a wide variety of thermodynamic models to virtually every industry and is incredibly cost effective, decreasing both capital and operating costs.

About ROMeo Refining: ROMeo Refinery is a plant wide optimization solution from Invensys. This optimization solution based on ROMeo process simulation software improves process monitoring, process optimization, utilities and hydrogen management, reactor model simulation, along with planning and scheduling to greatly enhance efficiency and profitability across the entire refinery.

Technical Support: As always, feel free to reach out to your local technical support team for more information

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SimSci Training Courses

SimSci-Esscor Training Courses

SimSci-Esscor is an Invensys solution that offers applications to give your plant a competitive edge in today’s global economy.  SimSci offers integrated simulation, optimization, training, and process control software and services. For over 45 years, these applications have been improving profitability and performance in plants across the globe.

If you have decided to use SimSci products but you do not where to begin, Invensys is now offering training courses. These courses will provide the necessary guidance to use SimSci-Esscor applications that will allow your plant to reach its full potential and maximize performance and profitability. 

New to SimSciproducts?  Are you looking to refresh your skills?  Update your skills?

Join us worldwide for a SimSci training course.

To register for the upcoming training course visit http://iomtraining.invensys.com/simsci/public

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What is assay knowledge management?

Guest Blogger, Emma Price, Customer Relationship Manager for Spiral Software

Spiral was founded with a vision to transform the oil industry’s use of software, helping to maximise the value of every drop of crude oil. The inspiration behind this was twofold.

Firstly, the evolving industry context creates new challenges and opportunities. Refiners are seeing a more diverse feedstock market than ever before
—diverse in both quality and pricing. There are now many crude oils available which present some processing challenges in return for a discounted market price. At the same time, product specifications are becoming more stringent and legislation is tightening around safer operational limits. Put together, this makes a confident understanding of feedstock refining behaviour more important than it has ever been.

Secondly, the new capabilities of information technology enable effective collaboration, even across huge global organisations. It is perfectly realistic to gather real-time information from operating sites and provide meaningful analytics that help users collaborate to make the best possible decisions. This is the step from looking at assay data as simply a set of laboratory measurements to seeing it as “assay knowledge”: bringing together assay measurement with operational data, refinery models, past experience, market information and even news feeds.

This is what we mean by “assay knowledge management” and since 1998, our tools span this whole space: from traditional implementations at laboratories that help them validate and work-up assay data, through to oil major implementations with over 2,500 users in a single enterprise, spanning every area of the business, across upstream exploration, feedstock trading, strategy and operations.

This pushes well outside the bounds of legacy assay management software. For example, some of the largest commodity trading companies use our tools to run thousands of cases to understand how markets would react to feedstock and refining capacity changes. In parallel, engineering and consulting companies use our tools to analyse strategic investments, understanding the future value and risk of capital investments and green field developments.



-Note from Joe McMullen, blog owner-
Back in October, 2012 Invensys acquired Spiral Software. Since then we have been actively integrating Spiral technology with SimSci products, and learning more and more about all that Spiral has to offer our customers. I truly believe that Invensys provides unparalleled coverage of the refinery value chain, something that greatly benefits our customers. Spiral Integration with both PRO/II and ROMeo are due to be released in coming months. I look forward to hearing feedback from our customer on how valuable that will be!

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Are you operating as sub-optimal conditions

The global economy and regional regulations are placing greater economic pressures on refiners in the form of increased pricing pressure that affect profitability and require enhanced performance to allow the plant to remain profitable. Additionally, regulatory compliance and adherence to increasing stringent safety standards can adversely affect a refinery’s bottom line. Decreased margin from increased competition is forcing refiners to evaluate means to run more profitably. Refineries have been implementing profit generating activities for years, but the key is implementation and sustainability of a full-scale optimization program.

THE INVENSYS SOLUTION:

Invensys provides several optimization solutions. Invensys has extended its best-in-class solutions under SimSci for refinery optimization through integration of various individual products and applications designed to capture all areas of profit opportunity by providing the best optimization and regulatory compliance solutions for a refinery. These new solutions take SimSci’s leadership in refining optimization to a higher level. The various solutions allow the refinery to choose the level of optimization that is appropriate for their current situation.

