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Aspen HYSYS & Aspen + Process Simulation
A complete process simulation program for chemical, process, and oil and gas engineers — covering steady-state modeling, troubleshooting, optimization, and professional reporting in Aspen HYSYS and Aspen Plus, built on real gas processing, refining, and petrochemical formations across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar.
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Description
Programme Highlights
Dual-Platform Simulation Mastery
Build proficiency in both Aspen HYSYS and Aspen Plus within a single programme — covering oil and gas process configurations and chemical and petrochemical process types side by side.
Real GCC Process Configurations
Model separators, compressors, heat exchangers, and columns based on gas processing, refining, and petrochemical configurations from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar.
Troubleshooting & Validation Discipline
Diagnose convergence failures and unrealistic results, and validate simulation output against hand calculations and plant performance data.
Professional Deliverable Standards
Produce a complete simulation basis of design, stream tables, and equipment summaries — the deliverable package expected at FEED and detailed engineering stage.
Course Curriculum — 8 Modules
Process Simulation Foundations — Thermodynamics, Components & Property Packages
This module establishes the thermodynamic and conceptual foundation that determines the accuracy of every simulation built in later modules — the step most frequently underestimated by engineers new to process simulation software. Participants examine how component lists are defined from a process flow diagram, how pseudo-components and assay data are used to represent crude and condensate streams, and how simulation objectives differ across design cases, rating cases, and troubleshooting cases. Property package selection is treated as the single highest-leverage modelling decision in the entire simulation workflow: the module compares equation-of-state packages such as Peng-Robinson and Soave-Redlich-Kwong against activity-coefficient packages such as NRTL and UNIQUAC, and establishes clear selection criteria based on system polarity, pressure range, and the presence of electrolytes or acid gases. PFD interpretation is covered as a professional skill in its own right: reading equipment tags, stream numbering conventions, control philosophy annotations, and the heat and material balance information that a PFD must communicate before a simulation model can begin. GCC market context runs throughout the module: property package selection for sour gas fields operated by Saudi Aramco and ADNOC, condensate characterisation practices used on Qatari and Emirati gas processing projects, and the simulation basis requirements that EPC contractors expect on FEED packages across the region's downstream and petrochemical sector.
Aspen HYSYS Environment — Case Setup, Fluid Packages & Convergence Fundamentals
With the thermodynamic foundation established, this module moves into the Aspen HYSYS working environment itself — the interface, workflow logic, and convergence behaviour that participants will use throughout the remainder of the programme. Case setup is covered from the basis environment forward: component list assembly, fluid package assignment, and the transition into the simulation environment where the process flowsheet is actually built. Stream definition is treated in depth: material streams versus energy streams, the minimum specification set required for HYSYS to solve a stream, and the practical difference between specifying temperature-pressure-composition versus vapour-fraction-based specifications on gas processing streams. Foundational unit operations are introduced — mixers, splitters, valves, pumps, and simple heat exchangers — as the building blocks used to construct larger process sections in later modules. Recycle block behaviour and convergence fundamentals receive particular attention: how HYSYS solves flowsheets with recycle streams, how convergence tolerances are set, and the diagnostic signs that indicate a recycle loop is converging slowly rather than failing outright. Sour and associated gas characterisation specific to GCC upstream operations is addressed throughout: representing H2S and CO2 content typical of Saudi Aramco and ADNOC gas fields, and the Amine property package considerations that this raises for later treating-unit modules.
Oil and Gas Process Models — Separators, Compression, Heat Exchange & Columns
This module builds the core unit operation library used across gas processing and refining simulation work, applying it directly to configurations found on GCC upstream and midstream projects. Two-phase and three-phase separator modelling is covered in detail — sizing philosophy, retention time specification, and the liquid carryover and gas carry-under diagnostics used to validate separator performance against field data. Compression systems are addressed for both centrifugal and reciprocating machines: polytropic versus adiabatic efficiency specification, multi-stage compression with interstage cooling, and the surge and choke considerations relevant to gas gathering and gas lift systems. Heat exchanger modelling covers shell-and-tube and plate-fin configurations, including the LNG and cryogenic exchanger types used on liquefaction trains, with an emphasis on approach temperature and UA specification versus rating-mode calculation. Column modelling introduces absorption and stripping operations directly relevant to GCC gas processing: glycol dehydration columns, amine treating columns for H2S and CO2 removal, and the tray and packing specification decisions that affect both simulation convergence and real column performance. Utility system modelling — fuel gas networks, flare header sizing inputs, and cooling water circuits — closes the module, referencing configurations typical of gas processing plants such as those operated by ADNOC in Habshan and Saudi Aramco in Hawiyah and Haradh, and LNG trains at Qatar's Ras Laffan Industrial City.
Aspen Plus Environment — Reactors, Separations & Property Methods for Chemical Processes
Aspen Plus is introduced in this module as the platform of choice for chemical and petrochemical process simulation, with the module structured to highlight both the conceptual overlap with Aspen HYSYS and the areas where chemical process modelling demands a materially different approach. Interface and workflow differences are addressed directly, easing the transition for participants already comfortable in HYSYS. Reactor modelling is covered across the full range of Aspen Plus reactor block types: RStoic for stoichiometric reactions with known conversion, RYield for reactions with empirically determined product distributions, REquil and RGibbs for equilibrium-limited and multi-reaction equilibrium systems, and RCSTR and RPlug for kinetically modelled continuous stirred-tank and plug-flow reactors. Separation modelling introduces RadFrac as the primary rigorous distillation block, alongside extraction and decanter models used for liquid-liquid separation in polar chemical systems. Property method selection receives dedicated treatment for the non-ideal and electrolyte systems common in petrochemical processes — NRTL and UNIQUAC for polar liquid mixtures, and electrolyte NRTL for systems involving ionic species. GCC petrochemical context anchors the module throughout: polymer and derivative production configurations typical of SABIC and Borouge facilities, and the olefins and aromatics process types found across petrochemical complexes in Jubail, Yanbu, Ruwais, and Kuwait's petrochemical industries.
