Enhancing Chemical Process Design: Aligning DEXPI Process with BPMN 2.0 for Improved Efficiency in Data Exchange
- BPMN 2.0 is a widely adopted standard across various industries, primarily used for business process management outside of the engineering sphere [1]. Its long history and widespread use have contributed to a mature ecosystem, offering advanced software tools for editing and optimizing business workflows.
DEXPI Process, a newly developed standard for early-phase chemical process design, focuses on representing Block Flow Diagrams (BFDs) and Process Flow Diagrams (PFDs), both crucial in the conceptual design phase of chemical plants. It provides a standardized way to document design activity, offering engineers a clear rationale for design decisions [2], which is especially valuable during a plant’s operational phases. While DEXPI Process offers a robust data model, it currently lacks an established serialization format for efficient data exchange. As Cameron et al. note in [2], finding a suitable format for DEXPI Process remains a key research area, essential for enhancing itsBPMN 2.0 is a widely adopted standard across various industries, primarily used for business process management outside of the engineering sphere [1]. Its long history and widespread use have contributed to a mature ecosystem, offering advanced software tools for editing and optimizing business workflows.
DEXPI Process, a newly developed standard for early-phase chemical process design, focuses on representing Block Flow Diagrams (BFDs) and Process Flow Diagrams (PFDs), both crucial in the conceptual design phase of chemical plants. It provides a standardized way to document design activity, offering engineers a clear rationale for design decisions [2], which is especially valuable during a plant’s operational phases. While DEXPI Process offers a robust data model, it currently lacks an established serialization format for efficient data exchange. As Cameron et al. note in [2], finding a suitable format for DEXPI Process remains a key research area, essential for enhancing its usability and adoption. So far, Cameron et al. have explored several serialization formats for exchanging DEXPI Process information, including AutomationML, an experimental XML, and UML [2].
This work aims to map the DEXPI Process data model to BPMN 2.0, providing a standardized serialization for the newly developed standard. Mapping DEXPI Process to BPMN 2.0 also unlocks access to BPMN’s extensive software toolset. We investigate and validate the effectiveness of this mapping and the enhancements it brings to the usability of DEXPI Process through a case study based on the Tennessee-Eastman process, described in [3]. We then compare our approach with those of Cameron et al. in [2].
We conclude by presenting our findings and the key benefits of this mapping, such as improved interoperability and enhanced toolset support for chemical process engineers. Additionally, we discuss the challenges encountered during the implementation, including aligning the differences in data structures between the two models. Furthermore, we believe this mapping serves as a bridge between chemical process design engineers and business process management teams, unlocking opportunities for better collaboration and integration of technical and business workflows.…


| Autor*innen: | Shady KhellaORCiD |
|---|---|
| Koautor*innen: | Markus Schichtel, Erik EscheORCiD, Frauke Weichhardt, Jens-Uwe Repke |
| Dokumenttyp: | Posterpräsentation |
| Veröffentlichungsform: | Präsentation |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Jahr der Erstveröffentlichung: | 2025 |
| Organisationseinheit der BAM: | 2 Prozess- und Anlagensicherheit |
| 2 Prozess- und Anlagensicherheit / 2.2 Prozesssimulation | |
| DDC-Klassifikation: | Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / Chemische Verfahrenstechnik / Chemische Verfahrenstechnik |
| Freie Schlagwörter: | BPMN; DEXPI; Data Modeling; Digitalization; Process Design |
| Themenfelder/Aktivitätsfelder der BAM: | Chemie und Prozesstechnik |
| Chemie und Prozesstechnik / Anlagensicherheit und Prozesssimulation | |
| Veranstaltung: | 35th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering (ESCAPE) |
| Veranstaltungsort: | Ghent, Belgium |
| Beginndatum der Veranstaltung: | 06.07.2025 |
| Enddatum der Veranstaltung: | 09.07.2025 |
| Verfügbarkeit des Dokuments: | Datei im Netzwerk der BAM verfügbar ("Closed Access") |
| Datum der Freischaltung: | 13.01.2026 |
| Referierte Publikation: | Nein |