Off-sites:  Tank farms make up a large portion of a refining complex. Increased automation and operational performance reduces the cost of terminal operations, while at the same time improving safety compliance and business performance. Invensys Off-sites solutions have been in use in terminal and refinery sites globally for over 25 years, serving all of the major oil companies.

Process Optimization:  ROMeo is the standard for process optimization in refining and can be used for either performance monitoring or process optimization.  During performance monitoring, ROMeo trends the performance of equipment to identify problems and pinpoint equipment operational issues. An example would be the performance monitoring of a crude pre-heat train to monitor exchanger fouling and running case-studies to view which heat exchanger would impact profitability the most when cleaned.   During process optimization, ROMeo automatically imports process data, reconciles that data, and optimizes the process within a set of operational bounds. One example would be to minimize the usage of hydrogen when upgrading heavier crude oil. In this example, ROMeo would be used to monitor hydrogen usage and minimize its consumption by altering the flow and conditions (temperature and pressure) of the various feedstocks.

Integrating ROMeo with Planning, Scheduling and Off-sites:  Refiners can now leverage blend operations and optimization practices to improve efficiency and profitability across the entire refinery. Crude blend data available from off-sites blending operations can be used as input to process optimization software. Product properties that are calculated by process optimization software can then be used in off-sites product blending operations.

Visualization:  Wonderware Intelligence provides the visualization technology that allows operators key performance indicator (KPI) visibility and monitoring through interactive dashboards in near real-time.  This provides key information in desired context across Invensys and non-Invensys sources of operations data to achieve on the spot operational decision-making.

Automation:  ArchestrA Workflow is powerful business process management software, a) helping enforce consistent policy and procedural execution from plant automation to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), b) enabling a reduction in process and response latency c) and providing the open framework to support the necessary governance, including notifications, escalations and approvals of all stakeholders in the collaboration environment.  Mobile Solutions, from Wonderware IntelaTrac, enable workflow, data collection and general task management for plant operations, maintenance management, production tracking and compliance applications. Mobile Solutions result in improved operational discipline and reliability, increased workforce productivity, and enhanced safety and compliance.   Condition Manager, from Avantis, is tied to asset health, reliability and/or availability.  Predicting asset failures before they occur on critical refinery equipment can result in significant costs savings. Condition Manager collects data from any plant floor system which is OPC-compliant, analyzes that data, then acts upon it – letting operators know of any problematic conditions early enough to take corrective action before they escalate into serious upsets or, worse yet, unplanned shutdowns.

Advanced Process Control: While ROMeo is able to optimize operations once they have achieved steady-state, Connoisseur, the APC solution from SimSci-Esscor, offers optimization within a smaller time-frame. APC can help control a process to desired set-points to minimize fluctuation in the controllers and optimize output.

ACA.HF: The ACA.HF is the new standard in safety, simplicity, reliability, and accuracy for analysis of HF alkylation process performance. ACA.HF is a way to safely and simply obtain online measurement of %HF, %Water and %ASO in HF alkylation. This solution is an affordable alternative to FTNIR with highly reliable and repeatable accuracy. In fact, ACA.HF exceeds the precision of HF analysis with FTNIR. ACA.HF is a multivariable analyzer based on the application of proven Foxboro measurement technologies that are long-established in online analysis of process streams. The fact that measurements can be made in real-time with no safety risk allows refineries to enjoy the results without the risk of an accident or plant downtime.

Are you running at peak performance? What do you need help with? Let us know.

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Are you operating as sub-optimal conditions

The global economy and regional regulations are placing greater economic pressures on refiners in the form of increased pricing pressure that affect profitability and require enhanced performance to allow the plant to remain profitable. Additionally, regulatory compliance and adherence to increasing stringent safety standards can adversely affect a refinery’s bottom line. Decreased margin from increased competition is forcing refiners to evaluate means to run more profitably. Refineries have been implementing profit generating activities for years, but the key is implementation and sustainability of a full-scale optimization program.

THE INVENSYS SOLUTION:

Invensys provides several optimization solutions. Invensys has extended its best-in-class solutions under SimSci-Esscor for refinery optimization through integration of various individual products and applications designed to capture all areas of profit opportunity by providing the best optimization and regulatory compliance solutions for a refinery. These new solutions take SimSci-Esscor’s leadership in refining optimization to a higher level. The various solutions allow the refinery to choose the level of optimization that is appropriate for their current situation.