Process Optimisation — Sensitivity Studies, Design Specs & Energy Analysis
With core modelling capability established in both platforms, this module develops the analytical tools that transform a static simulation into a decision-support instrument for real engineering problems. The sensitivity analysis (case study) tool is covered as the primary mechanism for exploring how process performance responds to changes in feed composition, operating pressure, and equipment configuration across a defined range of scenarios, with an emphasis on structuring studies that produce genuinely useful design information rather than unfocused parameter sweeps. Design specification and adjust blocks are treated in depth: how these blocks are used to drive a simulation toward a specified performance target — a required product purity, a target compression ratio, or a specified recovery — by automatically manipulating an upstream variable, and the convergence behaviour these blocks introduce into an already-converging flowsheet. Energy optimisation is introduced through pinch analysis principles and Aspen Energy Analyzer, covering composite curve construction, minimum approach temperature selection, and heat exchanger network targeting for reduced utility consumption. Debottlenecking methodology closes the module: a structured approach to identifying capacity-limiting equipment within an existing simulation, testing capacity expansion scenarios, and quantifying the throughput and energy impact of proposed modifications — directly applicable to the debottlenecking and capacity expansion projects regularly executed at GCC facilities in Ruwais, Jubail, and Ras Laffan.
Troubleshooting Simulations — Convergence, Data Quality & Validation
Simulation troubleshooting is treated in this module as a distinct professional discipline rather than a reactive last resort — the skill set that separates engineers who can build a flowsheet from engineers who can be trusted to deliver a model that project teams rely on for design decisions. Convergence failure diagnosis is covered systematically: distinguishing between recycle convergence failures, column convergence failures, and specification conflicts, and the sequential-modular solving logic that explains why certain flowsheet configurations converge reliably while others do not. Practical convergence-improvement strategies are addressed — adjusting tear stream estimates, tolerance settings, and solving order — alongside the discipline of recognising when a convergence failure indicates a genuine specification error rather than a purely numerical problem. Diagnosing unrealistic results is covered as a related but distinct skill: mass and energy balance verification, property package boundary checks, and the warning signs that a converged simulation is nonetheless producing physically implausible output. Data quality and validation methodology closes the module: comparing simulation output against hand calculations for key streams, cross-checking against plant historian data where available, and the professional habit of treating every converged simulation as a hypothesis to be validated rather than a finished answer — the standard expected of process engineers supporting live operating assets across GCC gas processing and petrochemical facilities.
Reporting and Deliverables — Simulation Basis, Stream Tables & Equipment Summaries
A technically correct simulation has limited value if it cannot be communicated to the design team, the client, and the regulatory reviewer in the professional format the industry expects — this module covers that full deliverable package. Simulation basis of design documentation is treated as the foundational deliverable: structuring feed basis, design case assumptions, property package justification, and simulation scope into the document format required at FEED and detailed engineering gate reviews on GCC EPC projects. Stream table formatting is covered as a precise technical skill: the standard column set expected by design institutes and licensors, unit convention consistency, and the presentation choices that make a stream table genuinely usable by piping, mechanical, and instrumentation disciplines downstream. Equipment summary and datasheet generation is addressed directly from simulation output — extracting sizing and performance data from HYSYS and Aspen Plus results into the datasheet formats used to procure and specify separators, exchangers, compressors, and columns. Design notes and simulation assumption registers close the module, covering the documentation discipline that allows a simulation model to be audited, revised, and defended months or years after the original modelling work — the standard of deliverable quality expected on major EPC and PMC-reviewed submissions across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Egypt's downstream and petrochemical sector.
Capstone Process Model — Build, Optimise & Report a Complete Simulation
The capstone module integrates every skill developed across the programme into a single end-to-end simulation project, structured to mirror the scope and expectations of a real process engineering assignment. Participants select and build a complete process configuration relevant to GCC operations — a gas sweetening and dehydration train or a defined petrochemical separation and reaction section — applying the property package selection, unit operation modelling, and convergence discipline developed in earlier modules to a flowsheet of realistic complexity. The optimisation phase requires participants to apply sensitivity analysis, design specifications, and energy targeting to improve a defined performance metric — recovery, energy consumption, or throughput — and to document the basis for each optimisation decision. Troubleshooting discipline is exercised deliberately: participants are required to diagnose and resolve at least one genuine convergence or data quality issue introduced into their model, applying the systematic methodology from the troubleshooting module rather than trial-and-error adjustment. The capstone concludes with a complete technical report — simulation basis, stream tables, equipment summary, and optimisation findings — assessed against the same professional deliverable standard covered in the reporting module, giving participants a portfolio-ready project that demonstrates simulation competency to the standard expected by employers across the GCC oil, gas, and petrochemical sector.
Software, Standards & Platforms
Course Outcome
On completing this course, you will be able to build, troubleshoot, and optimise steady-state process simulations in Aspen HYSYS and Aspen Plus across oil and gas and petrochemical process configurations, and produce professional simulation deliverables — skills directly applicable to process engineer, simulation engineer, and process safety engineer roles across the GCC downstream and petrochemical sector.