LOTUS STHE — Design Exploration Layer

Discover which heat exchanger designs are worth validating.

HTRI and Aspen rate a single design. LOTUS generates, optimizes, and ranks dozens of feasible shell-and-tube alternatives — so you always validate the right one.

Request a Pilot Evaluation See how it integrates with HTRI/Aspen
60-day controlled pilot on your historical designs. No commitment.
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Field-to-Code Calibration

Validated by Steel,
Not Just Theory.

Laboratory correlations often fail in real-world refinery and petrochemical environments. The LOTUS deterministic engine is built on a continuous feedback loop from over a thousand commissioned shell-and-tube heat exchangers. We don't just calculate; we learn from operational reality.

1,000+
Operating Heat Exchangers

Real-World Fouling & Vibration Calibration. Our corrections for fouling resistance and flow-induced vibration reflect real operational degradation, not ideal lab conditions.

Crude Overhead Condensers FCCU Slurry Coolers High-Pressure Reboilers
10,000+
Design Iterations

Solver Robustness & Edge-Case Convergence. Stress-tested on unique configurations from 16 MPa pressures to multi-component phase changes. No "broken" physics at TEMA/ASME limits.

STRESS-TESTED SOLVER V.4.2
20+ Years
Thermal Design Heritage

Expert System Logic. The LOTUS Decision Grid digitizes decades of engineering intuition, converting "gut feeling" into rigorous mathematical constraints for variant generation.

Interface Preview

Continuous Field-to-Code Calibration Loop

Every LOTUS calculation is governed by rules forged in the field. When you explore few variants in our Decision Grid, you aren't seeing "mathematically possible" guesses—you're seeing designs that have already survived the reality of steel and steam.

Step 01
Field Data & Operating Params
Step 02
Correlation Tuning & Error Analysis
Step 03
LOTUS Engine Update
Built on 20+ years
Thermal design expertise
TEMA-compliant
Transparent correlations
Deterministic engine
Not a black box
Enterprise deployment
SaaS · Private Cloud · On-Prem

Decision Grid Workflow

Explore variants at scale — without losing engineering control.

LOTUS STHE is built around a Decision Grid: a fast, structured way to compare many feasible shell-and-tube designs and rank them by what actually matters (CAPEX, weight, margin, pressure drop, and constraints).

The practical advantage

You can check one design across many operating modes (multi-case) — or compare many designs on one operating mode (multi-variant) — in the same workflow.

Competing tools typically rate one design at a time, which makes exploration expensive and slow. LOTUS makes exploration the default.

Think of it as
1 design
× many operating modes
Validate robustness across summer/winter, turndown, fouling scenarios, and revamps.
many designs
× 1 operating mode
Generate a shortlist fast, then send only the best candidates to HTRI/Aspen for final rating.
Request a Pilot Evaluation See workflow integration
Interface

Decision Grid in action

LOTUS STHE Decision Grid — screenshot 1
Fast variant organization and filtering.
LOTUS STHE Decision Grid — screenshot 2
Compare many designs on the same duty.
LOTUS STHE Decision Grid — screenshot 3
Run one design across multiple operating modes.
LOTUS STHE Decision Grid — screenshot 4
Rank outcomes by engineering and business KPIs.
Typical workflow
One design → one rating
  • •Iteration is manual and slow
  • •Exploration stops after 2–3 variants
  • •HTRI/Aspen used on “guesses”
With LOTUS STHE
Many designs × many modes
  • •Variant generation and ranking built-in
  • •Shortlist the best candidates before final verification
  • •Exploration becomes fast, repeatable, and auditable
The Challenge

The problem isn't calculating one design.
It's finding the right one to calculate.

Shell-and-tube design today means hours of manual iteration across competing parameters: CAPEX, weight, pressure drop, thermal margin, fouling tolerance, and fabrication cost.

"Most engineers stop exploring after 2–3 variants — not because better options don't exist, but because they don't have time to find them."

LOTUS changes the economics of design exploration.

Target Segments

Built for teams that design heat exchangers every day.

For Manufacturers

Process more RFQs.
Win more tenders.

Turn one engineer into the capacity of three. LOTUS generates design alternatives fast enough to respond to every RFQ — with optimized material cost and fabrication time.

See manufacturer pilot results
For EPC Firms

Explore more.
Commit less.