Off-sites:  Tank farms make up a large portion of a refining complex. Increased automation and operational performance reduces the cost of terminal operations, while at the same time improving safety compliance and business performance. Invensys Off-sites solutions have been in use in terminal and refinery sites globally for over 25 years, serving all of the major oil companies.

Process Optimization:  ROMeo is the standard for process optimization in refining and can be used for either performance monitoring or process optimization.  During performance monitoring, ROMeo trends the performance of equipment to identify problems and pinpoint equipment operational issues. An example would be the performance monitoring of a crude pre-heat train to monitor exchanger fouling and running case-studies to view which heat exchanger would impact profitability the most when cleaned.   During process optimization, ROMeo automatically imports process data, reconciles that data, and optimizes the process within a set of operational bounds. One example would be to minimize the usage of hydrogen when upgrading heavier crude oil. In this example, ROMeo would be used to monitor hydrogen usage and minimize its consumption by altering the flow and conditions (temperature and pressure) of the various feedstocks.

Integrating ROMeo with Planning, Scheduling and Off-sites:  Refiners can now leverage blend operations and optimization practices to improve efficiency and profitability across the entire refinery. Crude blend data available from off-sites blending operations can be used as input to process optimization software. Product properties that are calculated by process optimization software can then be used in off-sites product blending operations.

Visualization:  Wonderware Intelligence provides the visualization technology that allows operators key performance indicator (KPI) visibility and monitoring through interactive dashboards in near real-time.  This provides key information in desired context across Invensys and non-Invensys sources of operations data to achieve on the spot operational decision-making.

Automation:  ArchestrA Workflow is powerful business process management software, a) helping enforce consistent policy and procedural execution from plant automation to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), b) enabling a reduction in process and response latency c) and providing the open framework to support the necessary governance, including notifications, escalations and approvals of all stakeholders in the collaboration environment.  Mobile Solutions, from Wonderware IntelaTrac, enable workflow, data collection and general task management for plant operations, maintenance management, production tracking and compliance applications. Mobile Solutions result in improved operational discipline and reliability, increased workforce productivity, and enhanced safety and compliance.   Condition Manager, from Avantis, is tied to asset health, reliability and/or availability.  Predicting asset failures before they occur on critical refinery equipment can result in significant costs savings. Condition Manager collects data from any plant floor system which is OPC-compliant, analyzes that data, then acts upon it – letting operators know of any problematic conditions early enough to take corrective action before they escalate into serious upsets or, worse yet, unplanned shutdowns.

Advanced Process Control: While ROMeo is able to optimize operations once they have achieved steady-state, Connoisseur, the APC solution from SimSci-Esscor, offers optimization within a smaller time-frame. APC can help control a process to desired set-points to minimize fluctuation in the controllers and optimize output.

ACA.HF: The ACA.HF is the new standard in safety, simplicity, reliability, and accuracy for analysis of HF alkylation process performance. ACA.HF is a way to safely and simply obtain online measurement of %HF, %Water and %ASO in HF alkylation. This solution is an affordable alternative to FTNIR with highly reliable and repeatable accuracy. In fact, ACA.HF exceeds the precision of HF analysis with FTNIR. ACA.HF is a multivariable analyzer based on the application of proven Foxboro measurement technologies that are long-established in online analysis of process streams. The fact that measurements can be made in real-time with no safety risk allows refineries to enjoy the results without the risk of an accident or plant downtime.

Are you running at peak performance? What do you need help with? Let us know.

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Invensys Enhances Usability of SimSci-Esscor Simulation Software

And here is the official news release from my blog announcement earlier! SimSci Suite 2013 News Release

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INTRODUCING SimSci Suite 2013 with PRO/II 9.2, PIPEPHASE 9.6, DYNSIM 5.1, & ROMeo 6.1

SimSci Suite 2013

All SimSci-Esscor software on a single DVD to make it easier for you!

SimSci Suite 2013 includes all current SimSci-Esscor simulation and components to enhance your experience.

This new comprehensive DVD will be updated every 12 to 18 months, providing for a more structured software deployment and maintenance. Individual product patches or service packs will be released as needed. SimSci Suite 2013 supports your full plant lifecycle, from process design to operator training to process optimization.

