Why there is no way around the digitalisation of the process industry - and what role process automation plays in this

When twins enter puberty, growing pains are pre-programmed. The digital twin is no exception. For a little more than a decade, automation and digitalisation experts have been expecting great benefits from the representation of real plants in the digital world: scenarios and options can be simulated with it for process optimisation, prospective plant operators use it for training purposes, and maintenance personnel supplement the twin with analysis tools, in order to recognise maintenance needs at an early stage and to optimally plan maintenance.

However, the same applies to the digital twin in the chemical industry as to the digitisation of the industry as a whole: the process industry is still a long way from comprehensive use and continuous data streams. However, these are necessary if the goal of a climate-neutral chemical industry is to be achieved. After all, by 2050 – the year declared by most chemical nations as the year from which climate neutrality is to be achieved - the demand for chemicals will continue to rise. It will not be possible to produce these quantities in a climate-neutral way using the traditional methods of petroleum or natural gas. The chemical industry must and will embark on a transformation path that leads away from the linear economy (take-produce-dispose) and towards a circular economy in which products at the end of their life cycle become raw materials for new chemicals. But for this to happen, the digital twin must grow up and no longer revolve around the factory alone: The entire supply chain must become part of the virtual image.

In a circular economy, stakeholders across company boundaries are interested in which feedstocks are available where and in what quality. Disruptions in the supply chain must be taken into account as well as their consequences for production and the ability to deliver. If this data is transparent and available in real time, production processes can also be planned, retooled, or adapted to changed raw materials. Transparency is also important so that emissions can be accurately balanced for each product - this not only prevents competition-distorting greenwashing, but also makes it easier to draw up sustainability balances – on the basis of which the right decisions can be made to achieve the Net Zero goal.

In addition, there is another level of complexity: the transformation of the energy system is leading to more and more processes being switched from fossil fuels to electricity from renewable sources - the electrification of the chemical industry is already in full swing. But electricity from wind and solar energy is not continuously available. Where up to now plants have been planned for continuous operation on the basis of energy sources and raw materials available at all times, in future operators will gain economic advantages by flexibly aligning their processes to the energy and raw material supply. In addition, there is the overarching goal of linking energy management, industry, transport, and buildings in the sense of sector coupling and optimising them together. This dimension also makes the control of chemical production more complex. And here at the latest it becomes clear that humans alone are overtaxed in view of the abundance of optimisation goals and influencing variables: the key to holistic optimisation also therefore lies in digital tools.