Workflow Optimization Using Aspen EDR Product Suite

Client Profile: UK-based Graham Hart (Process Technology) Limited is a privately held supplier of engineered process systems, supplying heat exchangers and high-pressure equipment to clients worldwide. Specialists in the fields of heat and mass transfer, the company has built up a comprehensive, technology based, design and manufacturing facility enabling them to provide end-to-end service from process data to completed equipment for the chemical, petrochemical, food, and energy industries.

Background and Business Requirement: Graham Hart is well-known for the supply of reliable, high-performance heat exchangers. To maintain this market position and reputation, the engineering team must be adept to deliver the most appropriate designs that meet rigid standards. Hence, the engineering team must deploy software tools that are guaranteed in terms of quality, accuracy, reliability, and predictability. These software tools are required for the modeling and analysis to develop and verify designs; which includes the actual layout and design of heat exchanger systems. The engineering team must have certainty in the interface and the consistency between the overall process model and the heat exchanger model. As the company expands its global footprint, the ability to optimize the capital cost of the designs supported by software for rapid and more efficient bidding and design, especially in the oil & gas and petrochemical sectors, are becoming increasingly more important.

After careful evaluation, the company has been using AspenTech Solutions for over three decades. This long-term association underlines the trust between the two companies; and AspenTech’s commitment to quality and to its customer.

Viable Business Solution: Graham Hart supplies systems to clients that employ several process engineering design suites, and most clients are standardized on using aspenOne and the Aspen Exchanger Design & Rating (EDR) suite. The company has consistently used the Aspen EDR product suite as a core component of its heat exchanger design process. Graham Hart has supplied heat exchangers designed using Aspen EDR for large greenfield process plants being built in Saudi Arabia, China, and Egypt. In addition to shell and tube heat exchangers of various designs and types, Graham Hart also produces air cooled heat exchangers designed using Aspen EDR.

The company licenses and regularly uses Aspen HYSYS during the design process. According to the company, the tight integration of Aspen EDR tools with Aspen HYSYS provides tremendous value to their clients during the heat exchanger design process, including the use of consistent physical properties of fluids, as well as black oil.

Benefits Accrued

The three-fold benefits include:

• Competitive advantage in the supply of systems used in critical applications - The precise thermal design models with cost estimation capabilities of the software provides Graham Hart the confidence to bid, engineer and supply systems for use in critical applications.

• High quality engineering and design - The software supported workflows enable the company to be agile and efficient.

• Repeat business from customers – This validates customer confidence in equipment designed with Aspen EDR to meet performance requirement.

   

Keywords: Graham Hart, Aspen EDR, aspenONE, Aspen HYSYS, ARC Advisory Group.