SimSci Suite 2013 contains the brand new releases of PRO/II 9.2, INPLANT 4.3, PIPEPHASE 9.6, DYNSIM 5.1, and ROMeo 6.1

The following simulation software products are on the SimSci Suite 2013 DVD:

Process Design Software	Operator Training and Simulation Software	Process Optimization Software
PRO/II 9.2 VISUAL FLOW 5.5 INPLANT 4.3 HEXTRAN 9.2 DATACON 3.2 SIM4ME Portal 2.2 PIPEPHASE 9.6	DYNSIM 5.1 TRISIM Plus 2.2 FSIM Plus 4.7.1 OTS Engines 1.1	ROMeo Material Balance Module 6.1 ROMeo Performance Monitoring 6.1 ROMeo Process Optimization 6.1 ROMeo Utilities Optimization 6.1 ROMeo Refinery Modeling 6.1 Connoisseur 15.4

Please go to the SimSci-Esscor Electronic Software Download (ESD) site to request your copy today! 

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Refinery Wide Optimization

The declining global economy and increasing regional regulations are taking their toll on refineries. These two issues prove that there is no better time to improve performance and profitability. Invensys has developed products that find any chance of profitability anywhere in the refinery.


SimSci-Esscor’s ROMeo Online Performance Suite solution provides optimization features for the entire refinery. ROMeo Utilities Optimization optimizes the way plants supply energy from its utilities. It will significantly reduce energy cost, which is very often a refinery’s greatest expense. ROMeo Process Optimization allows for a change in operation based on current economic and process conditions. SimSci-Esscor’s ROMeo solutions are used by some of the world’s leading refineries including Exxon Mobil, Shell, and BASF. Invensys Yield Accounting Solution provides refineries with more accurate data and more reliable tracking. In doing this, it provides less room for error which also optimizes performance. Planning & Off-sites Integration with ROMeo is another Invensys optimization solution. Integrating ROMeo with planning LP technology and off-sites management applications allows for much less manual work.

Join the world’s leading refineries and start optimizing performance in your workplace by choosing Invensys optimization solutions.

About the ROMeo Online Performance Suite: Invensys offers numerous performance enhancing solutions as part of the Online Performance Suite (OPS) that allow customers to remain competitive in tough economic times. The ability to view what is happening at your plant now and make appropriate and timely business decisions is critical to optimal operation. ROMeo’s online rigorous modeling and equation-based real time optimization capabilities provide improved data that will assist refiners in dealing with changing market pressures, product values, energy costs and equipment performance. This suite provides assistance with energy management, non linear, olefins, and wellfield optimization.

Technical Support: As always, feel free to reach out to your local technical support team for more information.

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What are the current versions of your SimSci-Esscor software?

Want to know what the current release of your favorite SimSci-Esscor software is?


Click here to vist the blog - look in the upper left hand corner of the blog where the current versions will always be listed!

As always, feel free to reach out to your local technical support team for more information.

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Improve refinery profitability – integrate your off-sites and process optimization applications - on demand webinar available now!

Off-sites applications and online optimization applications are both important to your business. However, enabling these systems to share data in real time will allow each application to perform more effectively because each will be working with better data.
Integration allows off-sites blend operations data to be utilized within the process optimizer and this yields superior optimization results due to more accurate feedstock data. The process optimization results, in the form of bulk property information, are then fed back to product blending applications, giving those applications more accurate input and enabling improved product blending.


The optimizer can also be integrated with LP model vector updating, typically a difficult, time intensive task that can be streamlined with process optimization software. The key benefit is that the data required for LP model vectors can be sent directly from the optimizer, eliminating the need for manual re-inputting of data. This significantly improves model accuracy and reduces the resource burden and time required to gather plant information, sort and filter through the data, and then generate LP vectors.

You can view this recording on demand now!





About Planning & Off-sites Integration: Planning & Off-sites Integration with ROMeo is an Invensys solution that optimizes performance in refineries, petrochemical plants, and other facilities. It leverages both blending operations and optimization practices. Blending operations consist of crude blending and product blending. This process is optimized with the help of ROMeo optimization which uses the crude blending information to produce better results for the product blending software. This solution automatically model updates ROMeo vector data into LP vectors, allowing for linear and crude planning to result in more efficient operations in facilities.

