When we reflect on our lives, it becomes obvious how most of what we have learned has come from others around us. This may include our friends, our family, our colleagues, our classmates or our teachers. It is no different for the human society, where every innovation people have made has been based on inventions and findings made by those before them.

This is probably why professionals from process industries worldwide look forward to OPTIMIZE, the AspenTech user conference. Every two years, customers from all over the world share their knowledge and network with their peers. It is an event that truly brings together the process engineering world – an opportunity to connect with people working toward similar goals and facing similar challenges. Attendees get to learn best practices and hear about innovations in technology directly from AspenTech experts.

Personally, this upcoming conference is going to be my fourth OPTIMIZE since I joined AspenTech seven years back. I have had the opportunity to host sessions that showcased industry experts sharing the innovative ways they overcame their operational and design challenges. Some highlights that stand out:

• experts from BP showcasing how they overcame corrosion issues with the reformer stabilizer column in one of their U.S. refineries
• Saudi Aramco’s reconfiguration of one of their major refineries to increase its refining capacity by 100 MBD
• how engineers at a Hyundai Oilbank refinery in South Korea discovered opportunities to make $36 million USD every year from improved reactor operations
• how teams at HPCL’s refinery in Mumbai, India achieved substantial energy savings by better monitoring fouling of their heat exchangers

Over these years I have seen many attendees returning home from OPTIMIZE conferences excited by new ideas for solving their operational challenges better and taking advantage of new technological innovations to improve their operations. I have seen many of them present at successive conferences, showcasing the great results they saw when they implemented solutions they learned about at previous events.

This time at OPTIMIZE, the energy track for AspenTech’s engineering solution (which I am helping conduct) will showcase:

• how a Latin American upstream company increased their production by 12%, bringing in $350 million USD in increased revenue
• how a South Korean refinery improved their reformer operations through improved yield predictions that were within +/-0.3% of actual reactor yield
• how a world-renowned energy company improved production from an offshore well by 0.6% in addition to avoiding frequent shutdowns
• how a major European EPC company achieved 40% reduction in flare capacity as well as associated CAPEX while reconfiguring a refinery through more accurate process simulations

Additional sessions will cover many more such best practices and success stories. Note that this is only one of the many tracks at OPTIMIZE covering AspenTech’s three different solution suites.

OPTIMIZE 2019 is truly an opportunity for process industry professionals to get a feel for the status of the industry. Attendees can explore a wide variety of topics ranging from thought leadership and industry trends to best practices in solving operational issues. If you have not already registered, I would encourage you to check out the OPTIMIZE 2019 website and register for the event.

Personally, I am looking forward to this May when I can meet and interact with the able minds behind the global process industry, which has contributed so much to our everyday lives.