Modelling a Geothermal Vaporiser: A First Step Towards a Digital Twin

• Published in: Computer Aided Chemical Engineering Vol. 53; pp. 187 - 192
• Main Authors: Brehmer-Hine, Theo, Yu, Wei, Young, Brent
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Digital twin; Model Fidelity; Vaporiser; Digital twin; Vaporiser; Model Fidelity
• ISBN: 9780443288241; 0443288240
• ISSN: 1570-7946
• DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-443-28824-1.50032-6

‘Digitalisation’ is a current mega-trend for assisting industry decision-making. The geothermal industry is not immune to this trend, given the strong incentives to improve efficiency whilst maintaining product quality, safety and productivity. The ‘digital twin’ can be considered as one of the core concepts of digitalisation, and yet it is still at the conceptual stage for many manufacturing operations. The first step in digital twin implementation is to build digital models since they are the essential components of digital twins. However, how to select suitable models from many different types of models of different fidelity for the geothermal industry is an open question which has not yet been addressed. In this paper, we will compare two modelling approaches: first principles (using Python) and hybrid process simulation (using Aspen HYSYS) for simulating industrial-scale geothermal vaporizer dynamics. The development of these one-way connection models is useful as a first step towards a digital twin and allows a plant model with more flexibility for vaporiser modelling. A comparison was made between models and the tools used in their development based on attributes of performance, availability, ease of use and model fidelity. The models from both approaches showed adequate predictions at multiple steady-state conditions. However, the Aspen HYSYS model performed slightly better. There were only slight differences in prediction performance and processing speeds. For the availability and ease of use of these tools, a trade-off would need to be made in deciding which modelling approach to use, weighing a monetary investment in using Aspen HYSYS against the time investment in building the first principles model.