We are partners in a collaborative project called PRONTO (PROcess NeTwork Optimisation) for the efficient and sustainable operation of Europe’s process industries, taking machinery condition and process performance into account.

At a glance

The typical lifetime of an industrial process plant is 30-50 years. Technologies to enhance the operation and optimisation of process plants can both guide the development of new state-of-the-art process plants and, perhaps more importantly, ensure that existing plants continue to operate efficiently.

The PRONTO consortium includes leading universities like ourselves and well-known companies with a reputation for innovation.

The partners are convinced that for Europe to stay competitive, the overriding challenge is the efficient and sustainable operation of assets already installed and running at the present time.

Production involves flows of material and energy over an extended area through the distributed and interconnected equipment of the process network. Process plants also generate complex information from disparate sources in the form of measurements from the process, mechanical and electrical sub-systems, and elsewhere.

This means the efficient and sustainable operation of assets, over a timescale of 30-50 years, requires sophisticated approaches for managing information and managing resources to ensure optimal operation.