The story of process design center

Throughout our history, we’ve remained focused on introducing new and more efficient technologies in the process industry. These challenges create a continuous and dynamic journey to arrive at better solutions for our clients. Thirty-four years later, we are still the same company-just with more people, more partners, and more projects.

1980s

man with the plan

As far as founders go, Hans Keuken was and still is the main driver. As a visionary and a great innovator with a strong ability to make novel things happen and be put into use, Hans started Keuken & de Koning process engineers and consultants (K&K) back in 1987, directly after graduation from TU Delft. As a young start-up, K&K was the second company buying an Aspen Plus license and became AspenTech’s project partner, providing these new modeling services at the time.

1990s

WORLD LEADER IN PINCH TECHNOLOGY

• In the early 1990s, we introduced pinch technology for heat integration in the process industry and developed ourselves as the second practitioner in the world next to Linnhoff March. According to Bodo Linnhoff, K&K was their “preferred competitor.”
• In 1996, together with LM, we executed the largest energy pinch project to date, covering the entire industrial harbor area of Rotterdam, with 69 companies and a total heat demand of 8000 MWth.
• In 1996, we conducted the first large AI-driven PROSYN® redesign study for Shell, resulting in 50% CAPEX savings. The successes of the subsequent redesigns led to the merger of the joint services of K&K and the German PROSYN® developers under the Process Design Center umbrella in 1999.

2000s

Energy & CO2 Benchmarking

• While conducting international redesign projects for companies such as Shell, BP, DSM, BASF, Bayer, Dow, Sabic, AkzoNobel, MCC, Eastman, and Petronas, PDC set up over 50 international energy/ CO2 benchmarks.
• In 2005, PDC started to perform techno-economic assessments of CCS technologies for a consortium of large oil companies including BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, ENI, Statoil, Petrobras, Suncor, and Shell.
• In 2008, the Netherlands Minister of Environmental Affairs opened the first gas station selling our patented hydrous E15 gasoline.

2010s

BIO-BASED & CIRCULAR

• In the 2010s, several PDC benchmarks became part of the European Trading System (ETS) for CO2 allocation.
• The bio-based process designs and new bio-refinery concepts grew up to 50% of PDC’s regular workload. Also, the first circular (waste as feedstock) projects started.
• In 2010, PDC started a major IT project to enhance PROSYN® and add new modules such as PROSYN® Heat Integration, PROSYN® Costing, PROSYN® Membranes, and PROSYN® Water.

2020s

NO.1 IN PROCESS DESIGN

• More recently, PDC started to support and participate in start-ups.
• Biobased & circular process designs are in demand, and our team started with their 16th bio-refinery concept.
• With the ambitious CO2 reduction targets, we see a revival of energy efficiency & CO2 emission reduction projects. PDC started with Direct Air Capture (DAC) and became involved in hydrogen projects.