Fluent Announces Alliance with KBC Advanced Technologies Inc.

February 23, 2006, Lebanon, NH, USA

Fluent Inc., the world leader in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software and services, today announces that it has teamed with KBC Advanced Technologies Inc. to provide high end engineering solutions to oil refineries and petrochemical manufacturers. Joint service offerings will focus on improving unit operating performance, reducing operating costs, increasing system reliability, safety enhancement, and pollution reduction.

“We’re excited about this partnership,” said Dave Schowalter, Lead Engineer for Energy at Fluent. “By teaming KBC’s 25 years of experience optimizing unit and refining processes with Fluent’s 25 years of advanced flow simulation, we’re able to help refineries increase processing efficiency by visualizing what is going wrong with their units, then proposing, proving, and providing real engineering solutions.”

“Using Fluent’s CFD program we were able to perform a low cost redesign of the inlet distributor and feed collector piping for a hydrotreater reactor allowing us to dramatically increase catalyst loading and catalyst contacting, while preventing bed channeling” said Rob Tufts, a Principal Consultant for KBC.

Addressing rapidly increasing demand for transport fuels and other crude oil derivatives, environmental restrictions calling for low sulfur fuels, emission limits on refineries, and the fact new oil refineries have not been built in the United States for more than 20 years, KBC and Fluent are uniquely positioned to address a wide range of challenges faced by refiners. The companies are helping refiners find new ways to fully utilize and improve yields, reduce risk and increase the throughput of existing processing units. KBC and Fluent have created a methodology for identifying vulnerable components within refineries and have already worked with several refiners and identified many problem areas, thereby reducing the risk of accident, injury to workers and otherwise costly failures.

Erosion prediction was one of the early targets of the partnership, while another area was unit operation trouble shooting and hydrotreater reactor optimization. Other applications being addressed by the partnership include eliminating bottlenecking in fired heaters, improving fractionation in distillation towers, and improving the operation of separation systems.

About Fluent

Fluent is the world's largest provider of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software and consulting services. Fluent's software is used for simulation, visualization, and analysis of fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, and chemical reactions. It is a vital part of the computer-aided engineering (CAE) process for companies around the world and is deployed in nearly every manufacturing industry. Using Fluent's software, engineers build virtual prototypes and simulate the performance of proposed and existing designs, allowing them to improve design quality while reducing cost and speeding time to market. Fluent's corporate headquarters are located in Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA, with offices in Belgium, England, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, China and Sweden. Its CFD software is also available around the world through joint ventures, partnerships, and distributors in Korea, Australia, Brazil, China, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Middle East, and most European countries.

FLUENT® is registered trademark of Fluent Inc.

For general inquiries contact:

Elaine Lascher, Fluent Inc., 10 Cavendish Court, Lebanon, NH 03766, (603) 643-2600 Ext. 622, ebl@fluent.com

About KBC:

KBC Advanced Technologies Inc., a leading independent process engineering consultancy, delivers improved profitability through consulting services and practical solutions to owners and operators in the oil refining, petrochemical and processing industries worldwide. KBC provides process consulting, strategic planning advice, petroleum and chemical price forecasting, economic studies, and capital project reviews to help clients find the most cost-effective way to achieve their short- and long-term objectives. KBC analyzes plant operations and management systems, recommends changes for material and measurable improvements in profitability, and provides implementation services to assist clients in realizing these improvements. In carrying out this work, KBC makes extensive use of its proprietary refinery-wide simulation and process modeling technology. Formed in 1979, KBC has principal offices in the UK, USA, Singapore, Japan, Russia, and the Netherlands.

Contacts for KBC Advanced Technologies Inc.

Tamra Daniels, KBC Advanced Technolgies Inc., 14701 St Mary’s Lane, Houston, TX 77079, Tel: (281) 293-8200, tdaniels@kbcat.com