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Fundamentals of Process Simulation and Modelling

Aspen Plus & Aspen HYSYS
“The first ever made simplest, most complete and
dynamic guidance package”

Authored by
Eng. Moosa Naseer

Department of Chemical Engineering

University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore

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 Table of Contents
Topic Name Page No.
1. Brief history of computer simulation ……………………………………………………… 6
2. Introduction to process simulation and modelling………………………………………... 10

• Bridge between modelling and simulation…………………………………………… 11

• Simulation Fidelity …………………………………………………………………... 11
• Types of modelling for chemical engineers…………………………………………... 11
2. Introduction to ASPEN HYSYS

• Starting the ASPEN HYSYS……………………………………………………………13

• Demonstration of Workspace …………………………………………………………. 13
• Adding the components……………………………………………………………….. 14
• Petroleum Assay……………………………………………………………………… 15
• Fluid packages in ASPEN HYSYS…………………………………………………… 16
• Understanding the reaction sets ………………………………………………………. 19
• Types of reaction sets ………………………………………………………………… .21
• General Information on reactions……………………………………………………… 24
• How to manage reaction sets for a process? ………………………………………….. 25
• Simulation Workspace ………………………………………………………………… 30
• Case study setup……………………………………………………………………….. 45
• Data fits ……………………………………………………………………………….. 48
• Safety Analysis………………………………………………………………………… 49
• Working with Safety Analysis Environment…………………………………………. 50
• Energy Analysis ………………………………………………………………………. 55
• Working with Energy Analysis Environment…………………………………………. 57
• Running the simulation and analyzing the results……………………………………... 60
• Equipment Models in HYSYS and their application……………………………………61
3. Introduction to ASPEN PLUS

• Starting the ASPEN PLUS…………………………………………………………….. 65

• Adding components to ASPEN PLUS………………………………………………… 67
• Creating a Petroleum assay or blend ………………………………………………….. 69
• Workspace overview…………………………………………………………………... 74
• Stream types in Aspen plus……………………………………………………………. 77
• PSD Management overview…………………………………………………………… 80
• Property Sets in ASPEN PLUS………………………………………………………. 81
• Qualifiers setup……………………………………………………………………….. 84
• Working with analysis…………………………………………………………………. 86
• Main flowsheet workspace……………………………………………………………...89
• Unit Operations Model Reference………………………………………………………90
• How to use Reactor Models……………………………………………………………. 91
• What is ACM (ASPEN Custom Modeller)…………………………………………….. 92
• Blocks in ASPEN PLUS simulation…………………………………………………… 94
• Getting complete information for input completion of blocks………………………… 95
• Stream’s input management…………………………………………………………… 97

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 • Utility streams and their significance……………………………………………… 99
• How to add utility streams to equipment…………………………………………… 99
• Working with reactions…………………………………………………………….. 101
• Managing catalytic reactions in ASPEN PLUS…………………………………….. 103
• Running a Simulation………………………………………………………………. 105
• Convergence Control……………………………………………………………….. 106
• Model Analysis Tool………………………………………………………………... 108
• Optimization…………………………………………………………………………. 110
• Energy and Safety Analysis (Reference)…………………………………………….. 111
• Cost Analysis (Aspen Help)…………………………………………………………. 111
• Using activated economic analysis…………………………………………………... 113
• Collecting data for completing input for simulation…………………………………. 115
4. Introduction to COMSOL Multiphysics 5.0……………………………………………. 116
5. What includes in physical modelling and simulation…………………………………… 116
6. Using the COMSOL Multiphysics……………………………………………………….. 118

• General Overview…………………………………………………………………… 118

• Geometry Modelling examples…………………………………………………….. 120
• Author’s note……………………………………………………………………….. 122

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[This page is left blank intentionally]

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Abstract:
Process simulation and modelling is the heart of the chemical engineering. As in the reality
world, it is not always possible to build up a plant, give it a try and analyze how much profit it
gives. As, there are many risks involved and a chemical plant specifically stands on a huge
capital investment. So, there always remains a question in the minds of investor’s that which
process is best to give higher return in lesser risks involved. Owing to this problem, the process
simulation and modelling programs are developed by teams of great programmers and
engineers. The basic purpose was to analyze and interpret a process whether chemical or
physical using the programming instead of real-world modelling and analyzing. This saves a
lot of costs and meanwhile, a very less time is required to develop a process and interpret
desired results from it.
In the field of chemical engineering, the two most important software packages that are ruling
the crown of process simulation and modelling are Aspen plus and Aspen HYSYS. Aspen plus
is commonly used for general processes while Aspen HYSYS is used for simulating processes
involving hydrocarbons. However, many tutorials and guides are available for using Aspen
plus and Aspen HYSYS, still there is no general one complete guidance package is available
with complete demonstration of every step. Therefore, with a tedious hardwork and passion,
this guide has been written for step-by-step visuals and complete dynamics flow procedure of
simulating any process with ease. This book is mainly aim to cover all important basics and
solutions for final year project design of all chemical engineering undergrad students. It will
definitely create a simplicity hype of Aspen plus and Aspen HYSYS breaking its hype of being
complex, sophisticated and difficult.

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 Brief history of development of computer simulation
A history of simulation can be written from many perspectives—for example, uses of
simulation (analysis, training, re-search); types of simulation models (discrete-event,
continuous, combined discrete-continuous); simulation programming languages or
environments (GPSS, SIMSCRIPT, SIMULA, SLAM, Arena, AutoMod, Simio); and
application domains or communities of interest (communications, manufacturing, military,
transportation). Examples of the various perspectives and combinations can be readily found
in the published histories; see Nance (1996), Nance and Sargent (2002), and Hollocks (2006).
We offer this brief treatment from a very informal perspective; the objective is to highlight
people, places, and events that have marked the development of discrete-event and Monte Carlo
simulation. Within this informal perspective, and sometimes anecdotal description, lies a
secondary objective: to motivate others to document their historical contributions or knowledge
so that a comprehensive history can be captured for posterity in places like the Simulation
Archive at North Caro-lina State University . .
www.lib.ncsu.edu/specialcollections/manuscripts/simulation>.

2. The Pre-computer era (1777–1945)

The Monte Carlo method is generally considered to have originated with the Buffon “needle
experiment” in 1777. The experiment is to “throw” needles onto a plane with equally spaced
parallel lines in order to estimate the value of π. The reader interested in the details may consult
. Since Buffon’s published solution contained an error that was corrected by Laplace in 1812,
the terminology Buffon-Laplace needle problem is also used; see .
About a century after Laplace’s contribution is the perhaps surprising role played by simulation
in one of the most im-portant applied statistics developments. William Sealy Gosset, trained in
mathematics and chemistry, became a brewer with Arthur Guiness, Son & Co. Ltd., in 1899 at
the age of 23. Guiness allowed Gosset to publish certain major statistical results, provided he
used a pseudonym and no proprietary data was used. These results were published under the
pseudonym “Stu-dent” beginning in 1908 with a paper formulating what is now known as
Student’s t-distribution. Because Gosset had in-complete analytical results, he used a crude
form of manual simulation to verify his conjecture about the exact form of the probability
density function for Student’s t-distribution. This inaugural application of simulation to the
field of industrial process control is a remarkable example of the synergy of simulation-based
experimentation and analytic techniques in the discovery of the exact solution of what is
arguably a classical industrial-engineering problem.

3. The Formulative period (1945–1970)

In the mid-1940s two major developments set the stage for the rapid growth of the field of
simulation:
• The construction of the first general-purpose electronic computers such as the ENIAC (Burks
and Burks 1981); and
• The work of Stanislaw Ulam, John von Neumann, and others to use the Monte Carlo method
on electronic comput-ers in order to solve certain problems in neutron diffusion that arose in

