Brussels-Belgium based Belsim provides software and implementation services that focus on quality data acquisition in the process industry. Belsim’s flagship, Vali performs full physics, model-based real time data validation and reconciliation. The tool delivers a single set of coherent measurements by solving mass and energy balances. Vali is also used to estimate unmeasured variables, acting as a ‘soft sensor’ or virtual meter. In the upstream, Vali is used by Hess to reconcile wellhead data prior to analysis in Spotfire. Belsim announced that Vali’s configuration engine, ValiStudio, is now available as a cloud-based, hosted application. New functionality in Vali 5 reflects a move from reconciliation to process optimization, abnormal event detection and root cause analysis.
Belsim’s Frederic Lecoq summarized collaborative work between Total, Belsim and ProSim on optimization of energy use at Total’s Le Havre refinery complex. This involved the development of a link between Vali and ProSim’s Ariane plant management environment. Total’s ‘ValiAri’ solution combines Vali’s data reconciliation with ProSim’s optimizers and has led to significantly reduced energy bills. Boilers and turbo machinery use, steam generation and output temperature can be accurately measured and the whole optimized to minimize operating costs. Pinpointing and fixing excessive steam venting has saved Total over a million Euros per year and has identified several future energy saving projects. Similar results were reported by Suryaprakash Digavalli on deployment at Saudi Aramco’s Haradh gas plant where a detailed energy assessment has led to recommendations to the operator for waste heat recovery, oil circulation optimization and improvements to the propane cycle. More from Belsim and in our earlier report (OITJ July 2013).
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