Opportunities for Agent-Based Models in Computer Aided Process Engineering

When considering process systems as socio-technical systems there is a need for computer models that can describe their full complexity. The Agent Based Model (ABM) paradigm promises to offer new modelling methods and tools that can complement the well established Computer Aided Process Engineering (CAPE) approaches. In this paper guidelines for the application of ABM are discussed and the suitability is demonstrated with a number of applications, ranging from chemical supply chains and oil refineries to the control of combined heat and power units. When ABM are used in combination with traditional CAPE techniques, it can be a very powerful and flexible way to model complex systems and optimise their behaviour, especially when dealing with social aspects in the system that are more difficult to catch in mathematical formulas.