Why PetroPlan

You should consider PetroPlan if you are (or would like to be) involved in petroleum refinery (or related petrochemical facilities) planning and YOU -

- would like to do own simulations but the software is too complicated
- are skeptical that refinery simulation software can be easy to use
- believe that refinery simulation software can and should be easy to use
- use other simulation programs
- use commercial or own LP programs  
- use spreadsheets for refinery material balances
- need results quickly
- want precise simulations of each plant in your refinery
- do not always need to simulate the whole refinery

Click the appropriate link above to read more information.


Would like to do own simulations but.. - It is true that refinery simulation is not a simple matter with the current crop of software tools in market.  A major contributing factor is the way the software interfaces with the user.  Typically, the input/problem definition is spread over many tables and files without intuitive links.  Special training in the software is usually required.  Often the task is reserved for the specialists in the company who have mastered the software.

PetroPlan takes a fresh approach to simulation with an interface designed such that you do not fight the software.  You concentrate not on working the software but on the actual problem i.e. describing the various unit's yield patterns, setting up connectivity and other things that really affect the results.  Since it is a flowsheet simulator, most process engineers would be comfortable with it right away.  The crude unit and the LP blender are simply blocks in the main simulation.  The main block flow diagram (BFD) screen and a few input short forms make the problem definition very easy.       Go to top

For the skeptics - When one takes the block by block calculational approach, the foundation for the simulation problem is quite easy to setup.  PetroPlan provides easy tools for describing and understanding a block's performance.  The LP blending module in PetroPlan illustrates how simple it is to provide the input even when the actual blending optimizing calculations are complicated.

The proof is that PetroPlan actually does what it claims. If you believe that the sample problem (see the topic 'How PetroPlan Works') is easy to setup, you will find that any complex problem can be setup with almost the same ease.        Go to top

For the believers - Thank you.  As has happened often in the past, a new software comes along that does thing differently and you wonder why it was not so in the older products.  PetroPlan is such a product.  Try it, you will like it.         Go to top

Other flowsheet based software users - You will be very comfortable with PetroPlan from the start as the graphic interface, at first, appears familiar.  You will be happy to note that the similarity ends there.

In PetroPlan, the crude unit is an integral block in the main simulation, the flow diagram is easy to construct, the LP blender block can make upto 20 spec. products from upto 64 components and there is no spreadsheet interface.  The input forms and menus are straightforward.  The process submodels are simply a list of equations that are easy to understand and even easier to modify.  There is a global optimizer and recycle streams are allowed.  The online help files are all the training you will need. The results are organized differently and browsing is easy.

Switching to PetroPlan will not require significant resources.  Training period is minimal and lease cost is very small.         Go to top

LP software users - Most commonly encountered refinery problems that are modeled with LP software can also be handled with PetroPlan.  The power of the LP is most appropriate for situations that have very many dispositions of the various intermediate streams, choices of a large number of feedstocks, choices of the process units available in the simulation, multi plant and multi periods.  But for many situations where such is not the case, PetroPlan will do the job with less effort.  Many times in the LP models the flowsheet is forced by restricting intermediate stream dispositions and the LPs powers are underutilized.

PetroPlan takes a flowsheet approach where instead of many pseudo components, each simulation stream corresponds to a real one.  The choice is made in the operating and design parameters of the blocks (e.g. cut points, conversion, severity).  Multiple dispositions (other than in blending) are handled by splitters.  The blend components are allocated to spec products by an LP blender block.  The submodel for each block  is simply a list of equations that can be non linear.  This allows more complicated representation.         Go to top

Spreadsheet users - Spreadsheets become too cumbersome with even a reasonable number of blocks in the simulation.  The equations behind the models are not as clear as in PetroPlan.  In the spreadsheet, it is hard to keep track of the current definition of the problem and the connectivity's.  PetroPlan is more convenient and has features that are hard to build into the spreadsheet models (crude recutting, LP blending, graphical flowsheet representation etc.).

Spreadsheet users should definitely give PetroPlan a try.         Go to top

Quick results - Many times, there just is not enough time available to setup the model with LP
and other software.  PetroPlan flowsheets are easy to build and solve using the library of submodels provided.  The models could be easily customized for the specific project. When customizing is needed, PetroPlan has even bigger advantage over other tools.

PetroPlan can be used without prior training so anyone in the organization who understands the working of blocks within a refinery can run the models.         Go to top

Precise simulations - There is nothing in PetroPlan that puts a limit on how complicated your submodel equations can be.  They can be non linear and any of feed properties and operation parameters of blocks can be used in estimating product yields through any form of mathematical relationships.  You write your own models in any form.  PetroPlan gives you all the tools to make that task very easy and fast.  You can make the block parameters representative of the actual choices available in the real plant (e.g. reaction temp).  Splitters can be included in the flowsheet to represent the real life mode of allocating streams.         Go to top

Simulate partial refinery - PetroPlan is very convenient for simulating just a few or even a single block in the refinery.  A crude unit alone will provide the properties of the straight run products for any chosen cutpoints.  The LP block can make optimum blends for a set of product specs, component properties and prices.  Stand-alone coker, FCC, hydrocracking models can be prepared with their feeds being the crude/vacuum unit products.         Go to top