EC: ProcessApex 2012

Software - Applications, monitoring: ExperTune's ProcessApex provides real-time diagnostics and advice for process unit operations, based on the expert advice of Greg Shinskey and others. This is a Control Engineering 2013 Engineers' Choice finalist.

By Control Engineering November 12, 2012

ProcessApex has introduced a new way to monitor plant performance, in real-time. Operators, managers, and engineers can optimize the plant with direct measurements of business-related parameters such as yield, cost per ton, and efficiency. It can be applied to many types of unit operations, such as heat exchangers, distillation columns, dryers, and fired heaters.

ExperTune’s latest software offering works by tapping in to the huge amount of data locked up in plant data historians. It then extracts relevant data, then applies the engineering expertise of Greg Shinskey and others. The result is in-depth and highly relevant information about the plant’s performance, including specific advice about opportunities to improve plant operation.

The distillation column assessments, for example, monitor the expected parameters, such as energy consumption, mass balance, and yield. ProcessApex goes much further than that, however, by suggesting the optimal control scheme for the distillation column. ProcessApex performs its work with minimal configuration. Also, it recognizes that many plants may not be fully instrumented, and adapts itself so that it can maximize evaluations with the data available.

It also automatically adjusts and compensates for measurements taken in a variety of engineering units, performing the unit conversions as needed. ProcessApex benchmarks performance between within or between plants, with no additional configuration required. It immediately identifies the best and worst performers. ProcessApex is server-based and completely web-driven, with a thin client used for both configuration and reporting.

Dashboards and reports are pre-configured, providing immediate access to the most important process information. Advanced users can customize dashboards and reports without the need for any query tools or scripting languages. The ProcessApex system can also be extended to additional unit operations. The bottom line is that ProcessApex provides business results using real-time engineering evaluations of plant unit operations.

www.expertune.com

www.expertune.com/ProcessApex.aspx

ExperTune Inc.