Generate 50+ feasible alternatives per project. Compare on CAPEX, weight, and thermal margin before sending the top candidates to HTRI for final rating.

See EPC workflow integration
For Independent Engineers

Professional capability.
Without complexity.

Thermal-hydraulic design power that used to require HTRI membership — accessible via cloud, with no installation and no annual lock-in.

Start with a single project

Workflow Integration

LOTUS fits into your existing workflow — not replaces it.

The Complete Engineering Workflow

Step 1
Process Requirements

Your datasheets, fluids, operating conditions.

Step 2 · Design Exploration
LOTUS

Generates 50+ feasible alternatives in minutes. Ranks by CAPEX, weight, and margin.

Step 3
Option Selection

You pick the top 3–5 candidates based on project priorities.

Step 4 · Final Verification
HTRI / Aspen EDR

Your existing tools rate the selected designs per standard practice.

Step 5
Deliverable

Optimal, verified design — with full audit trail.

Your workflow today
With LOTUS
2–3 manual variants explored
50+ variants generated
Days of iteration
Hours of exploration
Sub-optimal by default
Pareto-optimal by design
✕ HTRI rating on a guess
✓ HTRI rating on a shortlist
Ready to upgrade your design layer?

Run a trial on your next project and see the shortlist for yourself.

Request a Pilot Evaluation

Capabilities

What LOTUS does today — and what's coming.

Available Now

Thermal-Hydraulic Design Engine

  • Temperature range: -70°C to 650°C
  • Pressure: up to 16 MPa (gauge)
  • Shell diameter: 159 to 3200 mm
  • Full TEMA configuration support
  • Horizontal and vertical orientations
  • Single-phase and phase-change services
  • Transparent property packages
  • API access for workflow integration

Roadmap — Q1 2027

Mass-Dimensional Module

Weight estimation, dimensional sketches, and material takeoff for early-stage cost modeling.

Mass-dimensional preview
In Development

Roadmap — Q2 2027

Automated Documentation Pipeline

  • General arrangement drawings (PDF/DWG/DXF)
  • Automatic Bill of Materials
  • ASME Section VIII Division 1 strength reports (UG-27, UHX-3, UG-45, UG-44)

Pilot Note

Need mechanical compliance now? Our pilot program includes manual verification of your top designs until the automated module ships.

Business Impact

Measurable engineering outcomes

Engineer-hours saved per RFQ

Reduce thermal design time from days to hours. One engineer processes the volume that used to require a team.

→ How we measure it

Tender Throughput

Win more bids without growing headcount. Respond to every RFQ with a fully explored design space — not a single rushed variant.

Material & Fabrication Cost

Optimize tube count, shell diameter, and weight within your constraints. Direct impact on equipment COGS and gross margin.

Thermal Margin Confidence

See the full Pareto frontier. Know exactly what you're trading off when you pick a design — not guessing what might have been better.

Deployment Flexibility

SaaS for quick evaluation, Private Cloud for data residency, or On-Premise for classified projects. You choose where your process data lives.

Methodology Transparency

No black box. Every correlation, assumption, and margin is documented and auditable. Your chief engineer can sign off with confidence.

Trust & Validation

Built to earn an engineer's signature.

How we validate

Every LOTUS calculation is benchmarked against:

  • Published HTRI/HTFS reference cases
  • TEMA standard test configurations
  • Independent EPC validation datasets
Read our validation methodology (PDF)

No Black Box

Our thermal-hydraulic engine uses documented, peer-reviewed correlations. Every coefficient, correction factor, and applicability limit is cited in the output report.

View sample correlation references

Prove it on your designs

We don't ask you to trust our benchmarks. Bring 20–30 of your completed designs. We re-run them in LOTUS, side-by-side with your existing workflow, on your KPIs.

Request a pilot

Engineering Advisory Board

Our methodology is reviewed by senior thermal engineers with 20+ years in refinery, petrochemical, and power plant services. We ensure every calculation aligns with global industrial standards.

Peer-reviewed methodology

Pilot Program

Start with a pilot evaluation.

Bring 20–30 of your historical designs. We'll re-run them in LOTUS and deliver a side-by-side comparison on your engineering KPIs — within 60 days.

No credit card. No commitment. Evaluate the technology risk-free on your own data.
Confidential by design. Your designs stay confidential under mutual NDA executed before any data exchange.
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