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the design of the hydrogen bomb and that were (and still are) analytically intractable (Cooper
1988).
Ulam’s fondness for card games and his attempts to find a easier way to estimate the
probabilities of certain events in those card games apparently led him to the idea that a “Monte
Carlo” approach to the problems of mathematical physics might be effective. The increasing
availability of general-purpose electronic computers in the 1950s set the stage for the rapid
prolife-ration of simulation techniques and applications in other disciplines.
Keith Douglas Tocher, a professor of operational research at the University of Southampton,
developed the General Simulation Program (GSP), the first general-purpose simulator, as a tool
for systematically building a simulation of an industrial plant that comprises a set of machines,
each cycling through states such as busy, idle, unavailable, and failed. Obviously, the machine
states and the times of the next machine actions collectively define the state of the plant (see
Tocher and Owen 1960). Tocher’s preeminent contributions to simulation include the three-
phase method for timing executives, the first text-book in simulation, The Art of Simulation
(1963), and the wheel chart or activity-cycle diagram (ACD) in 1964. The ACD became a
cornerstone of simulation teaching in the UK and the core of research in program generators
during the 1970s. It is especially noteworthy that Tocher conceived and implemented an
approach to combined simulation (discrete-event and continuous model execution) well before
its appearance in a US simulation language (Tocher and Splaine 1966). We are indebted to
Hollocks (2006) for detailing the contributions of Tocher that led to the establishment of the
K.D. Tocher Award by the Operational Research Society (UK) in 2008.
Geoffrey Gordon joined the Advanced Systems Development Division of IBM in 1960 as
Manager of Simulation Development; and during the period 1960–1961, he introduced the
General Purpose System Simulator, which was later renamed the General Purpose Simulation
System (GPSS). GPSS was designed to facilitate rapid simulation modelling of complex tele-
processing systems involving, for example, urban traffic control, telephone call interception
and switching, airline reservation processing, and steel-mill operations. Gordon focused on a
block diagram interface because he feared that programming might be too great a challenge for
engineers. The ease of use and the software marketing policies of IBM at the time established
GPSS as the most popular instructional simulation language in the US. An in-depth description
of the history of GPSS is provided in Gordon (1981).
Based on FORTRAN, the initial version of SIMSCRIPT in 1963 was intended for users that
were not computer experts and utilized a set of forms for model definition, model initialization,
and report generation. The second generation SIMSCRIPT 1.5 unchained the translation from
FORTRAN and served as a concept and idea generator for SIMSCRIPT II, the most ambitious
language undertaking at that time. SIMSCRIPT II as published was a “layered” language,
defined on five levels. Written in SIMSCRIPT II, the language was intended to have seven
levels, the highest being a language writing “language” (Markowitz 1979, p. 29).
Comprehensive descriptions of SIMSCRIPT are provided in Markowitz (1979) and Nance
(1996).
A major contributor to the development and implementation of SIMSCRIPT II was Philip
Kiviat, who had come from Cornell University to U.S. Steel in 1961 where he developed GASP
(General Activity Simulation Program). Kiviat joined the RAND Corporation in 1963 and
became a major driver in SIMSCRIPT II. Succeeding versions of GASP were developed by

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Alan Pritsker. The role of organizations (places) is emphasized by noting that Pritsker worked
at RAND in the summer of 1969 on a version of GASP based on JOSS. Professor Richard
Conway of Cornell also had a working relationship with RAND during this period.
Along with RAND, IBM, Cornell, and U.S. Steel, the Royal Norwegian Computing Center
was a hotbed of simulation language development. Kristen Nygaard and Ole-Johan Dahl
initiated work on SIMULA in 1961. With strong support from Univac, the two with capable
programming staff created SIMULA I as an extension of ALGOL 60. The resulting evolution
produced arguably the most influential programming language in computing history. A
comprehensive description of the evolution of SIMULA is provided by Nygaard and Dahl
(1981).
The 1967 forerunner of the Winter Simulation Conference (WSC) was the Conference on
Applications of Simulation Using the General Purpose Simulation System, which in
subsequent years was expanded to include papers on any simulation language or any aspect of
simulation applications. WSC is now the premier international forum for disseminating recent
advances in the field of system simulation.
Meanwhile, on the theory side of things, R. W. Conway, B. M. Johnson, and W. L. Maxwell
of Cornell University laid out the central problems of digital simulation in two seminal papers,
Conway et al. (1959) and Conway (1963). These ground breaking authors stated that simulation
problems fall into two broad categories—the construction of a simulation and the use of
simulation.

Early Problems of Simulation Construction:

The problems of simulation model construction include:
• Modular design of simulation programs for easy revision;
• Management of computer memory;
• Control of error arising from the discretization of all continuous quantities that is inherent in
digital simulation;
• Design and implementation of an efficient time-advance mechanism; and
• Management of files containing the simulation’s entities.
Although many of the above problems have been largely resolved, the design and
implementation of an efficient time-advance procedure for handling certain types of events is
still—even to this day—an active area of research and development.
The main problems in using simulation include the strategic problem of designing a simulation
experiment and the following tactical problems on how to run the simulations specified in the
experimental design:
• The start-up problem, i.e., determining when a simulation is in equilibrium (steady state) so
that any transients caused by the simulation’s initial condition have died out;
• Estimating the precision (variance) of simulation-based estimators of steady-state
performance; and

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• Performing precise comparisons of alternative system simulations. In other words, which is
the best of a competing set of alternative systems or system configurations?
For the start-up problem, Conway (1963) proposed the first widely used rule for truncating
(deleting) simulation-generated observations that are contaminated by initialization bias. For
the variance-estimation problem, Conway proposed the method of batch means, which is still
widely used in practice and is the basis for a great deal of ongoing research. For the comparison
problem, Conway (1963) rejected traditional ANOVA methods and proposed the use of
statistical ranking-and-selection procedures, which are now widely used in practice and are the
basis for much ongoing research. The short story is that Con-way showed remarkable insight
into the problems and solution strategies that would shape the next fifty years of simulation
methodology.

4. The expansion period (1970–1981)

During this period, those in the field of simulation developed enhanced modelling tools and
analytical tools. In terms of discrete-event computer simulation modelling languages, we
immediately think of, for instance, Pritkser and Hurst’s development of GASP IV; Kiviat,
Villanueva, and Markowitz’s development of SIMSCRIPT II.5; Pritsker and Pegden’s
development of SLAM; Pegden’s development of SIMAN; Nance’s conical methodology for
object-oriented model development; Schruben’s event graphs; the development of specialty
simulation products for niche markets; and Sargent’s contributions to formal verification and
validation. Some advances with respect to analytical work include, for instance, contributions
to variate generation; contributions to output analysis; developments in input modelling; and
the study of modern optimization techniques.

5. Conclusion
In this brief history of simulation from 1777 to 1981, we have attempted to provide a
perspective on the critical advances in the field and some of the individuals who played leading
roles in those advances.

6. Reference
A brief history of simulation Conference Paper in Proceedings - Winter Simulation
Conference · January 2010 DOI: 10.1109/WSC.2009.5429341 · Source: IEEE Xplore
.

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Introduction to Process Simulation and modelling:
Simulation is used in many contexts, such as simulation of technology for performance
optimization, testing, training, education, and video games. Often, computer experiments are
used to study simulation models. Simulation is also used with scientific modelling of natural
systems or human systems to gain insight into their functioning, as in economics. Simulation
can be used to show the eventual real effects of alternative conditions and courses of action.
Simulation is also used when the real system cannot be engaged, because it may not be
accessible, or it may be dangerous or unacceptable to engage, or it is being designed but not
yet built, or it may simply not exist.
Key issues in simulation include the acquisition of valid source information about the relevant
selection of key characteristics and behaviours, the use of simplifying approximations and
assumptions within the simulation, and fidelity and validity of the simulation outcomes.
Procedures and protocols for model verification and validation are an ongoing field of
academic study, refinement, research and development in simulations technology or practice,
particularly in the field of computer simulation
Before coming towards the major discussion, it is important to understand that pattern of
necessity as been discussed earlier in history section. The development of simulation and
modelling techniques are based on risk assessment of a high-end process. In simple words, the
real-world processes that are difficult for a personal to understand in form of appreciable results
are often simulated. This computer-controlled simulation provides an outlay of what is going
to happen in process as it happens in real world. Thus, it helps a lot to understand any process
and its outcomings in a better way before that process actually executes itself after a reasonable
investment. Worth of money is always a fact and driving force for a person to simulate him to
use simulation before taking any practical step in designing a constraint or operation.
Actually, the word simulation itself have no significant meaning, but its application in world
of advance computing have designated a dignity to the word simulation itself. Simulation
means to automate. Means you do not have to guide or entrain the process by yourself, the only
thing you have to do is to provide sufficient information to the simulation software. That
automate the process and develops a final deduction having accuracy depending on the models
or equations plus parameters used for simulation.
However, as a driver needs a car to drive. And a market needs a product to drive it in a market.
A simulation software needs a model, it is not related anyway to the modelling show where cat
walk takes place. It is actual visual demonstration of the process picture as you can comprehend
with your naked eye. The models are actually available in different forms of various processes
depending upon the end results and products/conditions you want to have for a target process.
This picture tells the story of simulation and modelling process:

Visual demonstration Providing required Simulating the

of Process input to computer process to get
software productive
(Modelling) deductions

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 Fig 1.1 (The general pathway of simulation process)

The bridge between modelling and Simulation:

There is a bridge between the simulation and modelling is filled by “Required input data” which
is designated as completed (Green Go Signal) or insufficient (More data have to put into).
The model is interpreted based on the input data we provided and the modelling equations we
use. A simulation software uses a multiple set of equations for every single model whether it
is a reactor, it is a heat exchanger, it is condenser or a compressor.
For example, in a fluidized bed catalytic reactor design, there will be a single reactor model, as
a picture or a shape. But the input data is converted into desired results by using estimations
based on a kinetic equation. There are many kinetic models are available ‘LANGMUR”
kinetics are very famous. Commonly, beginners having no knowledge about which kinetic
model they should use based on their particular case study. The types of kinetics models and
their use in a particular application will be discussed in later sections.

