Towards Semi-Automatic Generation of a Steady State Digital Twin of a Brownfield Process Plant

Flexible digital twins from commercial off-the-shelf software solutions: a driver for energy efficiency and decarbonisation in process industries?

The term ‘digital twin’ refers to a virtual simulation/model (virtual twin) of a physical plant or object (physical twin), where data flows between the virtual and physical twins. A digital twin can be used for different purposes, such as process optimisation/control, design, training, and maintenance/service. This manuscript found an increasing number of simulation and modelling publications in literature year on year, which illustrates the current trend towards implementing digital twins in a broad range of process engineering applications. A targeted literature review into the area found several commercial off-the-shelf software solutions (COTS) for different industrial applications providing the necessary flexibility to analyse a broad range of industries. However, most of the process modelling software is designed for petroleum and fine chemicals processes. There is still a need for software solutions that can model a broader range of applications. While most of the software found was licensed, open source process modelling software was also available. There is a lack of independent research into the accuracy of these software solutions. The literature review also found that 37% of the research based on process simulations is carried out to improve energy efficiencies. In comparison, 27% of the research found Decarbonization to be a secondary "added" benefit. It can be concluded that digital twins are ideally suited for driving energy efficiency improvements and decarbonisation goals. However, none of the COTS identified in the literature meets all the requirements for a digital twin. A solution to this problem is to create a layered digital twin, combining and interfacing different tools to accomplish a visually similar, self-optimising, self-learning virtual plant.

Strategic Investment in Open Hardware for National Security

Free and open-source hardware (FOSH) development has been shown to increase innovation and reduce economic costs. This article reviews the opportunity to use FOSH as a sanction to undercut imports and exports from a target criminal country. A formal methodology is presented for selecting strategic national investments in FOSH development to improve both national security and global safety. In this methodology, first the target country that is threatening national security or safety is identified. Next, the top imports from the target country as well as potentially other importing countries (allies) are quantified. Hardware is identified that could undercut imports/exports from the target country. Finally, methods to support the FOSH development are enumerated to support production in a commons-based peer production strategy. To demonstrate how this theoretical method works in practice, it is applied as a case study to a current criminal military aggressor nation, who is also a fossil-fuel exporter. The results show that there are numerous existing FOSH and opportunities to develop new FOSH for energy conservation and renewable energy to reduce fossil-fuel-energy demand. Widespread deployment would reduce the concomitant pollution, human health impacts, and environmental desecration as well as cut financing of military operations.