Technical Support: As always, feel free to reach out to your local technical support team for more information.

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SIM4ME Portal - Bringing your simulations to Microsoft Excel

The SIM4ME Portal from Invensys is an application that integrates simulation software from SimSci-Esscor with Microsoft Excel, which widely extends the user base. It has already been integrated with PRO/II, PIPEPHASE, INPLANT, VISUAL FLOW, ARPM, and ROMeo. It will also be simulated with more applications soon. This application significantly increases a company’s return on investment (ROI) by making it more user-friendly and decreasing the learning curve. It helps to evaluate current performance and determine future performance.

Guest Blogger: Kaylen McMullen, Marketing Assistant, Invensys Operations Management

About SIM4ME Portal: The SIM4ME Portal from Invensys is an application that integrates simulation software from SimSci-Esscor with Microsoft Excel, widely extending the user base and giving users the ability to run case studies to further evaluate the process. SIM4ME Portal has already been integrated with PRO/II, PIPEPHASE, INPLANT, VISUAL FLOW, ARPM, and ROMeo. This application significantly increases a company’s return on investment (ROI) by making it more user-friendly and decreasing the learning curve giving access to less experienced simulation users. The SIM4ME Portal can be used to help evaluate current performance and determine future performance of the process or equipment.

Technical Support: As always, feel free to reach out to your local technical support team for more information.

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ROMeo - Remain competitive in tough economic times!

Invensys Operations Management offers numerous performance enhancing solutions that allows its customers to remain competitive in tough economic times.

The ability to view what is happening at your plant now and make appropriate and timely business decisions is critical to optimal operation. ROMeo’s online modeling and equation-based optimization capabilities provide improved data that will assist refiners in dealing with changing market pressures, product values, energy costs and equipment performance. ROMeo Online Performance Suite is user-friendly, running within a Windows-based environment.

As always, feel free to reach out to your local technical support team for more information.

Guest Blogger: Kaylen McMullen, Marketing Assistant, Invensys Operations Management

About the ROMeo Online Performance Suite: Invensys offers numerous performance enhancing solutions as part of the Online Performance Suite (OPS) that allow customers to remain competitive in tough economic times. The ability to view what is happening at your plant now and make appropriate and timely business decisions is critical to optimal operation. ROMeo’s online rigorous modeling and equation-based real time optimization capabilities provide improved data that will assist refiners in dealing with changing market pressures, product values, energy costs and equipment performance. This suite provides assistance with energy management, non linear, olefins, and wellfield optimization.

Technical Support: As always, feel free to reach out to your local technical support team for more information.

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SimSci-Esscor Training Courses

SimSci-Esscor Training Courses

SimSci-Esscor is an Invensys solution that offers applications to give your plant a competitive edge in today’s global economy.  SimSci-Esscor offers integrated simulation, optimization, training, and process control software and services. For over 45 years, these applications have been improving profitability and performance in plants across the globe.

If you have decided to use SimSci-Esscor products but you do not where to begin, Invensys Operations Management is now offering training courses. These courses will provide the necessary guidance to use SimSci-Esscor applications that will allow your plant to reach its full potential and maximize performance and profitability. 

New to SimSci-Esscor products?  Are you looking to refresh your skills?  Update your skills?

Join us worldwide for a SimSci-Esscor training course.

To register for the upcoming training course visit http://iomtraining.invensys.com/simsci/public

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ROMeo Utilities Optimization - saving you 3-5% in energy costs!

The SimSci-Esscor ROMeo Utilities Optimization solution is being used to optimize performance in power plants across the globe. Plant energy costs are reduced by 3-5% with the help of this software.
Plant management is always concerned about the ever-changing environmental restrictions and constraints. This software monitors and even helps reduce emissions of CO2, SOX & NOX. With all of the benefits this solution has to offer, management can expect a typical payback in 6-12 months or less.

Guest Blogger: Kaylen McMullen, Marketing Assistant, Invensys Operations Management

About ROMeo Utilities Optimization: The SimSci ROMeo Utilities Optimization solution is being used to optimize performance in plants across the globe by minimizing usage of steam, water, fuel, and other utilities. Plant energy costs can be reduced by 3 to 5 percent with the help of this software. Plant management is always concerned about energy management and ever-changing environmental restrictions and constraints. This software monitors and even helps reduce emissions of CO2, SOX & NOX by placing limits on those emissions as part of the solutions calculations. With all of the benefits this solution has to offer, management can expect a typical payback in 6-12 months or less.