Mathematical
Visual demonstration Equations/Models,
of Process we use for particular
Simulating the
Providing required calculation
(Modelling) process to get
input to computer productive
software deductions

Fig 1.2 (Corrected pathway of simulation process)

Simulation Fidelity:
It is used to describe the accuracy of a simulation and how closely it imitates the real-life
counterpart. Fidelity is broadly classified as 1 of 3 categories: low, medium, and high. Specific
descriptions of fidelity levels are subject to interpretation but the following generalization can
be made:
• Low – the minimum simulation required for a system to respond to accept inputs and
provide outputs
• Medium – responds automatically to stimuli, with limited accuracy
• High – nearly indistinguishable or as close as possible to the real system

Types of Modelling for a chemical engineer:

• Physical Process Modelling
• Chemical Process Modelling
• Economic Evaluation modelling
• Safety Analysis

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The physical process modelling is based on physics where mathematical models are applied
for simulation to interpret the effects of different types of forces on a prototype/model and
interpreting the results of that forces on the system. Thus, it helps in understanding the real-
world dynamics related problems.
Physical Modelling is commonly used in context of:
• CFD (Computational fluid dynamics)
• Heat transfer modelling
• External/Stress force modelling (Mostly used by Civil engineers)
• Diffusion/mass transfer modelling
Software’s used for physical modelling are diverse, the best are:
• COMSOL Multiphysics 5.4
• ANSYS Fluent
• MathWorks Simulation Software. Software BY The MathWorks, Inc. ...
• FlexSim. Software BY FlexSim Software Products, Inc. ...
• Autodesk simulation software. Software BY Autodesk Inc. ...
• SIMUL8. Software BY SIMUL8 Corporation. ...
• Simio. Software BY Simio. ...
• ANSYS Simulation Software. ...
• Arena Simulation Software.
While chemical process modelling involves the reactions combined with the mass and energy
flow models based on law of conservation of mass and law of conservation of energy.
Chemical process models are best simulated by:
• CHEMCAD 7.0
• ASPEN PLUS
• ASPEN HYSYS
The characteristic features and use of ASPEN PLUS and ASPEN HYSYS will be focused in
this book while other will be discussed on comparison and comprehension basis in this context.

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Introduction to ASPEN HYSYS:
Aspen HYSYS is a state of art hydrocarbons process simulation software developed by Aspen
Tech. This software is commonly used by under-graduate chemical engineering students to
simulate the processes related to their final year project. And thus it provides a basis for design
feasibility in terms of numerical results to interpret whether this process have to be brought
into the application or many improvements are still need in the process to make it economically
feasible.

Starting the ASPEN HYSYS:

First of all, we have to select a case based on our needs/requirements of project study.

All these templates are to be used for a hydrocarbon’s simulation process. The use of a
particular template for a simulation gives important and useful properties sets to begin with
your case i.e. you are designing a reformer, thus, cutting off un-necessary data to look it.

Workspace overview:

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Here, section 1 defines the display of ASPEN HYSYS. Here, you can draw a simulation in
simulation section or you can manage all the properties. All the major part of managing the
simulation process takes place here.
Section 2 defines the Properties panel, here you can see all sets of properties for all equipment’s
and reactions. User can directly change or add properties from here.
Section 3 defines the procedure, first you have to select all properties of feed and the product
including all models to be applied along with operating conditions. After that, you have to click
simulation to draw PFD of your process using available modules. Then, you can analyze the
safety measurements of your process and at the end, energy produced or consumed can be
analyzed from energy analysis section.
Section 4 is an assistant window. It is a supervisor that guides you continuously what you are
doing vs what is needed. So, keeping eye on this window helps you to understand your mistakes
and correcting them before simulation.

An important thing to remember is, the red-white circle shows that the required data is
incomplete in this section while blue tick circle shows that the required data is complete in
this section.

Adding the components:

You can add the components based on HYSYS databank or ASPEN Properties. Choose
HYSYS databank if you have petrochemical process and choose ASPEN Properties if you have
other processes. You can also import additional components from library .cpl files if necessary.
Otherwise, available databank components are enough to be work with.

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Whatever databank you select, you come to this window, here, select component from list or
search your component in ‘Search for” space to find your component quickly. Then, click add
and your components will be added to the process.

Different component lists can be used for separate streams like feed stream may have
component list 1 and product stream have component list 2 and any mixing stream may have
component list 3. It is easy to work with group of components defined by one property set.

Petroleum Assay:

Petroleum Assay is the property of a particular oil refinery and it defines the composition of
crude oil or its processed fractions. For example, Attock oil refinery will have different oil
composition than PARCO. Therefore, if you want to study a case of a particular industry. It is

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highly recommended to go with Petroleum Assay specifications, otherwise, for a general
process simulation, you can eliminate this complex section.
We can use petroleum assays by clicking the petroleum assay section, then click add and then
import from library if you don’t have any specific refinery assay file.
After clicking on import from libraries, a large window will open up showing crude oil assays
of many refineries of many countries. You can select any case from there depending on with
which industry you are being cooperating with in the project. Most of time, an industrial
supervisor advice to use petroleum assay instead of using general feed properties from
properties section of ASPEN HYSYS.

Here we can get the idea of different Petroleum assays. Distillation curve can also help you to
understand what feed composition your specified sample have.

Fluid Packages in ASPEN HYSYS

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Types of fluid Packages:
• HYSYS (Best for hydrocarbons processing)
• Aspen Properties (Contain all packages)
• COMThermo (All packages of thermodynamics models)

Equation of state Models

Peng-Robinson (PR)
– Most enhanced model in Aspen HYSYS
– Largest applicability range in terms of T and P
– Special treatments for some key components
– Largest binary interaction parameter database
PRSV
– Modified PR model
– Better representation of vapor pressure of pure components
and mixtures
– Extends applicability of the original PR model to moderately non-ideal systems
SRK
– Modified RK model
– Can provide comparable results to PR in many cases, but with a lot less enhancement in
Aspen HYSYS fluid Packages in ASPEN HYSYS:
PR-Twu
SRK-Twu
Twu-Sim-Tassone (TST)
– Modified equations of state models for hydrocarbon systems-non ideal systems (used for
glycol package)
Generalized Cubic Equation of State (GCEOS)
– Provides a framework which allows users to define and implement their own generalized
cubic equation of state including mixing rules and volume translation
MBWR
– Modified BWR model
– Having 32 parameters, this model works extremely well with a number of pure components
within specified T and P ranges
-Widely used for application in simulation of concentrated process streams

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Lee-Kesler-Plöcker
– Also a modified BWR model
– Can be used for non-polar substances and mixtures
BWRS
– Modified BWR to handle multi components
– Requires experimental data
Zudkevitch Joffee
– Modified RK model with better prediction of VLE for hydrocarbon systems, and systems
containing hydrogen
Kabadi-Danner
– Modified SRK model with the enhancement to improve the VLE calculations for H2O-
hydrocarbon systems, particularly in dilute regions
Sour PR/Sour SRK
– Used for sour water systems containing H2S, CO2, and NH3 at low to moderate pressures

Vapor Pressure Models

Modified Antoine Model
– Applicable for low pressure systems that behave ideally
Braun K10 Model
– Strictly applicable to heavy hydrocarbon systems at low pressures
Esso K Model
– Also strictly applicable to heavy hydrocarbon systems at low pressures

Semi-Empirical Models
Chao-Seader model
– Applicable to hydrocarbon systems in the range of T=0-500C, and P<10,000 kPa
Grayson-Streed model
– An extension to the Chao-Seader model with special emphasis on H2
– Recommended for heavy hydrocarbon systems with high H2 content, such as hydrotreating
units.

Speciality Models
• Glycol Package

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– For accurate representation of TEG circulation rates, purities of lean TEG, dew points and
the water content of the gas stream used in natural gas dehydration process

• Clean Fuels
– For systems containing thiols and hydrocarbons
• OLI
– For electrolyte systems

Amines Models
– For modelling sour system sweetening processes using amines (DEA, TEA, MEA, MDEA,
DGA and DIPA)

Steam Table Models

– ASME Steam – ASME 1967 Steam Tables
– NBS Steam – NBS 1984 Steam Tables
UNIQUAC model is based on the UNIQUAC equation which estimates the excess free
energies of a multicomponent liquid mixture, using statistical methods. Using this method the
liquid phase activity coefficient is the sum of a combinatorial term plus a residual term.
UNIFAC is also based on the UNIQUAC equation but goes further ahead and considers liquid
activity coefficients to be a sum of the contributions of individual function groups in each
involved molecule. This respresents a change of the combinatorial term.
Use UNIFAC/UNIQUAC if boiling points of components are known/unknown.

Recommendations:
• Hydrate inhibition – PR (special fit of BIP)
• Natural gas dehydration with TEG – Glycol package
• Sour gas sweetening with amines
• Utility systems using H2O – Steam Table
While for Hydrocarbon systems – PR, SRK or any other EOS* should be used.

Reactions:

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We can add reaction set which is already available for a process or we can add a chemistry set
which does not show a complete reaction. But it demonstrates the necessary chemistry
attributes associated with a particular reaction to predict its outcomings.

Reactions Set:

In reactions set, we can add new reactions or we can work with existing reactions.

In existing reactions window, you can generally find this blank, which means that you have not
added any reactions associated with the ASPEN file or added before along with the properties.
Ignoring this part is better.
The new reactions section comes up with using either HYSYS databank recommended for
hydrocarbons processing or ASPEN properties recommended for other processes.

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This section shows reactions like conversion, equilibrium, heterogenous catalysts, kinetic etc.

