HTRI's innovative digital transformation (DX) software, SmartPM, continues to revolutionize performance monitoring and prediction of many complex and often heavily fouled networks of heat exchangers and fired heaters. Users enthusiastically suggest improvements, and HTRI implements many of them. These include new capabilities to extend the range of heat exchanger networks that SmartPM analyzes. This includes more links to Xchanger Suite®, with new exchanger types and physical properties compatibility, and the ability to model complex cross-unit configurations. New pinch techniques highlight opportunities to revamp and improve existing networks for reduced energy use and profit improvement.
Let us take you through some standout features that make this version much more powerful.
More exchanger types available
Previous versions of SmartPM were restricted to shell-and-tube exchanger types, including the wide range of configurations available in Xist® and the built-in calculations for proprietary baffle and tube insert technologies.
SmartPM 6.0 supports Xchanger Suite modules Xace®, Xhpe®, Xjpe®, Xphe®, and Xspe®, in addition to Xist. This means that SmartPM can monitor and predict the performance of networks including any of these exchanger types.
For example, Xace and SmartPM can provide a combined digital solution to overcome the traditional blind spot in air-cooler performance monitoring.
Beyond modeling with real-time process conditions, seasonal performance predictions help optimize fan operation throughout the year, reducing unnecessary mechanical wear and energy use. They also support strategic planning for upstream cleaning, since restoring exchanger performance upstream lowers downstream cooling demands and fan power requirements.
Additionally, designers can use the new simulation capabilities in selection and sizing of air coolers, seamlessly integrating with the design capabilities of Xace and Exchanger Optimizer.
Simulations now allow swapping exchanger types, for example, replacing a shell-and-tube unit with a spiral plate exchanger. In many cases, simulations can use dynamic fouling models to estimate the benefits of lower fouling replacement exchangers.
Xchanger Suite compatibility for stream properties
SmartPM 6.0 changes the way that stream thermophysical properties are handled, extending Xchanger Suite methods. Entries of stream thermophysical properties are fully consistent with Xchanger Suite enthalpy property tables, for both single and two-phase streams. SmartPM can also read properties from both Xchanger Suite files and .htrif files (exported property table), in additional to spreadsheet formats.
Property switching for time-varying campaigns with changing stream thermophysical properties is greatly improved and can now be automatically switched via connection to data historian tags.
Thermophysical property data may be graphically displayed, with the actual temperature operating range superimposed to ensure the validity of the data and avoid the need for extrapolation.
Cross-unit configuration modeling
Complex heat exchanger networks often have streams that cross between units, both cooling and heating inside exchangers and sometimes involving phase change. SmartPM 6.0 can model networks such as connected crude and vacuum distillation units (CDU/VDUs) as a single integrated system. This advancement significantly enhances the accuracy and insight of performance assessments, enabling energy recovery optimization and suggesting cross-unit maintenance strategies that were previously overlooked. Integrated modeling with SmartPM allows refiners to avoid suboptimal cleaning decisions and realize greater energy efficiency and fuel savings.
Modeling a refinery network such as a CDU/VDU together in a single digital twin enables simultaneous evaluation of heat recovery across both units, optimization of shared stream duties to balance energy use, and identification of cleaning opportunities or risks that traditional process boundaries did not consider.
Extended retrofit/revamp methods
Recovering as much heat as possible in networks such as CDUs is essential to minimizing furnace duty. As hot product streams heat the crude in the CDU exchanger trains, more opportunities to recover that heat are possible. Over time, operational constraints and fouling can compromise performance, leading to higher fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Close inspection of detailed SmartPM models may make design inefficiencies more apparent.
SmartPM 6.0 integrates advanced simulation, performance monitoring, and new pinch analysis capabilities to help operators diagnose and resolve these issues. By visualizing composite curves, quantifying inefficiencies, and simulating potential improvements, SmartPM bridges the gap between theoretical heat integration and practical implementation.
Key visual tools in this analysis include
- composite curves showing the enthalpy-temperature profile of hot and cold streams
- grand composite curves revealing minimum hot and cold utility demands
- temperature driving force plots with pinch — highlighting which exchangers operate inefficiently or underperform
SmartPM 6.0 can guide users toward more efficient designs, simulate the modified configuration, and predict the resulting energy and economic benefits.