Technical Support: As always, feel free to reach out to your local technical support team for more information.

Read More

Improve refinery profitability – integrate your off-sites and process optimization applications - on demand webinar available now!

You can view this recording on demand now!

Off-sites applications and online optimization applications are both important to your business. However, enabling these systems to share data in real time will allow each application to perform more effectively because each will be working with better data. Integration allows off-sites blend operations data to be utilized within the process optimizer and this yields superior optimization results due to more accurate feedstock data. The process optimization results, in the form of bulk property information, are then fed back to product blending applications, giving those applications more accurate input and enabling improved product blending.

The optimizer can also be integrated with LP model vector updating, typically a difficult, time intensive task that can be streamlined with process optimization software. The key benefit is that the data required for LP model vectors can be sent directly from the optimizer, eliminating the need for manual re-inputting of data. This significantly improves model accuracy and reduces the resource burden and time required to gather plant information, sort and filter through the data, and then generate LP vectors.

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Current SimSci-Esscor Software Versions

I figured it would be valuable to provide you with the most up-to-date versions of our software
The product names are hyper linked to their product websites so that you can get more information if needed.

Design Software PRO/II 9.1 with patch 3 VISUAL FLOW 5.5 INPLANT 4.2 HEXTRAN 9.2 DATACON 3.2 PIPEPHASE 9.5 with patch 1	OTS Software DYNSIM 5.0 TRISIM Plus 2.2 FSIM Plus  4.7.1	Optimization Software: ROMeo 6.0 with patch 2 Connoisseur 15.0 with patch 2
Patches can be downloaded from the “Software Updates & Knowledge Base” site. Full versions can be downloaded from the “Electronic Software Distribution” site.

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What are the Flash Point Calculation Methods?

This is a question commonly asked of Technical Support - so i figured we would post the answer here to help those that don't want to contact Technical Support. 

Flash point - The minimum temperature at which a liquid gives off a vapor in sufficient concentration to ignite when tested by the following methods:

1.Tagliabue Closed Tester (See American National Standard Method of Test for Flash Point by Tag Closed Tester, Z11.24 1979 [ASTM D56-79]).

2.Pensky-Martens Closed Tester (See American National Standard Method of Test for Flash Point by Pensky-Martens Closed Tester, Z11.7-1979 [ASTM D93-79]).

3.Setaflash Closed Tester (See American National Standard Method for Test for Flash Point by Setaflash Closed Tester [ASTM D 3278-78]).

Pensky-Martens (ASTM D93) is used for the flash point of fuel oils as well as viscous materials and suspension of solids.

Tagliabue (ASTM D56) is used for the determination of the flash point of all mobile liquids flashing below 200F except products classed as fuel oil. The Tag method is recommended for liquids having viscosities less than 5.5 cSt at 40C that do not contain suspended solids or do not have a tendency to form a surface film while under test.

(1003 12/15 TLM:  Added D86 to the API method below)

(1312 12/15 TLM:  Added the edition and year to API Data Book below)

(1328 12/15 TLM:  Changed the spelling of Pensky-Martens below)

In PRO/II and in ROMeo:

Flash point can be calculated by the Nelson method (FLPOINT=NELSON) or by the Pensky-Martens method (FLPOINT=API).  Nelson is the default.
PRO/II keyword syntax:

METHOD SYSTEM=........,FLPOINT=NELSON OR API

NELSON is default.

The other is API 2B7.1(Penske-Martins Closed Cup) .

The Nelson method is described in "Petroleum Refinery Engineering" by W.L. Nelson, 4th edition, McGraw-Hill Book Company, p 131-133. The reference does not mention any restrictions on the range of applicability. I have copies of articles by Nelson in the 1944 Oil and Gas Journal in which he states his correlation is "probably not accurate enough to differentiate between diferent kinds of flash points".

