Originally, to significantly improve the production and reduce the consumption of utilities, ProSim, together with Total, developed Ariane software. The main goal was to meet the requirements in terms of optimization and to provide guidance and practical suggestions for other industries where in-house management of energy requirements (steam, electricity or hot water) is a key parameter of the production process.

ARIANE is an optimization software for the energy production plants (steam, hot water, electricity). It aims to reduce the energy bill by seeking the ideal production configuration, by taking into account the demand (steam and hot water) and by considering all of the production constraints.

The Normandy refinery project succeeded because these important three goals were achieved:

– To implement Ariane to improve the steam and electricity production efficiency on the Normandy refinery site.

– To map out carefully energy consumption and production in real-time.

– To use the model to foresee the impact on the plant production of the addition of a unit, of a device, of a turbine disruption on the plant production equilibrium.

The objective 

To optimize the production of the Normandy refinery plant to reduce the production costs.

The solution 

To implement Ariane in order to:

– optimize the on-site production and real-time consumption system;

– highlight the potential benefits to propose relevant practices.

The results 

– A minimum savings of 930,000 € for 2011.
– The total gains amount to more than 2.5% of the plant budget (steam purchase and electricity).
– A global energy efficiency improvement thanks to a real-time follow-up of the refinery’s electricity and steam production system.

About Total

Total is one of the world’s major oil and gas groups, with activities in more than 130 countries. The Group is also a leading player in chemicals. Its 96 000 employees deploy their skills across the entire oil and gas chain: from exploration and production to refining and distribution, renewable energies, trading and chemicals. Total is working to keep the world supplied with energy, both today and tomorrow.

For more information about Total, www.total.com

For more information on the Normandy refinery, http://www.raffinerie-normandie.total.fr/

About ProSim 
ProSim is an independent company, founded in 1989 and headquartered in Labège (Toulouse – France). The company provides state of the art simulation and optimization software that allows process industries to increase their efficiency and their return on investment. ProSim solutions are designed for applications in the chemical, the refining, the gas treatment and the specialties chemical industries as well as in the pharmaceutical, the food processing and the energy industries. Its activities also comprise engineering process consulting and custom software development.
ProSim solutions are used to improve process design, increase plant efficiency and reduce their impact on environment. Thanks to long term partnerships with major research centers and to substantial investment in R&D, ProSim continuously develops innovative software and has become a recognized player on the international market.

The success of the company comes from the efficiency and the robustness of the solutions and of the calculation packages it proposes, but also from the quality of the services it provides.
The expertise and the know-how of ProSim personnel covers vast domains, including thermodynamics, thermophysical phenomenon modelling, process simulation, energy integration, optimization techniques, numerical methods, software architecture, and GUI development.
The company has a subsidiary in the USA, ProSim, Inc., located in Philadelphia, PA.