SPYRO Suite

The SPYRO Suite of programs is a suite created by the Pyrotec division of Technip to simulate the steam cracking process to create ethylene from hydrocarbons in an ethylene furnace. The suite consists of four main modules:
* SPYRO, simulates the cracking process inside the radiant coils;
* TES, simulates the cooling of process fluids and generation of steam in the transfer line exchanger;
* FIREBOX, simulates the conversion of fuel in the radiant box and heat transfer to the radiant coils;
* CONVEC, simulates the recovery of flue gas heat in the convection section.
Applications
For an engineering company such as Technip, the SPYRO suite is a key tool for the design of ethylene furnaces. Other engineering companies use somewhat similar mechanistic simulation software for steam cracking, because the know-how is basically public.
For an operating company, SPYRO can be applied in several ways:
* off-line tool for case studies such as furnace operability studies.
* planning and scheduling including valuation of available feedstocks on the spot market.
* on-line yield model in an advanced process control system.
* on-line yield model in a (closed loop) real time optimization system.
SPYRO is licensed mainly to ethylene producers. The program is used by approximately 80% of all ethylene producers world-wide.
Theory
The core of the SPYRO program is the Kinetic Scheme. The first commercial version of 1979 contains some 500 chemical reactions. The current version consists of over 7000 equations and uses approximately 250 hydrocarbon (pseudo) components. The equations are written in the residual equation form f(x,y)=0.
The models are based on first principles and is validated for feedstocks ranging from ethane to (treated) heavy gas oil with a carbon number of up to 40. It is designed to handle operating conditions of both pilot plants and commercial scale furnaces irrespective of the technology licensor.
History
Developments on SPYRO started in the late sixties by the team of Prof. Mario Dente, Prof. Eliseo Ranzi, G. Antolini and F. Losco of the Politecnico di Milano. Further developments were performed at the Politecnico di Milano in cooperation with KTI and subsequently PYROTEC as Division of TECHNIP.

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