(444d) Design and Quick Prototyping of Unit Operation Models Using Generic Engineering Tools and CAPE-OPEN

Steady-state flowsheeting is widely used as a design and analysis tool in chemical process engineering. In flowsheeting environments, various unit operation models are coupled together in order to close mass and energy balances. Existing simulation environments typically come with a built-in set of generic unit operation models. For many purposes, more specialized unit operation models are required.

This presentation will show how generic engineering tools, like Matlab, SciLab and Excel, can be used to design prototype process models. To this extent, thermodynamic subroutines are required like those that are available in simulation environments. Via CAPE-OPEN it is possible to extend the generic engineering tools with third party thermodynamic engines.

Once the unit operation models have been created, validation and integration into process models is the next step. The generic engineering tools offer a way to quickly prototype the process models as CAPE-OPEN unit operations, that can be used inside CAPE-OPEN aware process simulation environments.