Honeywell solutions to help drive optimal performance and safety at new Salalah Methanol Company site

The facility includes captive power generation, water desalination and waste water treatment plants, which will make SMC self-sufficient and environmentally friendly. Salalah Methanol Company, LLC (SFZ) (SMC) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oman Oil Company, Oman, and is building a sweet natural gas-based methanol production facility in the Salalah Free Zone, in Salalah, Oman.

SMC will use UniSim Operations as a stand alone model to train operators with the optimum operating parameters for plant operations even before the site's final operating training simulator, which will also be supplied by Honeywell, is rolled out. The solution also facilitates plant safety, reliability and efficiency by training operators to optimize plant operations while also helping them understand standard operating practices and production processes prior to the start-up of the plant.

UniSim Operations is an intuitive and interactive process modeling software that enables engineers to create steady-state and dynamic models for plant design, performance monitoring, troubleshooting, operational improvement, business planning and asset management. The solution uses industry-specific unit operation models and powerful tools to optimize process and operating parameters for different conditions in oil and gas, refining, chemical and other processes. Users are empowered to make decisions by getting immediate responses to assumptions using a high-speed engine with both forward and backward calculation capabilities. The solution includes a full complement of control element models and transient analysis tools to help analyze simulation results.

"We decided on Honeywell through a competitive bidding process, mainly due to their ability to integrate seamlessly with the distributed control system, their responsiveness to our requirements and the availability of support from the Honeywell Oman staff. We believe that their technical support can see us through this deployment and also throughout this project's lifecycle. Our engineers will be able to create models for operational improvement of the plant and test them before uploading into the DCS. We will also use UniSim Operations for equipment performance monitoring and maintenance planning for the plant."

said Yusuf Oncu, chief executive officer of SMC.

"Honeywell's UniSim Operations Suite should facilitate process familiarization in time for the facility to commence commercial operations," said Ged Blenkharn, regional general manager of Honeywell Process Solutions Middle East. "When commissioning a greenfield project of this scale, it becomes essential for operators to be familiar with the systems and processes before the plant becomes operational in order to optimize production from day one."