KBC Advanced Technologies is a leading independent consultant and software solutions provider to the energy industry. Our Petro-SIM simulator is a general purpose steady state graphical process simulator aimed at the Oil Refining and Petrochemical industries, offering a full suite of detailed reactor unit operations allowing rigorous simulation of refineries and petrochemical plants. It has long had extensibility mechanisms, allowing customers to plug in their own unit operations. KBC recently added support for the CAPE-OPEN Unit Operation interface to Petro-SIM.

This paper will discuss our experiences so far and share with you the successes we have had using third party heat exchanger modules. We will discuss details of the implementation technique and compare it against the traditional extension methods provided by the simulator.