OLE Technology

Maximize your simulation investment using OLE Technology

HYSYS is the only commercially available simulation environment designed for
complete user customization. By incorporating OLE Technology and using a
revolutionary component-based architecture, HYSYS can easily be updated to meet
changing user requirements. This future-proof design enables customers to fully
leverage their engineering software investments.

Customize HYSYS to meet your unique needs

Most other simulation packages are based on 15 -20 year old technology that was
never designed to allow user customization. This prevents users from easily
incorporating unique unit operations, proprietary kinetic reactions and specialized
property packages. OLE Extensibility enables Hyprotech customers to seamlessly
integrate virtually any simulation technology into HYSYS, ensuring that it meets their
unique needs and requirements. Additionally, HYSYS is also equipped with its own
Visual-Basic-like macro language, which allows the user to create custom applications,
complete with dialogs for user interaction, without exiting the simulation environment.

For example, many users requested a more powerful alternative to the HYSYS pipe
segment unit operation, so Neotechnology Consultants Ltd. created PIPESYS, a
commercially available pipeline thermal and hydraulics extension for HYSYS.
PIPESYS integrates powerful, industry-proven capabilities for single and multiphase
pipeline flow modeling into HYSYS.

Other examples include:

Vinyl Acetate kinetic reaction, which incorporates the complex kinetic rate
equations for Vinyl Acetate and its side reaction into HYSYS.

Multi Compressor macro, a HYSYS macro language file which automatically

creates a multi-stage compressor based on data the user enters into a dialog.

Rapidly incorporate “in-house” programs into HYSYS

Many companies have invested hundreds of man-hours into developing custom
programs to model existing unit operations or reactions. Most simulation programs
either do not allow the incorporation of such programs or require the user to translate
them to a different language, a time-consuming and error-prone process. With HYSYS
and OLE Technology, existing FORTRAN or C code can be accessed by the extension,
ensuring consistency with previous calculations and reducing creation time.
Additionally, the data and calculations used in the extension cannot be accessed
directly, thus protecting valuable proprietary information.

For example, a major chemical company had an “in-house” program that was used to
calculate component thermodynamic data, which then had to be manually entered into
their old simulation software. Using the OLE Technology, they were able to incorporate
their existing FORTRAN property package code directly into HYSYS, thus eliminating
the need for manual data reentry and ensuring both accuracy and consistency.
OLE Technology

Other examples include:

Platformer unit operation, which incorporates a customer’s proprietary

FORTRAN Platformer reactor model into HYSYS to assist in revamps, de-
bottlenecking, operability and troubleshooting.

Ethylene Furnace unit operation, which incorporates a customer’s proprietary

FORTRAN ethylene furnace model into HYSYS for optimization studies.

Create custom hybrid solutions using HYSYS

Most simulation programs are stand-alone and cannot interact with many, if any, other
programs. HYSYS can use OLE Automation to interact with other applications (such as
Microsoft Excel) to create powerful hybrid programs that utilize the best capabilities of
each application. This enables the user to create custom programs that access the
power of HYSYS directly or build custom front-ends which enable plant personnel, such
as operators, to access the power of the simulation, while shielding them from its
complexity and ensuring the integrity of the process simulation itself.

For example, an Excel spreadsheet front-end was created for a column that had
frequent swings in the feed flow rate. The operator entered the feed stream flow rate
and composition into the spreadsheet and pressed an “Optimize Setpoints” button. The
feed data were then transparently sent to a HYSYS simulation of the column, which
calculated the optimal controller setpoints and returned them to the Excel spreadsheet
for the operator to review.

Other examples include:

Recycle Loop Excel front-end, which could be used to increase production by

determining optimal recycle flow rates and serving as a “soft sensor” to allow
access to data which would otherwise be unavailable to operators.

Product Allocation Excel front-end, which was used to automatically allocate

the product fluids from a gas-processing platform with mixed ownership of the
well fluids.

For More Information

For more information on HYSYS and OLE, or to download the HYSYS OLE examples
discussed, please visit the OLE page on the Hyprotech web site at
http://www.hyprotech.com/ole.htm.