For the Nelson method, set T= (IP + 2 x 5%pt + 10%pt)/ 4 and then the FP= 0.64 x T - 100. Note that T is an average T that may be defined differently by other implementations of the Nelson flash point distilled fraction equation. The temperature is in F and the percentages are volume percents of the ASTM D86 distillation. Since the initial point for simulated refinery streams is notoriously inaccurate, I am not surprised that inaccuracies are found in the Nelson method simulated results.

The API Procedure 2B7.1 is found in the API Data Book, 5th ed., 1992 (API 2B7.1). This is the Pensky-Martens closed cup method. The recommended range of applicability is between -15F to 325F flash points.

For the API method 1/FP = -0.014568 + 2.84947/T1 + 1.903E-03 ln(T1) where T1= ASTM D86 10% temperature for petroleum fractions or normal boiling point for pure compounds in degrees Rankine and FP is the flash point in degrees Rankine. There is a Figure 2B7.2 in the API Data Book that represents the equation written above.

A comment on the correlation of plant data to predicted results...

The best any simulator can do is to "simulate" a lab procedure. ASTM Lab tests are quite specific as to time and temperature handling of samples. Errors can creep into the results in taking and storing the sample as well as the actual lab analysis.  I do not know how close the simulated results are to plant data, but for the D93 lab test itself, answers for duplicate samples analyzed at different labs are acceptable within 6F.

As always, feel free to reach out to your local technical support team.

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Free Webinar tomorrow! How to improve refinery profitability with real-time, online, optimization

How to improve refinery profitability with real-time, online, optimization Thur, Feb 28 2 p.m. EST [19:00 GMT] Who should attend Plant managers, Operations managers Why attend Learn the typical applications and benefits of real-time online    optimization: How it improves performance How it helps you make better business decisions How it increases refinery profitability And which real-time optimization solution best fits your needs As the price of raw materials, utilities, and refined products change, sometimes by the minute, maximizing profitability means having an optimization program – at the unit and plant wide levels – that can adapt to variable economic data and operating conditions in real time. A global refinery leader says… “We estimate that optimization yields over $500 million in value per year!” The ability to view what is happening at your plant in real time will enable you to make better, more timely business decisions. And that's critical for optimizing operations and improving refinery profitability. Learn the importance of real-time optimization for your plant and see how failure to implement an optimization solution may leave your company unable to compete with other leading refineries. Another leading oil company says… ”For every $25 we invest in optimization, we achieve $1,000 in benefits!” Register now to learn more and improve your refinery's profitability! »

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Free Webinar: How to improve refinery profitability with real-time, online, optimization

How to improve refinery profitability with real-time, online, optimization Thur, Feb 28 2 p.m. EST [19:00 GMT] Who should attend Plant managers, Operations managers Why attend Learn the typical applications and benefits of real-time online optimization: How it improves performance How it helps you make better business decisions How it increases refinery profitability And which real-time optimization solution best fits your needs As the price of raw materials, utilities, and refined products change, sometimes by the minute, maximizing profitability means having an optimization program – at the unit and plant wide levels – that can adapt to variable economic data and operating conditions in real time. A global refinery leader says… “We estimate that optimization yields over $500 million in value per year!” The ability to view what is happening at your plant in real time will enable you to make better, more timely business decisions. And that's critical for optimizing operations and improving refinery profitability. Learn the importance of real-time optimization for your plant and see how failure to implement an optimization solution may leave your company unable to compete with other leading refineries. Another leading oil company says… ”For every $25 we invest in optimization, we achieve $1,000 in benefits!” Register now to learn more and improve your refinery's profitability! »

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SimSci-Esscor Training Courses

SimSci-Esscor Training Courses

SimSci-Esscor is an Invensys solution that offers applications to give your plant a competitive edge in today’s global economy.  SimSci-Esscor offers integrated simulation, optimization, training, and process control software and services. For over 45 years, these applications have been improving profitability and performance in plants across the globe.

If you have decided to use SimSci-Esscor products but you do not where to begin, Invensys Operations Management is now offering training courses. These courses will provide the necessary guidance to use SimSci-Esscor applications that will allow your plant to reach its full potential and maximize performance and profitability. 

New to SimSci-Esscor products?  Are you looking to refresh your skills?  Update your skills?

Join us worldwide for a SimSci-Esscor training course.

To register for the upcoming training course visit http://iomtraining.invensys.com/simsci/public

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