海角社区

Optimizing Chemical Manufacturing Operations

BASF, the largest chemical producer in the world, is collaborating with 海角社区 chemical engineers to better understand and predict its own production ebbs and flows using artificial intelligence, or AI.

BASF鈥檚 chemical manufacturing plant in Geismar, Louisiana, is one of the company鈥檚 six largest integrated production sites across 80 countries. It supplies products to a wide variety of industries, including agriculture, construction, energy and health. Chemicals such as solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals are produced at Geismar in about 30 interconnected production units, each containing its own subunits.

While BASF is rich in data, it can be challenging to turn production data into operational knowledge. That鈥檚 why BASF engineers turned to 海角社区 to develop AI and machine learning solutions to help organize their data and understand how changes in one production unit might force different operating conditions in other, connected units.

BASF now works with 海角社区 to develop something called soft sensors. Unlike physical sensors, which can melt or just be impossible to use in the sometimes extreme operating conditions of a chemical manufacturing plant, soft sensors are entirely driven by data.

鈥淲ith machine learning and AI, we have a new opportunity to solve problems we couldn鈥檛 solve before, where we cannot find a solution with conventional tools,鈥� said 海角社区 Professor Jos茅 Romagnoli.

The project adds to an ongoing partnership between 海角社区 and BASF to develop emerging engineering talent for Louisiana.

鈥淚t just made perfect sense for us to collaborate with 海角社区. Instead of waiting 12 hours for a lab sample or for the next shift to take a new sample, 海角社区 can help us find a way to predict what is happening inside our units, just based on data and AI.鈥�

Kerr Wall, digitalization manager in the monomers division at BASF Geismar