Accelerating Sustainable Fuels & Feedstocks via Digital Design
Emerging sustainable fuel technologies, including e-Fuels and Power-and-Biomass-to-Liquid (PBtL), are complex systems vital for meeting global clean fuel demands. Despite their potential, commercial deployment remains challenging, with many high-profile projects struggling to scale. This highlights a critical need for smarter, more resilient approaches to accelerate their success.
Siemens addresses this by leveraging its Digital Process Twin, a groundbreaking innovation designed to streamline the development and operation of sustainable fuel processes. This technology creates a high-fidelity, physics-based model that accurately represents the entire sustainable fuel process. These mechanistic models are engineered to precisely predict process behavior and support process synthesis. This capability allows engineers to thoroughly evaluate various design options and optimize plant configurations from the earliest stages. By providing deep insights, the Digital Process Twin enables more informed decision-making when developing new equipment, processes, and entire plants, significantly de-risking investments and accelerating time to market.
Central to the Digital Process Twin is Siemens gPROMS software, a powerful process modeling platform. gPROMS is specifically used for high-fidelity modeling of individual unit operations and the simulation of integrated processes within the sustainable fuel sector. Its utility extends across the entire sustainability value chain, encompassing green hydrogen and carbon capture technologies in addition to sustainable fuels.
gPROMS excels in detailed equipment and process design, utilizing multi-fidelity, physics-based models. A significant strength is its seamless integration of experimental or plant data, crucial for robust model calibration and ensuring the models accurately reflect real-world conditions. The platform effectively handles both isolated unit operations and complex, complete process flow diagrams, offering unparalleled flexibility.
Beyond the initial design phase, the models developed within gPROMS can be deployed online once a plant becomes operational. This enables real-time optimization and continuous improvement throughout the plant's entire lifecycle, ensuring ongoing efficiency and performance. With its advanced optimization tools and Global Sensitivity Analysis (GSA) capabilities, gPROMS provides a unified and comprehensive environment. This environment supports both the initial process modeling for design purposes and the pursuit of ongoing operational excellence, making it an indispensable tool for advancing sustainable fuel technologies.