These reactions designation do not show the exact reactions but shows the way in which the
simulation software is interpreting the outcoming of your desired reactions.
There are currently five different types of reaction that may be simulated in HYSYS and a
number of reactor types that they may be used with (and one special reactor that does not
require any equations). Reactions may also be used in Columns and Separators (though there
are some limitations on the phases that may be used by the reactions in those cases). The five
reaction types are as follows:

Conversion
This reaction type does not require any thermodynamic knowledge. You must input the
stoichiometry and the conversion of the basis reactant. The specified conversion cannot exceed
100%. The reaction will proceed until either the specified conversion has been reached.
Conversion reactions may not be grouped with any other form of reaction in a reaction set.
However, they may be grouped with other conversion reactions and ranked to operate either
sequentially or simultaneously. Lowest ranking occurs first (may start with either 0 or 1). Just
as with single reactions, simultaneous reactions cannot total over 100% conversion of the same
basis.
Conversion reactions cannot be used with Plug Flow Reactors or CSTRs. In general, they
should only be used in Conversion Reactors.

Equilibrium
Equilibrium reactions require that you know some sort of relation between the reaction's
equilibrium constant, Keq, and temperature. You may specify Keq in a number of ways:
• As a constant. Enter either Keq or Ln(Keq)
• As a function of Temperature. You specify A-D in the equation below

22
 Ln(Keq) = A + B/T + C*Ln(T) + D*T
• IMPORTANT: No matter what the units in your preferences, the T's used for this
equation are in Kelvin and thus your coefficients A-D must be adjusted accordingly if
the T's for the information you have are not also in Kelvin. If it becomes complicated
to do so, you might choose to generate a table of K vs. T and enter that as tabular data.
• As tabular data of Keq vs. T (as suggested in the note above and from which HYSYS
fits the above equation)
• Have HYSYS determine Keq from the Ideal Gas Gibbs Free Energy Coefficients. This
is similar to, but not exactly like what you get by attaching any equilibrium reaction to
a Gibbs Reactor (which just takes the stoichiometry). The difference depends on the
property package because the Gibbs reactor will take into account any non-ideal
behavior predicted by a thermo package such as Peng-Robinson. An essentially ideal
thermo package like Antoine would give almost exactly the same results for the two
different methods.
• You may also search for the reaction among the pre-defined reactions in the HYSYS
library (reached from the Library Page of the Equilibrium Reaction window)
Supposedly, like Conversion reactions, equilibrium reactions may be calculated either
sequentially or simultaneously. I actually did not see any means by which reactions might be
designated sequential and suspect an error in the reference manuals in stating that it could be
so. Equilibrium reactions also cannot be used with Plug Flow Reactors or CSTRs. In general,
they should only be used in Equilibrium Reactors or General Reactors. They can, however,
also be used in the special Gibbs Reactor. When a reaction set is attached to a Gibbs reactor,
the stoichiometry involved in the reactions is used in its calculations.

Kinetic
All three of the remaining reaction types can be considered kinetic, in that they deal with an
expression for the rate of the reaction. Differentiating between the three becomes simply a
matter of formulation. In this first and simplest form, the rate equation is the one to the left
(this picture is taken from the Parameters Page of the Kinetics Reaction window). The first
term on the right-hand side refers to the forward reaction, the second term to the optional
backward reaction. The k's are the reaction constants for which you must enter on the
Parameters Page the activation energies, E and E', and the pre-exponential factors, A and A'
(which are basically all of the constants lumped out front). The basis functions are not just
functions of the Base Component (which you set on the Basis Page -- see Chapter 11 of RV1for
an explanation of the Base Component or anything else having to do with reactions), but are
the products of the concentrations (or partial pressures, etc.) of any of the reactants or products
to whatever power (negative numbers and decimals are fine).
For example, it just so happens that for the reaction
CO + Cl2 --> COCl2
the rate law might be rCO = k[CO][Cl2]3/2
You actually enter the form of the basis functions on the first
page, Stoichiometry, of the reaction window. In the columns to the right of the one in which

23
you enter the stoichiometric coefficients, you must enter the forward and reverse order. The
HYSYS default is to assume an elementary reaction the stoichiometry parallels the order.
Therefore, for this reaction you would leave the forward order of CO at 1 and enter 1.5 for
the forward order of Cl2. Though it is assumed there is no reverse reaction, you might, if you
chose, leave a 1 for the reverse order of the COCl2. As long as you did not enter a value for
the reverse E and A, no reverse reaction would take place.
The Chemicals Tutorial in the Tutorials Book will take you through an example of the use
of a Kinetics reaction in a CSTR.
Kinetic (Rev Eqm)
This form of the rate equation is fairly similar to the
standard kinetic form. The difference is that instead of
getting information about the reverse rate constant, we
use the relation:
Keq = kforward/kreverse
or, as is actually substituted into the standard form,
kreverse = kforward/Keq
Of course, in doing so we have implicitly assumed an elementary reaction as that is inherent
in the definition of Keq. Therefore there is no place to enter reaction orders. Keq is determined
by HYSYS in the same it was done for the equilibrium reaction above, except that this time
you are forced to enter the data in the Ln(K') format (again, if that's not what you have, don't
despair. Try creating an equilibrium reaction, defining it how you are able and then copy over
the constants that HYSYS generates).
For an example of the use of this type of reaction, see my Plug Flow Example.

Langmuir-Hinshelwood
This is the most complicated of all the reaction forms and is therefore the one that is not even
mentioned in any of the manuals (either on-line or off). Therefore it falls to me to explain it. I
go through all of this in detail in the Plug Flow Example, so if you decide you do need to use
this form, I recommend you work through that.
Langmuir-Hinshelwood is mainly used to model heterogeneous catalysis. The rate of
reaction is slowed when you have a finite number of active sites on the catalyst, some of
which may become blocked to reaction by the products being formed. Hence, to the standard
rate equation is added a denominator (this is almost exactly like the form for enzyme
catalysis for those of you who have had Biochemistry).

24
General Information on Reactions
If you are looking for a step by step instruction on every stage of the creation of a reaction and
the use of reaction sets, you won't find it here. You will find explanations of that stuff in any
of my reactor examples (Plug Flow Example, Gibbs and Equilibrium Reactors, Conversion
Reactor), or you may look in Chapter 11 of Reference Volume 1 (does an excellent job with
this kind of stuff), or work through the Chemicals Tutorial in the Tutorials Book. What I am
going to list here are the little pearls of wisdom I picked up while working through the reactions
myself and that may or may not be mentioned in the manuals.
1. You do not need to go back to the basis environment every time you want to edit
reactions. You can create or change reactions in the simulation environment using the
Reactions Package under the Flowsheet menu. You cannot, however, import or export
reactions except from the basis environment.
2. Modifications can be made to reactions on a specific reactor's property view pages that
are local only and do not apply globally. Local changes always take precedence over
the global settings. (Not an option in PFR). See Section 13.13 of RV2.
3. The components you have in a reaction need not have been previously included in the
fluid packages' component list. When you finally associate a reaction set with the fluid
package, whichever of its reaction's components are not already there will be added
then to the fluid package.
4. There are places (such as when entering the kinetics parameters) where you shall find
that no matter how many significant digits you enter in, only 2 sig. figs will be
displayed. This is a short coming of HYSYS and will be fixed in future versions. The
extra unseen digits are used in the calculations, but the only way to see them is to export
them to a Spreadsheet (using the secondary mouse button, simply drag the number from
the reaction window to a cell of the Spreadsheet Page of the Spreadsheet).
5. Under the Stoichiometric Page of a reaction window, the item called "Reaction Heat"
is not the Heat of Reaction as we know it. In fact, they have opposite signs (an
exothermic reaction has a positive Reaction Heat).
6. Remember whenever defining an Equilibrium constant using
Ln(Keq) = A + B/T + C*Ln(T) + D*T, that T is in Kelvin.
7. HYSYS does not show you the units of the Activation Energy it displays. If you would
like to display it in the same units you entered, you must go into your preferences set
and set the units of Molar Enthalpy to the units you would like Activation Energy
displayed in, as Activation Energy does not have its own category. Reaction rate does
have its own category. The Pre-exponential factor has the same units as Reaction rate
(the units set on the basis page, NOT necessarily the units set in the preferences which
seem to only be for reporting purposes) divided by the Basis Units.

Reference:
http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~ceng403/hysys/reactions.html

25
How to manage reaction sets for a process?
For example, I have added two heterogenous catalyst reactions in my reactions set window.
Now, click add to FP to continue to the next step.

Now confirm the add set to fluid property package.

Now, after the set is added to the fluid package. This procedure ends, the only thing will be left
is associating the components with the reaction sets that will be explained afterwards. The
components must be specified before, otherwise after clicking add set to fluid package, nothing
will happen. We can also choose any solver method to estimate results but auto-selected is
recommended because it always choose best method depends on the process conditions.

26
After ensuring that, you have specified your components list. Click on any reaction set
associated with any component list.

A window will open, where first you have to specify components from list and their
stoichiometric coefficients. Remember designating coefficient – will refer to as reactant. And
designating coefficient + will refer to as product.

In the next reaction rate window, you have to specify A,B and C… Which are exponents of
rate equations means number of moles of a specie involved in reaction.

