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Partner technology · Oil and gas operationsPractise before it's real.
MicMak, with its technology partners, gives operating teams a dynamic twin of their process units: a safe place to rehearse start-ups, shutdowns and upsets, check a new unit before it runs, and test changes away from the live plant.
What it is
A working model of your process units, not a 3D picture of the site.
Operators can't experiment on a live hazardous plant. Start-ups, shutdowns and rare upsets are the riskiest moments in a unit's life, and crews seldom get to rehearse them.
The dynamic twin is a physics-based model of a unit's process equipment, such as columns, exchangers, reboilers, separators and amine treatment. Built from the design documents, it responds to changes, upsets and new operating points the way the real unit does, in real time.
Applications: oil and gas first, including refining, gas processing and LNG. Also applicable to water treatment. This is process simulation and operator training, not reservoir simulation.
What it delivers
Four ways it helps operating teams.
Train crews on a dynamic twin
MicMak, with its technology partners, provides an operator training simulator built on the twin, with field-operator and control-room views. Crews practise start-up, shutdown and emergency procedures, and instructors can inject upsets mid-run. A virtual instructor supports guided practice and self-study, and each run can be assessed and scored. Training can start before the unit is finished, on site or remote. Where it is scoped, the simulator emulates the unit's control system, including key interlocks and trips.
Rehearse a new unit's start-up
Digital launch: before a new unit is built or started, a twin is built from the design. Our technology partners report that rehearsing on it finds design, instrumentation and control-logic errors, such as conflicting interlocks or wrong sensor ranges, early enough to fix them. The corrected model then becomes the new crew's simulator.
Test changes on the twin, not the plant
Try new operating points, throughput or energy changes on the twin first, and replay real events to learn from them. Where plant data is available, the twin can be kept in step with the running unit through a read-only link.
Start small: one process unit
The first step is a calibration pilot on one process unit, so your team can compare the twin with what it already knows about that unit before going further.
How it works, in plain terms
From design documents to a crew that's practised.
Scope is agreed unit by unit. At a plain level, the work runs in five steps.
- 1
Choose the unit
You pick one process unit and share its design documents and, if available, operating data.
- 2
Build the twin
A dynamic model of the unit is built from the design documents.
- 3
Calibrate
The model is checked against design or operating data, with a validation report your engineers can review.
- 4
Train and test
Crews rehearse start-up, shutdown and emergency scenarios, with instructor-injected upsets and a scored assessment of each run; engineers test changes on the twin.
- 5
Extend
If the pilot proves its value, add more units, emulate the control system or link the twin to plant data.
Deliverables
What you receive.
Exact deliverables depend on the unit and the scope agreed after the first call.
- A dynamic model of the agreed process unit(s)
- A model validation report against design or operating data
- An operator training simulator with field-operator and control-room views
- A virtual instructor scenario set for guided practice and self-study
- Scored assessment of each run, with trainee records and progress tracking
- Train-the-trainer sessions, on site or remote
- For new units: a design-check report and a start-up procedure review
Also available, scoped case by case
- Control-system emulation: emulates the unit's control system, including key interlocks and trips
- A plant-data link: read-only, where plant data is available
- Onboarding and assessment of new operators
Where it fits
Alongside your training, not instead of it.
The simulator complements face-to-face and on-the-job training. It gives crews safe repetitions of the moments they rarely see; competence on the real unit still comes from experienced colleagues.
Limits we flag on the first call: the twin models process units, not the whole site; it does not replace on-the-job competence; and we quote no performance figures until they're agreed for your unit.
Getting started
Start with a calibration pilot on one process unit.
Pick the unit where a start-up, shutdown or upset worries you most. MicMak, with its technology partners, builds and calibrates its twin, so your team can judge the model against a unit it knows well before any wider rollout.
Scope, phases and timeline are agreed after the first call.
Next step
Tell us about the unit you'd like to start with.
We'll tell you on the first call whether a dynamic twin and training simulator fit, and what a pilot would involve.