Collaboration agreed
UK-based modelling software specialists Process Systems Enterprise Ltd (PSE) has signed an agreement with Delft University of Technology to collaborate in the development and commercialisation of crystallisation modelling technology for use in industry.
TU Delft, a leading centre for industrial crystallisation research, founded the influential UNIAK consortium and its successor CRYSCODE projects, which were co-sponsored by international process companies including DuPont, BP, BASF, BAYER, Dow Chemicals, Akzo Nobel and Solvay. The university has been involved in a number of European projects such as SINC-PRO, which demonstrated the applicability of model-bbased predictive control (MPC) techniques to crystallisation processes also.
PSE’s product gPROMS is used throughout the chemicals and other process industry sectors, and its model libraries for high-accuracy predictive modelling of reaction, separation, crystallisation and polymerisation processes are recognised as leaders in their fields.
TU Delft and PSE will collaborate in the area of crystallisation research in general and the application of process and product modelling to crystallisation processes in particular.
PSE will provide TU Delft with gPROMS licences, as well as the gPROMS Advanced Model Library for Solution Crystallisation and extended support. In return, the university will provide PSE with early information on published crystallisation research, including knowledge, data and models, and feedback on the crystallisation library. PSE will become a member of the CRYSCODE consortium and other TU Delft initiatives in the area of crystallisation process and product modelling.
Herman Kramer, associate professor at TU Delft, says “Crystallisation processes are very complex. In order to improve their performance we need advanced modelling tools, to enable easy development and validation of rigorous process models that allow accurate predictions about how the system will behave on scale-up and in response to changes in operation. It is also important to have a single environment that allows easy incorporation of laboratory data into models.”
Professor Costas Pantelides, managing director of PSE, said the agreement is a major step in the company’s programme of forging alliances with leading universities around the world in its area of interest.
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