Syngenta Plant Digital Twin
NSF FUEL Use-Inspired Research and Development Award, 2025–26
Syngenta operates a key production site in St. Gabriel, Louisiana. Through the NSF-funded FUEL program, our LSU team is transforming how digital twins are created for chemical processing facilities. Derick Ostrenko and I lead the effort with engineering advisor David Ben Spry, supported by a use-inspired research and development award from FUEL.
Traditional digital twins require costly hardware, proprietary software, and engineering-intensive workflows. Our approach begins with a phone scan and ends with a virtual replica carrying informational overlays that show current status and changes in real time. Creative tools from the entertainment industry drive the pipeline.
The result lowers the cost of entry for an entire industrial sector. Louisiana's chemical corridor becomes a proving ground for accessible digital twin technology.