The application of thermodynamics in the petrochemical industry has become increasingly "tool-driven". Like in other companies, in Shell an army of process engineers uses process simulation programs in order to carry out designs or operations in various phases of a project. These process engineers are not primarily trained in thermodynamics, so they need reliable tools with good defaults but also strong support from a team of in-house experts. This team provides guidance, teaches awareness courses and carries out validation studies and if needed develops parameters and procedures where they are missing. For this purpose, comprehensive databases of published and in-house experimental data such as DDB, TRC and DIPPR are used. The team also interacts and collaborates with the vendors of the simulation software in order to improve the products. The general philosophy is to use standard and proven methods, such as the Peng Robinson equation of state with appropriate property replacement methods to overcome shortcomings. Whenever and as long as a true gap exists, replacement methods are developed in-house or through collaborations and, where possible, made available in the simulator through standard interfaces. An example of that is the CPA equation of state. The approach is illustrated by a number of selected technical topics related to different processes taken from the example of surface processing: fluid characterization, water issues such as gas dehydration and hydrate inhibition, amine gas treating and solid formation. This paper accompanies an invited presentation delivered at the ProcessNet Working Party Molecular Modelling and Simulation for Industrial Applications: Physico-Chemical Properties and Processes, organized by the European Federation of Chemical Engineers in spring 2010 at Wurzburg, Germany. The audience consisted mainly of thermodynamic experts from both industry and academia. The goal of the working party was to exchange information between these groups. This particular contribution gives an impression of how the results of academic research are used in practice and may give some leads for new or improved development. It is however just a personal view of one such experts working in a large company and does not pretend to cover the entire field or industry. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.