Voith Paper adopts modelling route

London ­— Paper machinery maker Voith Paper Heidenheim GmbH has selected Process Systems Enterprise’s gPROMS Advanced Process Modelling (APM) software as its company-wide modelling platform. The contract follows a one-year evaluation of various modelling systems by Voith — PSE’s first ever customer in the pulp & paper industry.

Voith’s modelling requirement is focused on downstream processes, such as the chemical procedures for creating different papers, drying and remoisturising. This covers the many interactions that determine process efficiency and stability as well as energy integration and optimised water usage.

The company will apply APM to enhance operations throughout all its divisions - research, engineering, control and eventually operations, operator training and sales & marketing, according London-based PSE.

Voith wanted an environment that had the flexibility and power to fulfil all its requirements, and that allowed extensive re-use of models, explained Ulrich Begemann, the company’s head of R&D.

The gPROMS modelling capabilities “such as parameter estimation for tuning models to plant and laboratory data, and dynamic optimisation in order to optimise trajectories between steady states, were important factors in our decision,” said Begemann.

Prior to choosing the PSE system, Voith also tested its integration with The Mathworks MATLAB and Simulink and the Siemens PCS7 product family. This enables the use of detailed APM models in control design and Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) of control software, respectively.