Identification of deteriorated components in an air separation plant and evaluating their impact on overall performance through steady state simulation.

Components in cryogenic air separation plant (CASP) deteriorate during operation resulting in deleterious effects on power consumption, production and purity. Proper analysis helps to identify an affected component, estimate the extent of its contribution to the overall deterioration and suggest appropriate and timely maintenance interventions to prevent further deterioration. Steady state simulation of CASP with Aspen Hysys 8.6®™ is initiated with initial guess values of design parameters, which are progressively
refined by comparing the simulation output with the plant operating data logged during installation. As the deterioration of more than one component can produce similar effect on the overall output of the plant, it requires a deeper analysis to identify the exact component that has deteriorated. The exercise may also help identifying locations that require additional sensors to be installed to collect data which are essential to analyse the problem and estimate, rectify and pre-empt deterioration in CASP.