KBC Advanced Technologies is a leading independent consultant and software solutions provider to the energy industry. The Petro-SIM simulator is a general purpose steady state graphical process simulator aimed at the Oil Refining and Petrochemical industries, offering a full suite of detailed reactor unit operations allowing rigorous simulation of refineries and petrochemical plants. It has long had extensibility mechanisms, allowing customers to plug in their own unit operations.
KBC recently added support for the CAPE-OPEN Unit Operation interface to Petro-SIM.This paper discusses experiences obtained so far and shares the successes KBC has had using third party heat exchanger modules. The paper discusses details of the implementation technique and compare it against the traditional extension methods provided by the simulator.