Aspen Technology has acquired the BLOWDOWN software technology from Prof. Stephen Richardson of Imperial College London and Dr. Graham Saville, formerly of Imperial College London.

BLOWDOWN has been used in hundreds of studies in oil and gas and chemical companies to model depressurization in process plants. Improving safety through the modeling and analysis of depressurization systems is a critical activity in the design and operation of every process plant, according to AspenTech officials.

Depressurization or “blowdown” protects key process equipment by relieving fluids from the equipment in a controlled manner. BLOWDOWN identifies locations in a system where temperatures can decline dramatically during depressurization. 

These low temperatures can lead to a drop in the temperature of the walls of the process vessels below the transition temperature of the steel from which the vessel or line is made.

The aspenONE engineering suite provides process plant modeling and optimization capabilities. BLOWDOWN provides additional capabilities that will eventually enable AspenTech to provide a complete depressurization system optimization capability, according to company officials. 

This will result in increased engineering efficiency, reduced capital spend and increased safety and reliabilityfor AspenTech customers.

"The addition of BLOWDOWN will give our customers the ability to model depressurization scenarios, which is a critical activity in the design and operation of every process plant," said AspenTech CEO Antonio Pietri.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.