PSE Awards €5000 "Model-Based Innovation" Prize

Winning Portuguese Team Tackles Salt Brine Crystallisation Spray System
LONDON--(Business Wire)--
Process Systems Enterprise (PSE), providers of the gPROMS advanced process
modelling software and model-based engineering services, today announced that
the winner of the prestigious PSE Model-Based Innovation Prize for 2009 is a
team from the Instituto Superior Técnico of Lisbon, Portugal.

The winning team is Raquel Durana Moita, Prof. Henrique Matos, Prof. Cristina
Fernandes, Prof. Clemente Pedro Nunes and Mario Jorge Pinho, for their paper
"Dynamic modelling and simulation of a heated brine spray system", published in
Computers and Chemical Engineering in February 2009. The paper presents work on
modelling of a heated brine spray system for salt recrystallisation ponds, which
is integrated with a cogeneration system to increase the overall process
efficiency. The €5000 prize will be formally awarded at the AIChE Annual Meeting
in Nashville, Tennessee.

Runners up were Fabrizio Bezzo, Federico Galvanin and Massimiliano Barolo
(University of Padova) for their paper "Online Model-Based Redesign of
Experiments for Parameter Estimation in Dynamic Systems" and Mladen Eic, Qinglin
Huang and Amir Malekian (University of New Brunswick) for "Optimization of PSA
process for producing enriched hydrogen from plasma reactor gas".

The judges summarised the winning paper as "excellent work presenting a detailed
integrated dynamic model of a novel process that has been well-validated using
industrial data. The model provides a good basis for optimisation of design and
operation for similar industrial processes, and addresses energy efficiency
issues."

Raquel Durana Moita, speaking on behalf of the winning team, said "We are very
pleased to have won the prize acknowledging the quality and innovative nature of
our research. Using advanced facilities of gPROMS such as stochastic simulation
we were able to create a random drop set to simulate the spray system. gPROMS
also allowed us to investigate many different alternatives rapidly, perform a
detailed sensitivity analysis of key parameters, validate the model and analyse
simulation results."

PSE is a leader in the emerging field of Model-Based Innovation (MBI), in which
high-fidelity mathematical models of processes and products are used to
accelerate innovation and reduce technology risk. MBI helps to integrate R&D
activities with engineering design, resulting in optimised process design and
operation and reduced costs.

gPROMS is the world`s leading modelling environment for such applications, and
is widely used throughout the chemicals, energy, petrochemical, food and
pharmaceuticals sectors, including some 200 academic organisations.

Mark Matzopoulos, PSE Chief Operating Officer, says "As a company closely
involved in research and innovation throughout the process industries, we are
keen to recognise and foster the efforts of others who are doing the same. We
congratulate the winners on the depth and quality of their work."

Notes for Editors

Further information including photographs:
http://www.psenterprise.com/news/pr091104.html

PSE
Kate Burness, Corporate Communications
+4420 8563 0888
k.burness@psenterprise.com

Copyright Business Wire 2009