SIMULATION & PROCESS

SIMULATION
LECTURE # 1

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND
TECHNOLOGY LAHORE
Course Contents
Introduction to process Simulation
Degree of freedom analysis
Thermodynamics packages and equation of state in HYSYS
Steady state mixer simulation for material balance
Steady state heater simulation for enthalpy change calculation
Steady state simulation of shell and tube heat exchanger
Phase envelop, 2-phase and 3-phase separator
Steady state simulation of sour gas sweetening by amine absorber
Specifying reaction types and reaction in HYSYS
Steady state simulation of synthesis gas generation by steam
reforming.
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Process Equipment
Material and energy balance
Fluid motive machinery
Cooling towers
Heat transfer equipment
Process plant diagram
Instrumentation and control

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Synopsis
What is Simulation?
Uses of Simulation
Classification of Simulation
Computer Simulation
Process Simulation
Process Simulation Techniques
Degree of Freedom
Simulation software for Chemical
Engineering
Simulation modes
HYSYS: Environment
Building a PFD in HYSYS

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Objective
This course will enable you to use the simulation
software for
 Building process flow diagrams
Performing material and energy balance
 Designing complex equipment
Studying the effect of changes in process
conditions
 Understanding the equilibrium and steady state
 Solving REAL-TIME steady state and unsteady
state Problems

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Simulation
A situation in which a
particular set of conditions is
created artificially in order to
study or experience something
that could exist in reality.
The act of pretending that
something is real when it is
not.
Simulation is the imitation of
some real thing, state of
affairs, or process.

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Uses of Simulation
Simulation is used in many
contexts, including
The modeling of natural
systems or human systems in
order to gain insight into their
functioning. 
Simulation of technology for
performance optimization
safety
engineering, testing, training a
nd education. 

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Simulation is often used in
the training of civilian and
military personnel. This
usually occurs when it is
prohibitively expensive or
simply too dangerous to
allow trainees to use the
real equipment in the real
world.

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Classification
Physical simulation: refers to
simulation in which physical objects
are substituted for the real thing .
Interactive simulation: is a special
kind of physical simulation, often
referred to as a human in the
loop simulation, in which physical
simulations include human
operators, such as in a flight
simulator or a driving simulator.

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Driving Simulators are used
for entertainment as well as
in training of driver's education
courses taught in educational
institutions and private businesses.
 To monitor driver behavior,
performance, and attention and in
the car industry to design and
evaluate new vehicles or new
advanced driver assistance systems
(ADAS).

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Computer simulation
A computer simulation (or
"sim") is an attempt to model
a real-life or hypothetical
situation on a computer so
that it can be studied to see
how the system works.

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Improving Patient Safety through
New Innovations
Medical simulators are increasingly
being developed.
Patient safety is a concern in the
medical industry. Patients have been
known to suffer injuries and even
death due to management error.
New innovative simulation training
solutions are now being used to train
medical professionals in an attempt to
reduce the number of safety concerns
that have adverse effects on the
patients.
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Simulation and Manufacturing
Manufacturing represents one of
the most important applications
of Simulation. This technique
represents a valuable tool used
by engineers when evaluating
the effect of capital investment
in equipments and physical
facilities .Simulation can be used
to predict the performance of an
existing or planned system and
to compare alternative solutions
for a particular design problem .

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Flight Simulation & Marine Simulation
Flight Simulation Training
Devices (FSTD): are used to
train pilots on the ground.
Bearing resemblance to
flight simulators, marine
simulators train ships'
personnel.

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Process simulation
Process simulation: is used
for the design, development,
analysis, and optimization of
technical processes and is
mainly applied to chemical
plants and chemical processes,
but also to power stations, and
similar technical facilities.

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Main Principle of Process Simulation
Process simulation is a model-based representation
of chemical, physical, biological, and other technical
processes and unit operations in software. Basic
prerequisites are a thorough knowledge of chemical and
physical properties of pure components and mixtures, of
reactions, and of mathematical models which, in
combination, allow the calculation of a process in
computers.

