System and method for simulating operation of substructures of a chemical processing plant

An apparatus comprising:

• at least one memory device configured to store information defining a superstructure associated with a chemical processing facility, the superstructure comprising simulated processing elements representing chemical processing elements within the chemical processing facility, the superstructure also comprising flow streams representing flows of material between the chemical processing elements;
• and
• at least one processing device configured to:
• store in a repository parameters of the chemical processing elements in the chemical processing facility, the repository configured to receive modifications to the parameters of the chemical processing elements;
• in response to receiving modifications to the parameters of at least one of the chemical processing elements, propagate the modifications to substructures within the superstructure that use the at least one chemical processing element;
• identify a specified one of the substructures within the superstructure, the specified substructure including simulated processing elements and flow streams having active states within the superstructure, wherein the identification is based on the active states of the active simulated processing elements and the active flow streams;
• and
• generate a graphical display identifying the superstructure for presentation on a display, wherein active and inactive simulated processing elements have different indicia in the graphical display, and wherein active and inactive flow streams have different indicia in the graphical display;
• wherein the superstructure further comprises one or more flow decision elements, each flow decision element representing one of (i) a selection of one input flow stream from multiple input flow streams for output as an ou ut flow stream and ii a selection of one output flow stream from multiple output flow streams to receive an input flow stream.

A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying a computer program, the computer program comprising computer readable program code that, when executed, causes at least one processing device to perform the steps of:

• obtaining information defining a superstructure associated with a chemical processing facility, the superstructure comprising simulated processing elements representing chemical processing elements within the chemical processing facility, the superstructure also comprising flow streams representing flows of material between the chemical processing elements;
• storing in a repository parameters of the chemical processing elements in the chemical processing facility, the repository configured to receive modifications to the parameters of the chemical processing elements;
• in response to receiving modifications to the parameters of at least one of the chemical processing elements, propagating the modifications to substructures within the superstructure that use the at least one chemical processing element;
• identifying a specified one of the substructures within the superstructure, the specified substructure including simulated processing elements and flow streams having active states within the superstructure, wherein the identifying is based on the active states of the active simulated processing elements and the active flow streams;
• and
• generating a graphical display identifying the superstructure for presentation on a display, wherein active and inactive simulated processing elements have different indicia in the graphical display, and wherein active and inactive flow streams have different indicia in the graphical display;
• wherein the superstructure further comprises one or more flow decision elements, each flow decision element representing one of (i) a selection of one input flow stream from multiple input flow streams for output as an output flow stream and (ii) a selection of one output flow stream from multiple output flow streams to receive an input flow stream.