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Aspen Custom Modeler - A utility to permit the creation of user unit operations. Aspen Distil - Aspen's 'Conceptual Engineering Product' for planning for processing schemes. Runs independent of Aspen Plus. Aspen Dynamics - Unsteady-state simulator. Aspen Plus - Steady-state process simulator. Aspen Properties - Modeling of properties and phase equilbria. Incorporated into most other components, though it can be run as a stand-alone subset. All of the phase equilbria and mixture property methods discussed on this site are accessible in either Aspen Plus or Aspen Properties. Aspen Polymers - Modeling of polymerization reactors and polymer thermodynamics. This package is available within Aspen Plus or Aspen Properties rather than via an external menu. Normally undergraduate student projects will involve Aspen Plus or Aspen Properties . To start either of these packages, be sure to look for the corresponding User Interface on the start menu.
Figure 3.1 Column and Stream menu. For the ethanol + water system, the short-cut will not be appropriate since the system has an azeotrope. Choose 'RadFrac'. Click on the small arrow on the right side of 'RadFrac' to select the column icon that you want to use on the PFD. The menu will disappear; move the crosshairs to the desired location on the main flowsheet window and click the mouse button. Next you have to add streams to the block. Click on the small arrow to the right of the STREAMS button at the lower left corner of your screen (as shown in Figure 3.1), and choose the stream icon you want from the menu (material, energy or work). For this example, set up the feed stream: choose the Material stream by clicking on it. The column will now show arrows where the stream can be connected; red arrows indicate required streams as shown in Figure 3.2
To set up the feed stream to the column, move the crosshair on top of the red feed position and left click once. Now, move the mouse to the left and click again. You should now have a defined feed stream (Stream 1). For the outlet streams click the column outlet first to connect the bottoms (Stream 2) and liquid distillate (Stream 3). If you make a mistake and want to delete a stream or block, click on the arrow (select) button at the upper left of the Model Library toolbar, then click on the stream or block you want to delete and hit the DELETE key.
Figure 3.3 Column after connection of material streams. Now that you have defined the unit operations to be simulated and set up the streams into and out of the process, you must enter the rest of the information required to complete the simulation. Within Aspen Plus, the easiest way to find the next step is to use one of the following equivalent commands: (1) click the Next icon (blue N ->); (2) find 'Next' in the Tools menu; or (3) use keyboard shortcut F4. Any option will open the Data Browser.
You can browse the unit sets to see the choices. The base 'unit-set' names shown above are reserved names and you cannot modify them. However, if you right-click on a unit set, you can rename it and then modify it. Once you have viewed the units you can specify the choice by using the drop down boxes.
If you are running Aspen Plus, you may wish to have stream results summarized with mole fractions or some other basis that is not set by default. Use the 'Report Options' as shown below.
5. Specifying Components
Here you have to enter all the components you are using in the simulation. The opening screen is shown below.
The Process Type will narrow down the choices for thermodynamic methods. Often for undergraduate design, Chemical will provide a wide range of methods. However to access the van Laar model, you must select 'all'. The Base method will specify the default calculation method for all blocks though you can control which method is used in individual blocks by editing the setup for the individual blocks. You will generally not use Henry Components or Free water. For the example here, select UNIQUAC, a wellaccepted model for non-ideal multicomponent liquid mixtures at low pressure.
By clicking the N-> button, you will be shown the binary parameters as shown in the screenshot below. When you close the window or click 'Next', you have provided approval of the values, and you will receive no further prompting for parameter values. If parameters are blank, zeros will be used. This does not imply that the ideal mixture assumption will be used because many models predict non-ideal behavior with parameter values of zero.
This section applies to Apsen Plus; if you are working with Aspen Properties, skip to the Section 8. Click on 'Next'. Stream specifications will appear. You must choose the stream composition, flow rate, and state for feed streams. The state is specified by pressure, temperature, and vapor fraction. For this example, for the feed stream (1) choose a pressure of 1 atm and a temperature of 25 oC. Now enter the component molar flow rates as 20 kmol/hr for EtOH and 980 kmol/hr for water. (If you enter feed composition as mole fractions, you also have to specify the total flow rate.)