27
Note: Please remember the difference between the number of moles and stoichiometric
coefficients.

Same as for chemistry reaction sets, you can use three options. These three reaction sets are
extremely simple reactions better to use for
• Chemistry Dissociation (Ion exchange reactions or dissolution)
• Chemical Equilibrium (for any reversible reaction)
• Chemistry Salt (for acid-base neutralization reaction)

28
The balance is used to automatically balance the heat of reaction. And a balanced numerical
value will be generated with zero balance error because heat of reactions of all components are
already present in HYSYS databank.
Note that with changing stoichiometric coefficients and molar conc. the heat of reaction will
be different.

You can also choose the different basis for calculations for all individuals reactants and
products. The choice depends upon in which units you literally want your final answer to be
in.

29
However, understanding the different parameters in this window is difficult. But the kinetic
help section shows you how to complete all details in accurate way.

After completing required data, A, B and beta (rate constant). You will get a green signal but
if your reaction is reversible, then, you should also specify parameters of reversible reaction
demonstrated below.

30
Sometimes, you can observe such messages in right-hand downside window like “unable to
make reaction active because mixed reaction types in reaction set is limited to kinetic and
equilibrium”.

In simple words, it is telling that you reactants are not showing reasonable stoichiometric
coefficients or kinetic parameter are vague and incorrect. Go through your kinetic data source
again and see if you have made any mistake in reaction kinetic data input or not.

Simulation Workspace:

In above figure, simulation workspace has been demonstrated. You can add your equipment
model from figures shown on a palette. Knowledge and process understanding is required to
choose any model. Circle 2 shows steps of simulation and modelling as explained before. Circle
3 shows message window. Circle 1 show the sidebar which includes all data counterparts
required to make a process simulation using your designed process flow diagram. Circle 4 is
main workspace where you actually make a process flow diagram by combining different
models and streams. Circle 5 shows the economics bar, you can click on it if you knew cost of
all equipment’s and components and also of products, otherwise, don’t turn it own, it is heavy
for CPU resources. Circle 6 shows the energy savings bar which should be “Click on” if you

31
knew the energy economics or cost of energy maybe in $/Btu or any other similar units. And
circle 7 which shows EDR (Exchanger design and rating) demonstrate the performance of a
heat exchanger by combining economics and energy saving concepts. So, use EDR if you are
using Economics and energy saving buttons which are clicked green.
In language of ASPEN’s own spokesperson about EDR, it serves following important features
to a target simulation:

• Identify equipment bottlenecks to increase plant capacity.

• Streamline exchanger design for faster project execution.
• Optimize heat exchanger designs to reduce capital and operating costs.
• Minimize the risk of costly operational problems in heat exchangers.
• Manage all heat exchangers from one table.
For further details about above sentences if it is necessary. Please visit the link below:
https://www.aspentech.com/en/products/pages/activated-exchanger-design-and-rating
Now, before starting with simulation process, it is important to understand all the terminologies
present in the workspace. The major important things to understand is the sidebar which shows
all characteristics of your design.

• Workbook shows all properties of equipment’s and streams.

• UnitOps shows characteristics of all equipment’s involving Unit operations.
• Streams show properties of all material and energy flow streams.
• It shows some properties related with stream analysis i.e. boing point curve
• It shows design, size, rating and dimensions of an equipment designed.
• Model can be analyzed by any mathematical technique suitable.
• A table involving process streams or model design data.
• Charts involving relation of process stream variables or conditions.
• Any case study or research work associated with your project,
• Data Fits involve solving model equations using curve fittings.

Now, it will be little confusing to understand these items in single sentences. Let’s explain
these items separately and appropriately,

32
In workbook, first we can see material streams tab in which all properties of components are
defined such as vapor fraction, temperature, molar flow, pressure etc where 1,2,3,4…. Shows
the component streams 1,2,3,4….. On y-axis there are properties and on x-axis there are
components stream number.

The next tab is compositions tab which explains the composition of all streams in more compact
manner. Like here, stream 5 which is feed stream have 0.0209 Methane, 0.00 H2O, 0.7272
Hydrogen and so on.

The next tab is energy streams tab which particularly show heat exchange and energy flow rate
quantities in KJ/h. Here Q-100 is first exchange and its heat flow rate is 1.056*10^6 KJ/h and
so on for other heat exchangers.

33
The last tab is Unit Ops tab which literally covers all the data of item no.2 (UnitOps) by clicking
view UnitOp like I have clicked after mentioning E-102 (Heat exchanger), we are directed to
all characteristic design features and operational parameters of that selected unit operation.
Let’s see what will happen after clicking “View UnitOP” of E-102 exchanger, the first default
tab that will be appeared is design tab where you can specify the stream connections, the design
parameters of equipment, specifications of equipment, variables you have used for design and
notes to remember the theoretical design things.

The next tab is rating tab in which sizing data and configuration of our heat exchanger E-102
or any of your equipment is specified as shown below. You can also calculate and put some
calculated quantities like Heat transfer coefficients for a heat exchanger and so on.

34
In next tab worksheet, all the conditions, properties, compositions etc of all streams entering in
the equipment or leaving the equipment are specified.

In the next tab which is entitled as performance tab, all the performance measurments are
specified for the equipment like for our selected heat exchanger, the performance measurments
are cooling tower duty, heat loss, LMTD and Min.Approach temperature. We can also measure
performance of equipment by using plots, tables and setting up a new performance factor.

In the next tab, which is the dynamics tab. The flow behaviour measurments are specified inside
the selected equipment. Like in heat exchanger, the fluid dynamics are affected by tube volume,
tube diameter, tube elevation, overall heat transfer coefficient and equipment specification plus
holdup that can be mantained in the shell or tube of a shell and tube heat exchanger.
The dynamics of all equipments are not generally dependent on same equipment design
features and operating parameters. So, more than confusing yourself around HYSYS, first
make sure, you have the knowledge of everything related the design of your equipment and the
calculations,correlations and inter-relationship of all design and flow parameters is understood

35
in a reasonable context using a reference book like for heat exchanger, most common reference
is “Process heat transfer by D.Q Kern”.

The next tab is rigorous shell and tube design tab. Rigourous means extremely careful and
thorough. Here, it means to design with calculating every paramter that exists in exchanger
design whether needed or not Most often, this option is not used in simulation for undergrad
students but if reader wants to understand this method. It is better to watch reference tutorial
video from link provided below to understand it in better way as it becomes complex for a
beginner to understand in visuals and words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvRtrCKSrWU

36
However, not all equipment’s shows all the tabs as shown above by a heat exchanger. For
example, the mixer (MIX-100) have four tabs related design, rating, worksheet and dynamics.

And for second example, the reactor will definitely have a reaction tab like demonstrated below
for a PFR (Plug flow reactor). And the reaction sets are also specified separately, you can click
the dropdown list and select any of your reaction set defined earlier. And can specify any
property or characteristic of reactants, catalyst, operating parameters and kinetics if kinetic
reaction is chosen before.
Remember UnitOPs tab include all equipments including reactors.

37
Let’s move towards the streams list, here you can see all number of your flow streams. To
move forward in discussion, we start by clicking on stream 1.

After double-clicking stream 1, we are directed to this window, here first default view tab is
worksheet tab, here again the all the necessary stream characteristics are explained
individually.

The next tab is attachment tab which shows all connections of a particular stream with an
equipment of PFD, We can also analyze connections from option “Analysis” to ensure that the
stream connection identified are correct.

38
The next tab again is dynamics tab which is explained earlier and have same meaning here in
different context as in form on pressure specification of stream and flow specification of
streams. Stripchart or scatter plots between two variables can also be used to interpret the
dynamics data and its transformations in form of different flow parameters.
It is important to remember, that in last discussion related to the dynamics, we were talking
about characteristic features of equipment that affects the dynamics. But here our focus in only
the dynamics of a material stream which is mainly affected by pressure and molar flow rate as
demonstrated below.

The next item, stream analysis involves analysis of flow streams by different test methods like
boiling point curve method and cold properties test or check is used to understand some special
behavior, flow or phase changes associated with the stream. Thus, it helps to understand any
outcomings unpredicted in the simple context commonly used in process simulation and
modelling.

The next item in the simulation list is equipment design. Sometimes, you do not have literature
or investigation data related the design parameters of an equipment. So, you have to design it
here by specifying some important characteristics of an equipment.
There are four options available, first is Air cooled design/Rating which is used for the
design/rating of a heat exchanger in which coolant is air. The second is pipe sizing, here you
can design the characteristic dimensions of a pipe connected to any UnitOp. Third is explained

39
enough before about shell and tube heat exchanger. The exchanger designed here goes to the
UnitOps tab, in which we have only viewed the specifications and characteristics of the heat
exchanger.

