Fundamentals of Process Simulation for Beginners

Gain the practical skills and knowledge to begin modeling new and existing processes

Learn some practical techniques for building and troubleshooting flowsheet simulations

Gain the practical skills and knowledge to begin modeling new and existing processes

Learn some practical techniques for building and troubleshooting flowsheet simulations



A background in chemical engineering or industrial chemistry

Best Practices in Simulation

We will discuss the best practices in developing a simulation case whether it be a simple material balance recycle (or) one with columns. Making use simple shortcut column can help one understand the needs of designing a rigorous distillation or refining column. An approach to building a big flowsheet one step at a time with solution at every step instead of having the entire plant flow diagram built in one simulation exercise, will be discussed.

Recycle and Convergence criteria in a process flowsheet

Recycles are always a part of any process simulation (small or big process). It can be a material recycle, or a heat recycle via cross-exchanging heat from products to feed. Details of a component trapping example and how it can be resolved by appropriate process decisions. In this example, we will discuss the importance of initial guesses in tear streams, control of convergence tolerances, number of iterations, etc. using available methods. An example of a recycle due to columns contacting & stripping sour gases via a solvent will be discussed as well. 

TEG Dehydration Case Studies

TEG Dehydration is frequently practiced preventing the precipitation of water from gases when they are cooled the dew point is a more direct indication of the dehydration effectiveness than the absolute water content. We will discuss case studies to study the TEG composition in recirculation and its effect on water content in dry gas when all other flowsheet specifications are fixed. 

Troubleshooting Distillation Column

Usually, column convergence can be separated into operating specifications related or column hydraulics (insufficient contacting fluid per tray or column internals). High pressure drops, low product purity, insufficient reflux, low boil up (reboiler duty insufficient), fouling, etc. A specific column case of propane/propylene splitter will be discussed. We will limit our discussion to column Operating Specifications since Hydraulics require plant specific data on trays or packed column (collapsed tray, packed column internals fouling, tray/distributor plugging difficulties, etc.)



Email nala.training@aspentech.com if you have any questions.

Aspen Technology, Inc. awards Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for training classes conducted by our organization. One CEU is granted for every 10 hours of class participation.