Requirements and conceptual design for hybrid process plants

The modularization of process plants represents an innovative approach to meet the increasing requirements regarding flexibility. The current research focuses on 100
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modular process plants, which are characterized by high flexibility of the plant, but unlike monolithic process plants, they are not designed for a specific and optimized operating point. In addition, the flexibility provided by the modularity is not needed everywhere in the plant. Therefore, hybrid process plants, i.e. a combination of a monolithic plant and several modules, are expected to overcome this issue. This paper presents the key terms in the context of hybrid process plants as well as the requirements for the engineering and automation of such plants. Furthermore, a generic workflow model for the engineering of hybrid process plants is derived, with focus on the conceptual design.