The next item in simulation list is the Model analysis. We have read much about finite
difference or finite element method for generating a mesh and solving a mesh grid using a
mathematical model suitable for it. But here, we come up in HYSYS in trial and
error/estimations technique in which designed model is iterated using one of the four methods
explained below.
• Derivative method
In this method, the differential element of geometry of equipment is considered. The
differential element when approaches to time limit zero becomes a derivative of
physical quantity gradient demonstrated by the grid. The derivative is solved by
software using integral or reduction-based methods and final solution of target variables
are displayed.
• HYPlan Method
The method is visually explained below:

40
• Production Allocation method
The ability to understand and accurately capture production at every well in an
operation is critical to managing production and correctly reporting revenue to partners
and government regulators.
In an ideal world, every well would have highly reliable meters with low error rates (+/-
2-3%) installed which would be connected via a digital network to a long-term storage
device allowing efficient analysis and reporting of the collected data. They would also
capture a detailed breakdown of all chemical components, also called “fractions,” of
the oil or gas stream from the high-value wells or complex reservoirs. The issue in the
real world, however, is that the cost and effort of maintaining a fiscally accurate meter
for every well in an operating asset is prohibitively expensive and, in some cases,
simply physically impossible.
To address this issue, most operators in the upstream industry have adopted a process
known as production allocation. This process—mostly a manual one using
spreadsheets—uses mathematics and modelling to calculate the production of each well
in a network from a small number of fiscal meters at key points of the production
network. These fiscal meters, also called custody transfer points, are where ownership
is transferred between commercial entities. Fiscal meters are maintained to a high
accuracy and audited regularly by joint venture partners and government regulators.
Once the total flow from a group of wells is established from these fiscal meters, a
variety of different calculation methods can be used to apportion, or allocate,
production from the meter back down to a given set of wells using one or more
apportionment methods
To accurately allocate, operators take into consideration several different calculation
methods: Percentage factor calculation, metered flow, well test and lift curve. The
exact method selected for a given field is dependent on the available measurement
points present in any given delivery network of piping and meters as well as legal
allocation agreements drawn up between partners for how well production is calculated.
Unfortunately, the number of metered points in a network always decreases over the
life of a field since replacement of a damaged gauge becomes increasingly less
economically viable as the field’s production declines. Therefore, allocation
calculations must be designed to take into account degrading information quality over
time.
While production allocation is a highly manual process today, operators are
increasingly moving away from these proprietary manual tools to automated enterprise-
strength solutions that provide repeatable, auditable and accurate allocation of
production.
• Property balance method
Model property analysis can be harnessed to reflect the characteristics of an existing
system, and furthermore, such an approach can also be adopted in system design to help
ensure the correct implementation of a new system. An energy transfer process model,
as the key sub-model of a process industry energy transfer system, embodies both
behaviour and structure characteristics. Analysing the properties of the energy transfer
process model can help evaluate and validate any practical system simulated by the
model. Comparing with the conventional methods, the model property-based material

41
 balance and energy conservation analysis method developed in this paper has the
following advantages:
1 Some conventional methods for material and energy flow balance analysis are based
on the statistical analysis of historical data [33,34]. Our model property-based method
can analyze material and energy flow during the dynamic simulation process of the
model, so it is much more intuitive to realize dynamic analysis and find the potential
material overstock and scarcity. Furthermore, it can be much easier to compare
different technical processes by simply replacing constituent unit modules.
2 Methods only focusing on separate balance analyses of special equipment or units are
static matching computations through isolated mass balance and thermal equilibrium;
this neglects the complicated correlation amongst constituent units. Our method based
on the process model of energy transfer system fully considers the upstream and
downstream interaction and the coupling relationship between the different units; thus,
the method developed in this paper can help realize the global and dynamic analysis.
3 In the case of known input-output models or model identification module of energy-
consuming equipment (as q j related to Tj mentioned in Definition 3), following the
modelling principle derived in this paper, the process model of energy transfer system
can be reconfigured by just resetting the relative production constraints. So, the proposed
method can be applied to different industry production processes.

In the next item, which is the data tables tab. We demonstrate our data whether based on design
characteristics of equipment’s or any property of flow streams. Generally, some rigorous
properties of flow streams are taken as input variables here. And a flow stream is selected, first
we have to click add to go to the variable navigation window. The, we have to click a stream
of choice 1,2,3…. Etc. Then, stream variables will be shown in various unique forms. We have
to select any desired variables from there by clicking exchange arrows and then clicking
“Done” the variables will be tabulated for the selected fluid stream.

42
Let’s us select a case as shown in figure below:

Some variables are selected for study, here, we can see one important thing that fluid package
has zero value as it not considered as a true variable here and black oil input total G is empty
meaning it is not specified before. This means the variables that you have specified before in
properties section will be defined here. Like Pressure and temperature values of stream 2 and
1 respectively have 148.7 bar and 270 oC values.
The Access mode is important it explains what type of access a user can have on your tabulated
data. He can read it or write it where no transfer means no access to other users at all.

43
The next step is to click “Send to excel” which will open a prompt window as shown below,
where after specifying your tabulation requirements like table formatting. Then, click export
to Excel. The sign of completion of sending procedure is shown below:

The excel file will have same table variables and values printed as you have seen above
highlighted by red circle.

Now we can alternatively use “add to flowsheet” option which will show two further options:

44
As any of the options specified above are used. It will be appear on flowsheet like this:

Note: The complex terminologies that will appear in the variables pan actually shows that
different components have different characteristics that need some special variable to define
them. So, their uncertain or vague behavior in fluid stream is understood before anything
uncertain opts to happen in equipment giving undesired simulation results which are usually
less accurate.

The next important item in simulation list is strip charts, we can click add any variables. Same
variables navigation window and after following the same procedure and clicking done to get
a 2-dimensional x-y scatter plot of target variables specified.

45
Case study:
The next item in simulation list is the case study. Here, first you have to specify both dependent
and independent variables. Like I have chosen, BO bubble point oil FVF and cost flow basis.

Setting Up the Case Study

On the Case Study Setup tab of the Case Study form, from the CaseStudy Type drop-down
list, you can select one of the following types:
• Sensitivity: An isolated variable study which examines one variable at a time. For
example, Variable A changes independently from the other variables. Once the analysis
of Variable A is complete, Variable B begins perturbing.
• Nested: This is the default option. The Nested option examines every possible
combination of variable changes.
• Discrete: For the Discrete option, you can specify the values of each variable for
each case that you want to run.
• Base & Shift: Lets you set a number of base cases and shifts off of the base cases.

Setting Up and Running a Sensitivity Case study

To set up and run a Sensitivity case study:
1. For each independent variable, specify a Start and End value.
2. Perform one of the following tasks for each independent variable:
o Specify the Step Size. In this case, HYSYS calculates the # Steps.

46
-or-
o Specify the # Steps. In this case, HYSYS calculates the Step Size.
3. If desired, you can edit the Current Value. The Current Value is the value to which
the variable is set while the other variables are perturbing. For example, in a potential
scenario, the Current Value of Variable A is 0, and Variable A is being varied from 0
to 5, while the Current Value of Variable B is 10, and Variable B is being varied from
10 to 20. In this situation, while variable A is being changed from 0 to 5, variable B
will remain constant at 10. While variable B is being changed from 10 to 20, variable
A will remain constant at 0.

Note: In a Sensitivity case study, the Number of States is the sum of the #
Steps for each variable, minus the number of steps that would create redundant
studies due to Current Values being covered in variable perturbations.

4. Click the Run button.

Setting Up and Running a Nested Case Study

To set up and run a Nested case study:
1. For each independent variable, specify a Start and End value.
2. Perform one of the following tasks for each independent variable:
o Specify the Step Size. In this case, HYSYS calculates the # Steps.
-or-
o Specify the # Steps. In this case, HYSYS calculates the Step Size.
3. If desired, you can edit the Current Value.

Note: In a Nested case study, the Number of States is the product of all the #
Steps for each variable.

4. Click the Run button.

Setting Up and Running a Discrete Case Study
To set up and run a Discrete case study:
1. In the Number of States field, type the number of states that you want to run.
2. For each State in the table, specify a value for each variable.
3. If desired, you can edit the Current Value.
4. Click the Run button.
Setting Up and Running a Base & Shift CaseStudy
To set up and run a Base & Shift case study:

47
 1. In the Number of Bases field, type the number of bases that you want in your analysis.
2. Select one of the following radio buttons:
o Unidirectional: A unidirectional study will shift each variable in the direction
indicated by the sign of the shift. If the base value is 10, and the shift is 1,
the study will be run with the variable at value 10 and then at 11 for the case in
which the variable is shifted. Alternatively, if the shift is -1, the case in which
the variable is shifted will run the variable at a value of 9.
o Bidirectional: A bidirectional study will shift each variable in both the negative
and positive direction from the base.
3. For each variable, specify all Base and Shift values. For example, if you specify that
Variable A = 0 and Variable B = 10 for Base 1, and shift each by 1, in
a Unidirectional study, HYSYS runs three cases (the base case [0,10], shift 1 [1,10],
and shift 2 [0,11]). If you selected a Bi-directional study, HYSYSruns 5 cases (the
base case [0,10], shift 1- [-1,10], shift 1+ [1,10], and shift 2- [0,9], and shift 2+ [0,10]).
This occurs for each base.
4. Click the Run button.

