OLI Systems, Inc. rigorous and accurate electrolyte chemistry-based process modeling solutions portfolio, successful track record of R&D innovation, skilled subject matter experts, deep domain expertise and technology partner ecosystem have made it a trusted market leader for industrial process modeling and simulation applications. Over 500 clients across multiple industrial companies and research institutions in over 35 countries rely on actionable process insights from the OLI Software platform to predict phenomena such as corrosion, scaling, chemical equilibria and phase changes in industrial water chemistry and electrolyte applications.
The new OLI Platform V10 introduced in November 2019 includes new chemistries and data parameters and ten new and enhanced software features to tackle complex water chemistry-based challenges in oil & gas, water treatment, mining, power generation and chemicals processes. V10 was designed to deliver more effective process modeling capabilities that help to optimize material selection, enhance process efficiency, reduce equipment downtime, comply with environmental regulations, and make process modeling teams more productive. It complements many notable innovations in V9.6 for upstream oil & gas. water treatment lithium and potash mining
OLI introduced several unique features in OLI Flowsheet: ESP V10, a special purpose process modeling tool designed for electrolyte and water chemistry applications. The ionic input feature makes water analysis in OLI Flowsheet: ESP easier and more robust. The virtual stream support increases user productivity reduces data entry errors while improving simulation accuracy. The option to automate calculation of hardness, TDS, and pH at 25°C and 1 atm and saves time for the process modeling users.
In this article, I would like to discuss the benefits of the Resume Simulations feature in OLI Flowsheet: ESP V10 which is now available in the latest V10 build.
Resume Simulations Feature in OLI Flowsheet: ESP V10
The ability to resume a simulation from the last calculated state is an attractive new feature that has been just added to OLI Flowsheet: ESP. These enhancements can significantly enhance user productivity by reducing simulation recalculation times in various scenarios.
In fairly simple use cases with a couple of columns and controllers, where the simulation starts from an uncalculated state, the solver will start with solving the upstream column, and continue downstream to the remaining blocks. The solver calculates each individual block in the block calculation order until all the blocks have been calculated.
The step functionality in OLI Flowsheet: ESP V10 provides detailed insights into how the solver simulates a flowsheet. It can be used to instruct the program to pause the simulation at the end of each block. Stepping through each individual block in the flowsheet provides the ability to trace the steps that the solver takes in order to simulate the entire flowsheet.
In more complex situations with two or more feedback controllers in the flowsheet, the resume simulations feature becomes more useful. With the new restart improvements, the program only recomputes the parts of the flowsheet that are actually affected by the change saving a significant amount of simulation time. Without this feature, the program would need to recompute the entire flowsheet, including the portions that are not affected by the change and take more time and computational resources.
Another situation where the ability to restart a simulation from the last calculated state can be beneficial is when making quick changes to a partially calculated flowsheet. In this case, the user can simply make changes to the flowsheet while the simulation is paused and resume when they are done with making the changes. They no longer have to stop the simulation first, make changes, and then restart the simulation. When the paused simulation is resumed, the program will automatically identify and recalculate the parts of the flowsheet that are affected by the changes.
The restart improvements made to OLI Flowsheet:ESP also have a big benefit when reopening saved cases that are only partially calculated. This feature is particularly useful with complex simulation models that could take several hours to run. When users need to close the program or shut down their computer for any reason, they will lose all the progress made by the simulation. However, with the new capabilities in OLI Flowsheet: ESP, users can simply stop the simulation and save the case file. When the saved case is reopened and run, the program automatically picks the calculation up from the last calculated state, saving a lot of time from unnecessarily recalculating the entire flow sheet from scratch.
Please see a recorded video of this new capability here.
Summary:
OLI has a proven track record of sustained product innovation. While we discussed one particular feature of OLI Flowsheet: ESP, we are currently working on several new product development projects. We expect the OLI Software Platform V11 to become available in early 2021 and plan to launch several new capabilities to deliver greater value to operations teams and deliver functionality on the cloud.
For more information on the OLI Software Platform V10, OLI Flowsheet: ESP or our new capabilities for the Cloud and Operations teams, please email [email protected] or complete this form to request an appointment with an OLI representative.