Click on Next. The block (RadFrac) setup will appear. For this rigorous simulation, you must specify the column configuration. Enter the number of stages as 33 and specify total condenser. In the 'Operating Specifications' section, set the distillate flow rate to 23 kmol/hr, and set the boilup rate at 1500 kmol/hr as shown below.
Hit 'Next' and the 'Stream' page appears. Locate the feed stream (1) on stage 17. Hit 'Next' to get to the 'Pressure' page. Specify the 'Stage 1/Condenser' pressure as 1 atm. By leaving the other sections of the pressure page alone, pressure drop through the column will be ignored in this calculation.
In a complex simulation, it is sometime more convenient to work with the PFD to find results. Right-click on a block or stream for a short-cut menu to results. You can bring up compiled reports by going to the 'View' menu and clicking on the desired information. The information in the reports is controlled somewhat by the report options introduced in Section 4.
You can plot the column profiles using "Plot>Plot Wizard...". For compositions, choose the composition tool, specify liquid mole fractions. The analysis below shows that there may be more stripping stages than necessary for the given column 33 stages, flowrates, reflux and boilup. Naturally, compositions at the top of the column are limited by the azeotrope.
8.2 Calculating Pure Properties, Binary Phase Behavior or Ternary Residue Curves
Once all data has been loaded, you may use Tools -> Analysis -> Pure or Tools -> Analysis -> Binary or Tools -> Analysis -> Residue to evaluate properties.
For example, after setting up a acetic acid + water system to use the Hayden-OConnell method for vapor fugacities and the UNIQUAC method for liquid properties, a T-x-y diagram can be quickly generated using Tools -> Analysis -> Binary. Be sure to edit the Valid phases box if you expect there may be VLL equilibria. (Do not use Free Water unless you can safely assume that an aqueous liquid phase is pure water. This assumption can sometimes be used in petroleum processing of hydrocarbons, but is not valid for most functional organics).
When you close the diagram you will find the table with some intermediate calculations. If you would like to get the values into Excel, drag the mouse over the columns, and copy. Then paste into Excel. Here is another example for methanol + benzene.
Click 'New...' Give the 'Property Set' a name that will help you remember the calculated properties. In this example the property set is called 'PHIMIX'. On the 'Properties' tab, select the APSEN name for the property that you want to tabulate. You will probably need to consult the documentation to find the ASPEN name for the property. In this case, I will select 'PHIMX', the ASPEN name for the component fugacity coefficient in a mixture. Enter the units if appropriate for your property.
On the 'Qualifiers' tab, set the other details for the calculation. In the case of fugacity coefficients, I chose to calculate them for the vapor phase.
To instruct ASPEN how to use the property set, you next specify the analysis to be performed.
On the 'Systems' tab, if you intend to specify the temperature and pressure, specify 'Point(s) without a flash'. It will be necessary to set the flow rates even though there isn't any real process stream. If not necessary for the calculation, ASPEN will ignore them.
On the 'Tabulate' tab, specify the Property Sets for the analysis, and move them to the right list box:
For summary of the output, click the button on the page for 'Table specifications' and give the table a name and specify the precision desired, as shown below.
On the variable tab of the 'Property Analysis' set, you will specify the fixed state variables and the adjusted variables as shown below. Note that the upper section of the form is for the Fixed state variables, in this case set to be 120C and 1 atm. The lower table has been edited to vary the mole fraction of acetic acid. Before leaving the form, the values or range for the adjusted variables must be specified. To provide this information, first put the cursor in the variable field (e.g. the variable 'Mole fraction' is selected below), and then click the form button named 'Range/List' to specify the range/list for that variable.
Specify the the Range or List of Values to be varied as shown below. Here the range will be from 0 to 1 at intervals of 0.05.
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