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Process simulation software describes processes
in flow diagrams where unit operations are
positioned and connected by product or educt
streams. The software has to solve the mass and
energy balance to find a stable operating point. The
goal of a process simulation is to find optimal
conditions for an examined process. This is
essentially an optimization problem which has to
be solved in an iterative process.

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Process Simulation Techniques
Three main techniques are available for process
simulation.
Sequential modular approach
Simultaneously modular approach
Equation oriented approach

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Sequential Modular Approach

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Degree of Freedom
The number of degrees of freedom in a problem,
distribution, etc., is the number of parameters which may
be independently varied.
Mathematically, it is equal to the number of variables in a
system minus the number of independent equations
available to solve the system.

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Degrees of Freedom Analysis
A degrees of freedom analysis must be made before unit
operations can be successfully modeled with a process
simulator.
Fixed Variables:
Existing distillation columns such as in Unit Operations
Laboratory, have variables that are fixed that we cannot
manipulate to alter the output. These variables are for
instance: the height of the column , the number of trays,
the plate efficiency, the tray holdups, the material of the
tower, the thickness of the walls and so on. 

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Independent Variables:
On the other hand there are a number of variables we will have
control over so we can vary the column output depending on
our project goals:
Feed F (that is feed temperature and pressure as well as feed
concentrations and mass flow rate)
Steam flow rate and conditions (thus the re boiler duty Qr in
the simulation)(
Reflux ratio R
Feed plate location
These variables are the ones that are available for planning
experiments on the distillation columns.
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Dependent Variables:
With the fixed and independent variables defined for
HYSYS, we can now ask HYSYS to solve for not only the
exit concentrations at the top and the bottom of the column
but also all variables in the column.  HYSYS will allow us to
adjust any of these independent variables to either
maximize or minimize the product component
concentrations. 

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DOF Analysis: Ammonia Synthesis
Statement:
A gas mixture of H2 and N2 is fed to a reactor, where they
react to form NH3. the N2 flow rate into the reactor is
150gmol/h and the hydrogen is fed at a ratio of 4 gmol H 2
per gmol N2. the balanced chemical equation is,
N2 + 3H2 2NH 3
Of the N2 fed to the reactor, 30% leaves in the reactor outlet
stream; the rest is consumed by reaction. The reactor
operates at steady state. Determine the DOF.

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Solution

H H
N
N A

N2 + 3H2 2NH 3

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As ,
DOF = # of independent variables - # of independent equations
Count the # of independent variables:

Stream variables 5
System variables 1
Total 6

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Count the # of independent equations:

Specified flows 1
Specified stream 1
compositions
Specified system 1
performance
Material balance equations 3
Total 6

So,
DOF = 6 - 6 = 0
Hence system is completely specified.

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ASSIGNMENT
A researcher places a chip of Al 2O3 in a reactor. Trim methyl
gallium and ammonia are pumped continuously into the
reactor at a 1:1 molar ratio, along with a carrier gas. The
two reactants form GaN, which deposits as an even layer on
the Al2O3chip, and methane which is swept out of the
reactor continuously by the carrier gas. The balance
chemical equation is,
T+A G+M
Is this problem completely specified?

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Simulation Software for
Chemical Engineering
This is a list of software used to simulate the material and
energy balances of chemical processing plants.
ChemCAD
HYSYS
Aspen Plus

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Simulation Modes
Steady state mode
Dynamics Mode

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Steady-State Mode
Initially process simulation was used to simulate
steady state processes. Steady-state models
perform a mass and energy balance of a stationary
process (a process in an equilibrium state) but any
changes over time had to be ignored.

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Dynamics Mode
Dynamic simulations require increased calculation
time and are mathematically more complex than a
steady state simulation. It can be seen as a multiply
repeated steady state simulation (based on a fixed
time step) with constantly changing parameters

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HYSYS: Environments
Basis Environment
Oil Environment
 Simulation Environment
Column Environment
 Sizing and Economic Environment

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Building a PFD
Two reactants are mixed together and
heated to carry out a reaction at a high
temperature. The products are cooled
and separated and the un-reacted
bottoms are recycled.

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