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More projects, less costs The partnership led to the joint creation of several new deve-

lopments that are important efficiency drivers for EPCs, plant
Data-driven approach is key milestone for Haldor’s engineers and operators, such as EBML for faster data exchan-
Topsoe Engineering ge or the automatic data sheets of Asset 360. ‘Both are now
part of the standard in EB’s plant license, thus they benefit all
The Danish company Haldor Topsoe, which is heavily involved customers’, reported Vogt with a touch of pride. Furthermore,
in the green energy transition from its electrolysis expertise as Keller-Larsen added: ‘We wanted a partner, not a supplier. The
well as being a catalyst expert, technology licensor and process implementation and pilot project have shown that this has been
engineering leader has now ushered in a new era of digital, coo- successful.’
perative engineering with Aucotec’s platform Engineering Base
(EB). Topsoe, one of the world’s leading technology providers Six weeks instead of six months
for the chemical and petrochemical industry, symbolically mar- ‘The transformation process was complex and very democra-
ked the start of the company-wide use of EB with a loud siren at tic. Never before have we brought together so much expertise
the end of May. ‘The introduction of this system is a key milesto- and knowledge’, said Keller-Larsen. Everyone had to rethink,
ne in our digital transformation’, explained Topsoe’s CIO Niels but they now have a uniform “data home” for the entire engine-
Keller-Larsen at the go-live in which more than 100 engineers, ering and maintenance tasks. This increases flexibility and saves
managers and project managers participated. around 10% of costs. Due to considerable acceleration – some
work now takes six weeks instead of six months – significantly
Moon landing for engineering more projects will be able to be created within the same time in
‘With EB, we are finally working in a truly data-driven manner the future according to Niels Keller-Larsen.
across all engineering phases and disciplines on one data mo-
del!’ emphasized Keller-Larsen. The migration to the platform is Niels Keller-Larsen, CIO at
Topsoe’s largest IT transformation project to date. ‘Our moon Haldor Topsoe: “With EB, we
landing, so to speak’, said the top IT Manager. As a knowled- are finally working in a truly
ge base for everyone involved, EB supports projects from their data-driven manner across all
“birth” to the very end and offers customers a continuous cu- engineering phases and disci-
stomer journey. Furthermore, EB standardizes Topsoe’s system plines on one data model – our
environment and engineering; numerous discipline-specific to- moon landing, so to speak.”
ols have been replaced. ‘With them, this transformation would (source: Haldor Topsoe)
never have been possible. As a single source of truth, EB also
lays the foundation for AI use.
Uwe Vogt, Aucotec Executive
Partner rather than supplier Officer: “The partnership led
The (petro)chemical professionals attached great importance to to the joint creation of impor-
having to order as few special solutions as possible for their tant efficiency drivers for EPCs,
engineering ideal. Thus, EB was chosen. ‘However, today’s plant engineers and operators”
platform differs from how it was at the start of the partnership (source: AUCOTEC AG)
with Haldor Topsoe’, said Aucotec Executive Officer Uwe Vogt.

service is always up to date. And a team does not As long as the digital twin
have to scan the actual state of the plant and then
add it before any conversions. remains a living image, growing
To ensure that this procedure is also open to oper- “with ‘its’ plant, a lot of added
ators of older plants with corresponding documen-
tation, Aucotec has developed a migration concept value can be derived from
for EB that checks existing data during its transfer, it, instead of the value being
in some cases supplements or merges it and thus exhausted in the documentation
raises it to a digital twin level. An Aucotec customer
once put the value of the existing data for a chem-
ical plant at around five million euros. Preserving it than its producer? And where, if not in the system
was an important reason to switch to EB. with which a plant was developed, is the data on
this most precise and comprehensive? A compres-
sor manufacturer, for example, no longer sells the
From data model system, but the compressed air. It operates the
to business model sub-system itself; its know-how, manifested in the
data model, is a guarantee for quality and reliability.
But it is not only unnecessary to accept the loss The burden on the overall plant operator is signif-
of value of documentation, but also not to use the icantly relieved and it is more likely to continue to
added value that up-to-date, easily accessible and rely on this supplier in the future.
usable existing data offers. With the data model in Aucotec’s developers have also equipped EB
EB, manufacturers can become full-service pro- with web service technology that allows the sys-
viders, for example. Who knows a product better tem to be supplemented with browser-based

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