US-based Aspen Technology has begun the implementation of a project to supply operator training simulators for a new petrochemical complex being built by Jubail United Petrochemical Company (UNITED) in Saudi Arabia.
The simulators will help to ensure the safe and efficient operation of the plants during commissioning and start-up, and will also support performance improvement strategies during later operations.
UNITED is a Saudi Basic Industries Company (SABIC) affiliate. Its petrochemical complex is scheduled to come on stream in the second half of 2004, with an annual production capacity of one million tons of ethylene, 575,000 tons of ethylene glycol, and 150,000 tons of linear alpha olefins (LAO).
The scope of the project awarded to AspenTech includes the delivery of Virtual Plant Simulators (VPS) for the ethylene cracker and the ethylene glycol plant. The simulators provide an accurate dynamic model of the plants that incorporates detailed process characteristics and models provided by process technology licensors. This enables the VPS models to be used as the basis for both initial operator training and subsequent refresher training and operations improvement.
UNITED is the 17th and latest of the affiliates that operate SABIC's manufacturing network in Saudi Arabia. The UNITED petrochemical complex is being constructed in the Al-Jubail Industrial City on the Arabian Gulf and has a 50 percent stake in an 800,000 metric per year polyethylene plant being built at the neighboring SABIC affiliate in Jubail, PETROKEMYA. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
