Refining

A simple tool to close the gap between planning and operations and drive your refinery to optimal efficiency.

Refining

A simple tool to close the gap between planning and operations and drive your refinery to optimal efficiency.

The refining market is undergoing significant changes as the demand for traditional transportation fuels shifts and the global chemical value chain expands. Refiners are increasingly challenged to convert hydrocarbons into more valuable olefins and aromatics molecules while optimizing yield and meeting higher conversion targets. This shift towards integrated crude-to-chemicals complexes along with the need to process a range of feedstocks and to comply with ever-evolving environmental regulations, make refining operations more complex than ever before.

Spiro Digital Twin links refinery planning and operations, providing real-time optimization and enabling better decision-making for refinery processes. Unlike generic AI models, our solution is deeply integrated with refinery planning and operations. Through hybrid AI and first principles modelling and real-time data integration, refineries can see increased operational awareness, process efficiency, and product yield.

The Spiro team brings decades of experience in executing refinery APC and RTO projects, generating tens of millions of dollars in verified benefits. We offer end-to-end project solutions and consulting services. If you’re looking to explore refining APC, AI, and optimization, we’d be happy to discuss how we can help—reach out to start the conversation.

‟The new MDO [Middle Distillate Optimizer] helps us to get out of our comfort zone and grab optimization opportunities we would miss.”

— Refinery Shift Leader

Enhanced Decision-Making and Process Optimization

Spiro Digital Twin provides dynamic optimization of refinery processes, delivering a real-time solution that is continuously updated with evolving process conditions. The key functionalities include:

Real-time optimization through online models that solve complex non-linear problems.
What-if scenario analysis for predictive decision-making, allowing engineers to test various operational conditions with minimal effort.
KPI dashboards that enhance awareness of constraints and optimization opportunities, empowering shift leaders and planners to act on real-time data.

Close the Gap between Planning and Operations

Spiro Digital Twin integrates with the refinery’s existing control infrastructure and improves the alignment between long-term planning and day-to-day operations by:

Providing real-time property estimates of process streams based on dynamic data reconciliation.
Supporting operational decisions with up-to-date economic values and real-time flow routing adjustments, ensuring the refinery remains adaptable to changing market conditions.

Scalability and Flexibility

The scalable and agile modeling approach used in Spiro Digital Twin enables easy adaptation to changing refinery configurations, such as unit turnarounds or out-of-service equipment. Features include:

Customizable models tailored to individual refinery units.
Seamless integration with APC and DCS systems, ensuring that the digital twin can operate in both open-loop and closed-loop scenarios.

Use Case – Middle Distillate Optimizer

Spiro Digital Twin increases the production of middle distillates (Jet Fuel, ULSD) across multiple units:

Typical scope can include multiple crude units, vacuum units, and reaction units.
Spiro Digital Twin supports the planning process by providing optimized targets for key process variables, improving process awareness, and reducing giveaway in final products.

MDO Optimizer Demo

Real-Time Data Integration

Spiro Digital Twin continuously integrates real-time data through connections with the refinery’s Distributed Control System (DCS) and Advanced Process Control (APC) systems. This data-driven approach allows for:

Flow property estimations updated using valve positions, flow readings, and analyzer data where available.
Dynamic flow routing adjustments that ensure real-time process optimization without disrupting ongoing operations.

Improved Planning and Scheduling

By enhancing the refinery’s understanding of current process constraints, the Spiro Digital Twin:

Increases awareness of process limitations, enabling the scheduling team to develop more accurate daily production plans.
Supports shift leaders in identifying and acting on optimization opportunities that would have otherwise been overlooked.

Spiro Digital Twin delivers significant benefits to refineries, including increased production efficiency, improved operational awareness, and real-time optimization capabilities. By combining advanced AI and first-principle models with seamless system integration, the digital twin enables refiners to meet their production goals while adapting to market fluctuations and operational challenges.