The work defines and discusses process intensification (PI) and digital twin (DT) as potential tools to accelerate the energy transition through their applications in the process industries. The PI technologies take advantage of innovative principles in equipment design and control to improve the physical process, while the DT offers the virtual model of the plant as an environment for production optimization. The effects of both tools on the energy transition are evaluated not only from the point of applications but also from the possibility of implementation and barriers in process industries. Although they are beneficial, the deployment of PI and DT requires not only infrastructure and capital investment but the knowledge and cooperation of different levels of plant personnel. Besides review of individual implementation, this work explores the concept of combining PI and DT which can make them the enabler of each other and bring a breakthrough in optimization of process design and control.

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The effects of digital twin on the energy transition of the process industries. ... 5.4.The combination of PI and DT in process industries, a winning formula? .

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In this paper, a novel mathematical model that combines a membrane filtration model, component balances and reaction kinetics models for an intensified separation-reaction process in membrane reactor producing biofuels was developed. A unique feature is that the proposed model can capture the dynamics of membrane fouling as function of both reversible and irreversible fouling; which leads to cyclic behavior. Fouling leads to the decline of the reactor productivity. With an appropriate fouling-model, the operational strategy can be optimized. In the case study of biodiesel production, the developed model was validated with experimental data. The model was in good agreement with the data, where R-squared are 0.96 for the permeate flux and 0.95 for the biodiesel yield. From a further analysis, the efficiency of membrane reaction system in term of productivity can be significantly improved by changing the backwashing frequency under specific operating conditions. As the backwashing frequency increased eight times, the biodiesel yield increased to more than two to three times before the permeate flux dropped under a predetermined limit due to the increase of irreversible membrane fouling.