Natural gas resources of all kinds continue to be exploited at an accelerating pace. There is growing worldwide interest in increased development of both conventional and unconventional sources of gas, including shale gas. Consequently, engineers are in the spotlight to design flexible midstream infrastructure to process gas and associated liquids efficiently, rapidly and for maximum profitability. Adding to the pressure on process engineers, project parameter and goals are more than ever a moving target.

Several innovations in software used by process engineers have begun to show results in the past few ...