AspenTech acquires Blowdown software technology

Aspen Technology Inc, the US-based provider of software and services to the process industries, has acquired the Blowdown software technology from Professor Stephen Richardson of Imperial College London and Dr Graham Saville, formerly of Imperial College London.
 
Blowdown has been used in hundreds of studies in oil and gas and chemical companies to model depressurisation in process plants. Improving safety through the modelling and analysis of depressurisation systems is a critical activity in the design and operation of every process plant. 
 
Depressurisation or ‘blowdown’ protects key process equipment by relieving fluids from the equipment in a controlled manner. Blowdown identifies locations in a system where temperatures can decline dramatically during depressurisation. These low temperatures can lead to a drop in the temperature of the walls of the process vessels below the transition temperature of the steel from which the vessel or line is made.
 
The aspenONE Engineering suite provides process plant modelling and optimisation capabilities. Blowdown provides additional capabilities that will eventually enable AspenTech to provide a complete depressurisation system optimisation capability. This will result in increased engineering efficiency, reduced capital spend and increased safety and reliability for AspenTech customers.
 
Antonio Pietri, president & CEO, AspenTech, said, “The addition of Blowdown will give our customers the ability to model depressurisation scenarios, which is a critical activity in the design and operation of every process plant. Combining the strengths of Blowdown with aspenONE’s capabilities to design and analyze overpressure protection systems makes it possible to generate inherently safer and more efficient designs.”