Process Simulation
Essentials
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or the simulation examples that you would like to see addressed,
let us know.
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professors, Chemstations can either be a reference or a
repository.
What are we going to cover today?
• What does a process simulator do?
• Best Practices
• Common Mistakes
What does a process simulator do?
• Heat and mass balances around unit operations &
whole processes
• Calculation of what happens with vapor, liquid, solid
in unit operations – cooling, heating, separating or
changing phase
Mass & Energy Balance
What does a process simulator do?
• Heat and mass balances around unit operations &
whole processes
• Calculation of what happens with vapor, liquid, solid
in unit operations – cooling, heating, separating or
changing phase
• Have databanks of
– physical properties of chemicals
– thermodynamic models for vapor-liquid equilibria
– mathematical models for common unit operations
Databank, Equations, Unit Ops
What do engineers do with process
simulators?
• Model existing facilities
– Parts or whole plants
– Troubleshoot issues
– Optimize energy/material use & costs
– Increase throughput
– Study what happens if conditions are different
• Connect to control system for monitoring /
control
• Design new facilities
Best Practices
• Start with good physical property data
• Choose & validate your thermodynamic model
• Build model one step at a time
• Handle recycles with care
Start with good physical property data
Which heat capacity curve is correct?
Heat capacity: experimental vs predicted
55
50
45
Cp (Btu / lbmol*dF)
40
CP A
CP B
35
30
25
20
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Temperature (dF)
How to determine if properties are good
• Operational data is great
• Pilot plant data is good
• Lab data is ok
• Literature data is… sometimes not bad
• Predicted data is…brave
Learn how to choose thermodynamics
How do you choose your thermo model?
• Experience with thermo is necessary
• Articles / books can teach you basics
• Compare to data for important
systems
Validate your thermodynamic model
• Inspect TPxy diagrams
• Run some flash calculations & inspect
results
• Have a qualitative idea of what the phase
separation will look like
Learn how to read Txy, Pxy, Txx, xy diagrams
One step at a time!
Start simple
1 2
1
Add piece-by-piece & converge at each step
Handle recycles with care
Calculations get more complicated
Put in a good initial estimate
Specify this flow rate to stabilize calculations!
Let the simulator calculate this flowrate
Start off with loop open to get estimate
Common Mistakes
• Matching plant data
– How accurate are the measuring devices? Last
calibrated?
– Were all measurements taken at same steady
state conditions?
– Are you ignoring trace chemicals?
– Neglecting to examine different conditions
(cooling water can average 90˚F in Houston
summer)
Other Common Mistakes
• Simulators get played like a video game
– Converged doesn’t mean correct
• Understand your process before modeling
– If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll get the
wrong answer
• These are tools; you are the engineer
– Garbage in = garbage out
– Use engineering judgment, not necessarily default
options
Takeaways from today
• Process simulators are powerful tools to help
make it easier to solve a wide range of
engineering problems
• You will encounter these tools when you
graduate & should get familiar with them
• Like any tool, it’s important to know how to
properly use it to get the best results
Learn more!
• Use a simulator to revisit homework problems!
• Find a mentor! Find examples!
• Learn Tpxy plots…applied thermodynamics…
• Read a book!
– Edwards, _Chemical Engineering in Practice_, kindle
edition.
– Seider, Lewin, _Product and Process Design
Principles_
– Kaes, _Refinery Process Modeling_
• Read a magazine article!
