AEA/Hyprotech Builds Its Version of Life Cycle Software
The question, then, is what all this combining will mean for current or potential customers of AEA/Hyprotech. Hydrocarbon Online spent time with Don Mahoney, marketing manager of Hyprotech, to see how the assets are being shuffled. The driving philosophy of the new combination is to establish a "flowsheet-centric" view of engineering design and data management. Once a flowsheet has been drawn-even the most preliminary one-the idea is to retain the knowledge at each step in the design, optimization, visualization, and actual construction and operation phases of a project, using various AEA tools as the project evolves, and avoiding re-keying and restructuring of the data developed at each stage.
EA's PlantConcept software, which has been the front-end to their plant-design data-management tools, is being looked on as the umbrella under which all this will take place. PlantConcept can be used first to store preliminary design data, then to flesh out the detailed design as a plant begins to be constructed, and finally to organize the asset management system once a plant is built. What gives AEA more than lip-service credibility in this effort is that both Hyprotech and EA Systems have been active participants in the drive toward Microsoft-compatible, component-based programs. Both systems run under Windows NT, and both make liberal use of Microsoft tools in writing code and interfaces with Microsoft Office products such as Excel. However, neither PlantConcept nor Hysys, Hyprotech's flagship "operating environment," have the Designed for Windows 95/NT certification that is proof of through-and-through Microsoft standardization. "We believe that we could readily win this certification if we went through the process that Microsoft has established," says Mahoney, "but there is a considerable time and resource commitment to do that. We haven't seen the need to do it, based on what our customers tell us."
Another piece of unfinished business is how EA and Hyprotech will actually be interwoven. Hyprotech brings a strong base in simulation tools and process optimization; EA brings architecture for plant design data storage, plus 2D and 3D plant-design products. Hyprotech has a strong presence in chemical and hydrocarbon processing; EA has a similar presence in chemical and power industries. For the time being, both will co-exist, but Mahoney says that a closer integration of their functions-even to the point of merging the two-is being contemplated. Within AEA, Hyprotech will be the central node for developing and marketing design software.
The Design Ladder
As Mahoney tells it, Hysys has evolved from being the brand name of Hyprotech's combined, dynamic and steady-state simulation package into an "environment" where all types of flowsheet analysis can be performed, as well as a toolkit that provides users the ability to seamlessly link Hyprotech (or EA) operations with Microsoft software or other Microsoft-compatible programs.
Hysys is now being sold as a suite of tools:
- HYSYS.Concept-for process synthesis, conceptual design of distillation system (using Mayflower technology from the University of Massachusetts) thermodynamics and data regression
- HYSYS.Process-for rapid screening of flowsheet alternatives to ensure that process equipment is properly specified, and that the most economical flowsheets are being created
- HYSYS.Plant-similar in capabilities to Hysys.Process, but geared more toward a very fine level of equipment and instrumentation detail, enabling the creation of high-fidelity plant simulations for training, analysis of operational procedures, and detailed capacity and safety studies
- HYSYS.OTS+-An actual training simulator to enable operators to practice start-ups, shut-downs and upset or emergency conditions in a risk-free modeling environment; based in part on capabilities brought to Hyprotech by the acquisition of CAE Process Technologies
- HYSYS.RTO+-Real-time optimization capability, developed in conjunction with an alliance partner of Hyprotech, MDC Technologies.
If plant designers and owners have work processes that match these products, says Mahoney, they will be able to use PlantConcept to set up the initial parameters of a project, then fill in progressively more detail about it as it moves from conceptual design, to detailed design, to construction and startup, and ultimately to shutdown and decommissioning. The integrated environment, combined with liberal use of OLE Automation tools, will reduce data entry, systems maintenance overhead, and user complexity.
There are other parts to the AEA/Hyprotech plan. AEA is combining some of its existing businesses, such as its Separations Process Service with Hyprotech (this will be run out of Hyprotech's Delaware office). Advanced Services and Applications (ASA) will be a consulting service, using AEA/Hyprotech software, to perform engineering analysis for clients. HTFS, a group of heat transfer experts from AEA, will retain its group identity.
On the horizon is a project to combine some aspects of Hyprotech's thermodynamics-based simulation tools with the CFD capabilities of CFX, AEA's well-known computational fluid-dynamics software. Mahoney says that a program is being built to model a unit operation at four levels of detail: as a CFD model; as a first-principles model with rigorous thermodynamics; as a parametized model (a simplified model good for process control simulation, and capable of running in real time); and as a neural-network model, possibly for online process optimization. News about this technology may be out before the end of the year.
Overall, Hyprotech wants to be considered a more hands-on software developer than its arch-rival, Aspen Technologies. Aspen has moved strongly into the IT consulting arena, with alliances with SAP (Walldorf, Germany), and with products for production scheduling and business management. Aspen also now has a large staff of consultants, but Mahoney says that even with the ASA consulting service, Hyprotech will not stress its consulting capabilities. At the same time, Hyprotech is positioning itself against control vendors like Honeywell Hi-Spec Solutions, which has a significant business in training simulators and process optimization. The plant life-cycle data-management concept is also being pushed by vendors like OSI Software (San Leandro, CA) from the process control direction, as well as by control vendors such as Siebe Control (Foxboro, MA) and <%=company%> (Austin, TX). It is also being pushed by design software companies like Intergraph, Bentley Systems/Jacobus Technologies (Gaithersburg, MD) and Dassault Systemes (Burbank, CA), and by the true 800-lb gorilla in the marketplace, SAP, which is moving deeper and deeper into the plant-floor data management field. Stay tuned.
By Nick Basta