Lanner Group's WITNESS simulation tools are helping the precious metals refiner Inco Europe to streamline processes and improve yields at its plant in Acton, West London.
Lanner Group's WITNESS simulation tools are helping the precious metals refiner Inco Europe to streamline processes and improve yields at its plant in Acton, West London. WITNESS has also helped to reduce the necessity for extra capital expenditure and has supported the business case for new investment at the refinery. WITNESS was first used to investigate the proposed investment to upgrade a chemical treatment circuit.

The simulation showed that the required capacity increase could be achieved simply by adjusting the shift patterns and using a different chemical - thus obviating the need for capital expenditure.

WITNESS is also being used to plan the upgrade of one of the final treatment plants.

The simulation proved that replacing one large furnace with two smaller units would increase processing flexibility and give a more efficient materials flow.

The model predicts significant improvements to yields and energy efficiency, with a reduction in emissions.

WITNESS has helped, too, in proving the case for investment in new reaction vessels to greatly enhance flexibility and capacity.

Elsewhere in the refinery WITNESS has been used to study the impact of changes to materials flow, and to identify hidden bottlenecks in specific areas.

It is also being used to model the entire plant at high level, serving as a valuable predictive tool to examine the effects of possible future business on plant operations.

Lanner Group specializes in helping organisations achieve rapid and effective business transformation.

Established in 1996 through a management buyout, Lanner is widely acknowledged as the world's pioneering leader in business simulation and optimization.

Today Lanner offers a unique added-value combination of these powerful predictive technology solutions with top-level specialist consultancy expertise.

Based in the United Kingdom with subsidiaries and partners in Europe, The Americas and the Far East, Lanner has a worldwide customer-based of more than 30,000 top multinational companies.