Note: The Number of Cases for Unidirectional studies is determined using the
following equation:
[#Bases]*([#Vars-with-nonzero-shifts]+1)
The Number of Cases for Bidirectional studies is determined using the following
equation:
[#Bases]*([#Vars-with-nonzero-shifts]*2+1)

The general procedure for all methods explained above is shown below where red ticks
showing the things you need to specify to run a case study :

48
Data Fits:
The data fits are based on curve fittings. Curve fitting is the process of constructing a curve, or
mathematical function, that has the best fit to a series of data points, possibly subject to
constraints. The goodness of fit of a statistical model describes how well it fits a set of
observations. Measures of goodness of fit typically summarize the discrepancy between
observed values and the values expected under the model in question
First we have to specify the target object meaning the target equipment on which you want to
have curve fitting based on the variables you have added. Click “add variable” to open the same
window you have specified before in the same variables navigation window.

Then click add variables to specify variables related to a flow stream number.

You can also come up with an undesired error when specifying a variable because that variables
have nothing to do with your stream. Choosing wrong variables here.

49
The procedure of data fitting is very easy until you specify your variables in a correct manner.
So, it is recommended to use variables for a stream on which data fitting is required that are
use before or known to your understanding. Or if you are sure that you have used them and this
error is coming. Check your stream data for confirmation from streams tab.

Safety Analysis:
Background Information:
Separator vessels, storage tanks, heat exchangers, columns and certain piping segments etc. are
designed to handle certain operating pressure. However combination of a variety of causes may
lead to over pressure in these equipment’s which may exceed the maximum allowable working
pressure (MAWP) value. Pressure Relief valves (PRV) are used to relieve the pressure in these
equipments before it can cross the maximum allowable working pressure, thus protecting the
equipment from damage. The pressure relief valve set point should be such that relief valve
will open before the maximum allowable accumulated pressure (MAWP) is reached in the
vessel. For this purpose usually a hydraulic calculation should be done for PRV discharge line
to determine the back pressure at the relief valve, which on addition to the pressure drop across
pressure relief valve gives the pressure accumulation the equipment.
The PRV size is based on a minimum relieving flowrate which can prevent the build up of
pressure in the protected equipment from exceeding the MAWP limit. For several possible
causes of over pressure in the vessel, relieving flowrates are calculated and the maximum of
these flowrates is selected for PRV sizing. The over pressure cause corresponding to this
flowrate is then known to be the governing case for pressure relief valve sizing. Some common
causes of over pressure which are considered for pressure relief valve sizing are described in
this article.

Blocked discharge case

This case refers to closure of a valve on the outlet of equipment (vessel, heat exchanger etc). If
the fluid still continues to flow into the equipment, absence of an outlet for this fluid results in
fluid accumulation and build-up of pressure. This pressure build-up can go as high as the design
pressure of upstream pumps or compressors combined with the height of the liquid column
upstream. The normal inlet flow in this case in this case should be considered as the minimum
relieving flowrate. EnggCyclopedia's PRV sizing calculator for blocked liquid discharge and
for blocked gas discharge can be used to design a pressure relief valve for these scenarios.

Inadvertent opening of upstream valves

Inadvertent opening of valves located at high pressure sources upstream to the protected
equipment can result in over pressure in the equipment. This flow can drive the equipment
pressure upto design pressure of the upstream high pressure source. The extra flow coming as
a result of valve opening should be relieved in this case to protect the equipment.

Utility failure
Failure of utilities such as electricity, instrument air, steam, fuel, cooling water etc. can result
in over pressure in related equipments. When analyzing the possibility of over pressure in
equipment, possibility of utility failure should be carefully considered. For instance, electricity

50
(for air cooler fans or cooling water circulation pumps) or cooling water failure may result in
failure of heat exchangers to meet the duty. Resulting rise in process temperature can cause
over pressure in the protected equipment.

Partial failure
In case one source of utility fails but another independent source is still available in parallel to
bear complete or part of the extra load caused by partial utility failure, the partially available
utility can be considered to evaluate possible over pressure in the protected equipment. Thus,
independently available utility alternatives can lower the risk of possible over pressure and
should be given consideration at the design stage.

Heat exchanger tube rupture

The tubes in a heat exchanger are prone to failure due to variety of reasons such as corrosion,
vibration, thermal shock etc. In such a case flow of fluid from high pressure side of the
exchanger to low pressure side causes overpressure on the low pressure side of the exchanger.
In this case, the ability of the low pressure side to absorb this overpressure has to be examined
and requirement of a relief valve has to be reviewed.

Fire case
Equipment exposed to plant fire has a risk of overpressure in case of fire, resulting from fluid
expansion or vaporisation. EnggCyclopedia’s PRV sizing calculator for liquid filled vessel and
for gas filled vessel can be used in this case for design of the PRV.

Transient pressure surge

Possibility of ‘water hammer’ in a liquid filled system has to be carefully evaluated, since
a pressure relief valve is usually not able to protect equipment against ‘water hammer’ where
pressure can rise to many multiples of operating pressure in matter of milliseconds. PRV takes
much longer time to respond to such overpressure creating possibility of equipment damage.
Pulsation dampener has to be used in this case as a protection measure. In case of systems filled
with gases, ‘steam hammer’ can occur similar to the water hammer.

Process change / Reaction change

In some cases, a significant change in operating process parameters (such as temperature of a
cryogenic fluid) can change making the equipment susceptible to damage (temperature of
equipment drops below minimum design metal temperature or MDMT). For reacting systems,
reactions can shift equilibrium resulting in excess gas or excess heat thus causing over pressure.
These possibilities have to be carefully examined for designing the relief valves.
To enter the Safety Analysis environment:

• On the navigation pane, click the SafetyAnalysis button

.
-or-

51
 • On the Home tab of the ribbon, click the Pressure Relief button .

Note: Once you enter the Safety Analysis environment, the flowsheet is
automatically locked. You will be unable to delete or add unit operations other than
PRDs in this environment. You will also be unable to edit parameters previously
specified in the Simulation environment. You can, however, view any necessary
forms without changing them.

The workflow for using relief devices consists of the following steps:
1. Add the PRD (a pressure safety valve or rupture disk).
2. Define the limiting equipment in the system.
3. Add emergency scenarios.
4. Define emergency scenarios and perform relief load calculations.
5. Review relieving fluid properties.
6. Define PRD-specific information for relief valves or rupture disks.
7. Size the PRD and select an appropriate orifice area for relief valves or rupture disks.
8. Perform line sizing calculations for relief valves or rupture disks.
9. Document the PRD calculations.

Note: You can change PSVs to rupture disks and rupture disks to PSVsafter
defining scenarios and sizes.

Adding a PRD:
You can define an overpressure system by adding a PSV or Rupture Disk to a stream on the
flowsheet. You can add a pressure relief device (PRD) in either of the following ways:
• In the navigation pane, under Unit Operations, right-click the piece of equipment to
which you want to attach the PRD, and then click either Create PSV or Create
Rupture Disk, and then click the product stream.
-or-

52
 • From the Home tab of the ribbon, click Add PSV or Add Rupture Disk, and then click
the stream in the flowsheet. When you copy and paste a PRD with a fire scenario from
one stream to another, if the calculation method is not appropriate for the other stream
(for instance, if a Semi-Dynamic Flash scenario is copied onto an all-vapor stream),
the method may be changed, and some input specifications may not be copied.
The PSV is added to the stream, and the Equipment tab appears.

Notes:
• PSVs should often be attached to the following types of equipment:
compressors, pumps, fired heaters, heat exchangers, piping, and pressure
vessels.
• You cannot add a PSV to a hydraulic stream.
• The stream composition and temperature are automatically defined for the
stream passing though the PSV.

After clicking the PSV icon as shown in above figure as 100 PSV 001, we are directed to this
window:

53
Go to scenarios tab to create an emergency scenario to estimate safety measures required in the
design of a process. Click on “Create a scenario” button, a yellow highlighted scenario will be
created. Now click on type of scenario list, and choose any emergency type, you want to add
in the system.

After it, you have to double-click on any empty highlighted variable and you will be directed
to scenario setup window where you have to enter all emergency conditions of flow stream you
will select here as “reference stream”.
It should be noted with great care that in this section, you do not have to enter back the variables
or parameters you have specified earlier for a flow stream. Here, you have to enter all required
parameters in the condition where an emergency will take place. Like how much flow rate of
liquid in absorber is required so that column will get flooded or how much pressure an
equipment can handle before the blowdown valve need to play its service. Only limiting
conditions of emergencies must be taken into consideration while entering the numerical values
of required parameters here. It needs a strong literature knowledge of unit operations.

54
Now, you also have to specifying allowable limits of fluid properties in the fluid properties
section as shown below:

The second important safety option, you will observe in ribbon toolbar will be storage tank
protection. Here, first you have to add a storage tank. Then, you have to click on yellow
highlighted sentence “Please enter a valid design pressure”.
You will be directed to a window where first you have to specify tank dimensions and operating
conditions that are present during normal operation.

In tank design section, all necessary parameters have to be specified which needs book
knowledge or literature knowledge like design codes, tank type and maximum operating
temperature etc.

55
The next tab and then the last tab both demonstrates the venting conditions and we knew that
venting is related to pressure in all contexts. One case is for normal venting conditions and
second case is for emergency venting conditions.

