‘Expert workforce necessary for introducing AI to petchem industry’

University professor Mohammad Fakhroleslam believes that introducing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the petrochemical industry will significantly increase production speed and accuracy, however to do so the industry requires expert workforce.
Speaking at a specialized meeting on the sidelines of the 15th Iran Petrochemical Forum (IPF) on Monday, Fakhroleslam said: “The speed and accuracy in the industries will increase significantly with the use of artificial intelligence, which requires expert workforce.”

Noting that artificial intelligence is used in the fourth generation of industrial development to facilitate affairs, he said: “In the fifth generation of the industrial revolution, humans are also involved and human thinking is implemented.”
“For digitalization in the fourth generation of industrial development, there must be a suitable database in industries that processes information and simulates the production unit virtually using available tools,” the scholar added.

According to him, artificial intelligence performs better monitoring in short intervals, based on which appropriate decisions can be made.
The 15th International Forum on Iran’s Petrochemical Industry (IPF) kicked off in Tehran on Sunday.
In the two-day event, which is organized by the National Petrochemical Company (NPC), more than 40 Iranian and foreign speakers, and the representatives of 70 domestic and foreign companies participated.

As NIPNA reported, seven specialized workshops and several business promotion sessions were also held during the forum.
With the slogan of “clean technology”, the international event aimed to discover new horizons in achieving sustainable development in the petrochemical industry with the effective participation and support of the private and public sector.
Also, in the current year’s IPF, this opportunity was provided for some of the companies active in this industry to showcase their capabilities in the form of an exhibition.

Back in July, Head of Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) Morteza Shahmirzaei said the achievements and latest developments of Iran’s petrochemical industry are tried to be presented in the IPF to improve the position of this industry in the world.
He mentioned presenting the achievements of the four continents of the world in the petrochemical industry, improving processes, identifying environmental pollution and avoiding their release in this industry, meaningful cooperation and strengthening of the petrochemical industry and financial institutions, commercial companies and manufacturers, unveiling advanced processes and sharing technological plans and ideas as some of the goals of holding this conference.

According to Shahmirzaei, almost all of the need for petrochemical catalysts in the country is met by domestic producers, and the company is taking final steps to fully indigenize the knowledge for the production of such catalysts.
He has said that the NPC is seriously pursuing the plan for localizing petrochemical industry catalysts.
He further said Iran’s petrochemical industry is moving on the way of progress and growth by relying on its capable infrastructures.
Referring to the government’s strategy of relying on sea-oriented development, Shahmirzaei has said that the petrochemical industry is being expanded across the shores of the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman which will result in diversity in the basket of petrochemical products, economic growth and employment in the area.

Elsewhere in his remarks he said that “we should be determined to move toward providing our needs from within by relying on domestic capabilities, cutting the country’s dependency to foreign-made products.”
He announced that about 550 grades of petrochemical products are being produced inside the country at the moment which by making new investments, the capacity to produce different petrochemical products will grow; consequently, not only will meet domestic needs but increase the potential for exports as well.