NEWS
A Master’s Thesis at the College of Engineering, UoB: Digital Twin Technology Facilitates Product Development in the Refining Sector
University of Bahrain – Sakhir (Ali Al-Sabbagh)
March 23, 2022
A Master’s thesis at UoB revealed that adopting the concept of digital twin technology in refineries facilitates research and development of products and systems at low costs and risks.
The study, conducted by the Master’s student in Engineering Management program, Abdullah Jawad Al-Mishal, found out that digital twin allows control over products in terms of design, loads and capacities, which would help discover manufacturing defects and lead to continuous improvement.
The term of digital twin technology refers to the virtual representation of physical assets (physical twins), processes, people, places, systems or devices that can be used for different purposes.
The thesis, which was supervised by the Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Bahrain, Dr. Mohammad Ali Shams, was entitled “Developing a Digital Twin Technology for a Hydrogen Diesel Processor in Refineries.”
Al-Mishal stated “This thesis aims to provide a practical example of the possibility of developing the concept of digital twin in the context of oil refineries,” referring to “the development of a digital twin technology for refinery units, which is the diesel processing unit, and using it for forecasting and evaluating different operating scenarios.”
The researcher stressed that “The use of the digital twin technology leads to a better understanding of the operating processes, and it can also be used as a simulator for training operators, evaluating various control strategies, forecasting operational errors and improving processes to ensure sustainability.”
The examining committee consisted of Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Bahrain, Dr. Mohammad Ali Bin Shams, Associate Professor in the same department, Dr. Shaker Mohammad Hajji as an internal examiner, and Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Omar Zahid as an external examiner.
