OOUS : An Educational System for the Optimal Operation of Utility Plants

The economics of most chemical plants are heavily dependent upon the management of the utilities used in the plants. The utilities are supplied by the centralized utility system of the plant. Among the various utilities the steam is by far the most important energy source and the management of the electricity and the process water are greatly affected by the steam. Therefore it is necessary to educate students and new employees the basic concepts about the effective distribution of the utilities and the fundamental strategies to apply the concepts in actual plant operations. The OOUS (Optimal Operation of Utility System) is an GUI educational system designed to educate the effective generation of the steam and the optimal steam distribution schemes within short period. The OOUS deals with various utility equipments and processes and shows how to save operation costs by displaying the optimal operation conditions based on the process models and the operational knowledgebase.