Note:
User can find safety section less explained but here, instead of explanations, literature
knowledge is necessary. Because in safety analysis section, you only have to specify
parameters, dimensions and various properties comparing normal operating and emergency
scenario data to estimate the directions/hypothesis of whether your process is going to be
feasible or not.

Energy Analysis:

First you have to select process type in flow sheet option like FCC, naphtha reforming etc.

56
and then you have to click down customize to specify approach temperature which is
automatically taken as minimum of range programmed inside the software for each process
type. Like for naphtha reformer, range is 30-40oC. If you find it necessary, then you can change
approach temperature of fluid streams from here. However, computer will always select
minimum approach temperature.

Now, you have to go the bottom section named “Associated energy stream with utility type”.
Here as the title is mentioning, you have to select a utility to manage energy changes for a
particular heat exchange stream. Here, all energy exchange streams present in your process
flow diagram will be automatically mentioned,

57
You can also see a yellow caution like this

This means the temperatures at inlet and outlet of your energy exchangers (can be heat or
mechanical) are not feasible to work with your selected utility requirements.

Aspen HYSYS help Scripts:

Flowsheet Option:
Use this view to specify the minimum temperature approach allowed in heat exchangers, and
which unit operations to optimize.
To specify the approach temperature, choose a process type. The minimum end of the range of
typical temperature approaches for that process type is selected as the approach temperature.
You can change this temperature if desired. The range is only a suggestion, not a limit. You
can also choose User Specified as the process type and then enter any temperature approach
value. You can also override this value later.
The minimum temperature approach allowed for an exchanger is the average of the approach
temperatures for the two streams in that exchanger. For process streams, this is the Approach
temperature on the Setup | Flowsheet Option view; this cannot be set for individual process
streams in the Energy Analysis environment. For utility streams, the approach temperature can
be set separately for each stream in the ∆Tmin column of the Utilities grid on the Saving
Potentials form.
The default ∆Tmin for each utility is taken from the DTmin specified for that utility in
the Process Utilities Manager. For retrofit calculations, an additional constraint on each
exchangers minimum approach temperature can be set on the Setup | Constraints view.
All hierarchy blocks, Case (Main) representing the top level hierarchy, and all distillation
columns are listed in the Flowsheet Selection section. Check the boxes for the models you want
to include in the energy analysis.
These options apply to the Energy Analysis environment. You can also specify the same
options on the Configuration sheet of the Energy Analysis Activationform to affect the
analyses performed on the dashboard.

Energy Analysis Setup Data Extraction View

Use the Data Extraction view to specify how Aspen Energy Analyzer treats steam in your
process.
• You can choose whether to extract live steam, and if so, to ignore subcooling or
superheating. The steam extracted in this way is treated as a process stream, so its flow
cannot be optimized.
• If you select the Exclude Reaction Heat check box, the duty associated with reactors
will not be included in the Energy Analysis.

58
 • In the Stream Segmentation Tolerance field, specify a value between 0 and 1. We
recommend that you specify a value between 0.8 and 0.95; the default value is 0.90.
This field measures the accuracy of the stream segmentation of the process integration
stream in Energy Analyzer in comparison with heat curve data obtained from
the HYSYS file.

Energy Analysis Setup Costing View

Use this dialog to view and specify costing options for the energy analysis calculations.
• Rate of return: Used to calculate the Capital cost annualization factor.
• Operating life of plant: Used to calculate the Capital cost annualization factor. This
parameter is specified on the Setup | Costing Options | Costing Options sheet in
the Simulation environment.

59
 • Operational hours per year: Used to calculate the Capital cost annualization factor. This
parameter is specified on the Setup | Specifications | Globalsheet in
the Simulation environment as Operational year.
• Capital cost annualization factor: Calculated from above parameters by the equation
shown on the sheet. This is used to average capital costs over the lifetime of the plant
in order to properly evaluate the total costs of plant changes.
• Heat exchanger costing: The parameters here are used to estimate capital costs of heat
exchangers. When you click any row, the equation (with parameters a, b, and c filled
in) is shown below the grid. There are different equations for Heat
Exchangers and Fired Heaters. You can click New to add additional rules.
• Costing: In this section, you can assign rules from the Heat exchanger costing section
to each possible match between a hot stream and a cold stream.

Energy Analysis Setup Constraints View

Use this view to specify the minimum LMTD correction factor, the maximum area per heat
exchanger shell (in m2), the Exchanger Minimum Approach Temperature, and constraints for
forbidden heat transfer matches.
The Exchanger Minimum Approach Temperature is updated when you run the analysis from
the Activated Analysis panel or the Refresh button on the ribbon to be the lesser of the specified
approach temperature or the minimum temperature approach of existing exchangers. However,
you can change this subsequently to use a different value during the retrofit calculation.
The minimum temperature approach allowed for an exchanger is the average of the approach
temperatures for the two streams in that exchanger. For process streams, this is the Approach
temperature on the Setup | Flowsheet Option sheet; this cannot be set for individual process
streams in the Energy Analysis environment. For utility streams, the approach temperature can
be set separately for each stream in the ∆Tmin column of the Utilities grid on the Saving
Potentials form. The default for each utility’s ∆Tmin is taken from the DTmin specified for
that utility in the Process Utilities Manager. For retrofit calculations, an additional constraint
on each exchanger's minimum approach temperature can be set on the Setup | Constraints sheet.

60
In the Constraint section, you can specify that heat transfer between certain pairs of process
streams is forbidden, whenever it is for some reason impractical to put those streams into a heat
exchanger.

Information:

Running the Simulation and analyzing results:

Note after everything is done. It is time to run simulation. Make the solver active from ribbon
bar. Click on view convergence to see and analyze the results of your HYSYS simulation. It is
done. The tab will show various options for observations

61
Equipment Models in HYSYS and their application:
Appearance in PFD / Description
Object Palette Button
The Plug Flow Reactor can be used
with Kinetics, Kinetics (Rev. Eqm.), or Langmuir-
Hinshelwood reactions (any number and combination of the
three types can be used in the reaction set). An excellent
description of each of the PFR's inputs can be found in Section
13.10 of RV 2. You can also get a good idea of the way to go
about setting up a PFR in your simulation by working through
my Plug Flow Example.

Quirks of the PFR: HYSYS "integrates" over the length of

the reactor by dividing it into a number of sub-volumes (like a
series of CSTRS). The default is 20 sub-volumes. The most
noticeble effect of this to the user is in the reactor profiles. The
various characteristics are given as values vs reactor length.
The lengths listed are the midpoimts of the subvolumes. For
example, a 10 m length reactor with 20 subdivisions would
give profiles starting at .25 m and incrementing by .5 m (the
size of a subdivision), finishing with 9.75 m. Not realizing this
at first I was irritated that the profiles were not showing me the
entering and exiting values (0 and 10 m). Not to worry, the .25
and 9.75 m values are, in fact, the same as 0 and 10 m.
Everything within a subvolume is the same (like a CSTR).
Another quirk of PFR is that on very rare occasions (see
the note in the gibbs reactor example). The integration
mechanism gets confused. To fix the problem, try looking at
the Reactions page of the reactor property view. Under
"Initialize segment reactions from:" make sure the re-init radio
button is chosen. Normally, you would not pick this option as
it takes the longest time to run. For details on how HYSYS
handles the three options see Section 13.10 of RV2 (p. 464).
The CSTR can be used with Kinetics, Kinetics (Rev. Eqm.),
or Langmuir-Hinshelwood reactions (any number and
combination of the three types can be used in the reaction set).
An excellent description of each of the CSTR's inputs can be
found in Section 13.13.3 of RV 2. You can also get a good
idea of the way to go about setting up a CSTR in your
simulation by working through the Chemicals Tutorial in the
Tutorials Book. In addition you might want to take a look at
my Case Studies Example, where I build on the tutorial by
adding a case study. I use the Spreadsheet feature to access
the actual conversion % of the CSTR in the tutorial.

Quirks of the CSTR: CSTR is primarily for liquid reactions,

of course, but HYSYS will conduct the gaseous reactions as
well. The less the "liquid" volume, the more of the total

62
 volume available for the vapour phase reactions (i.e. HYSYS
uses the total volume minus the volume you set for the liquid
to calculate the volume of the gas, whether or not any liquid is
actually present in the stream).
The Gibbs Reactor (like the one in Aspen) is unique among
the reactors in that you are not required to enter a reaction set
for it to work. The Gibbs reactor works by finding the
equilibrium state with the lowest Gibbs Free Energy. It appears
to be akin to finding all the possible equilibrium reactions and
allowing them all to equilibrate. It's nice because you do not
need to know anything about the individual equilibrium
constants. On the Composition page you can set the
production of components or set any of them to be inert.
You may also set, on the Reactions page, the Gibbs reactor
to behave like an equilibrium reactor (you must then attach
an equilibrium reaction set, also see quirks below), or like a
separator (no reaction). See the example which will teach you
about the Gibbs reactor, the Equilibrium Reactor, and
my "switch" technique. The "switch" is also mentioned on
my tools and tricks page.

Quirks of the Gibbs Reactor: There is

something very important to note when attaching equilibrium
reactions to the Gibbs reactor. The Gibbs reactor takes only the
stoichiometry of the attached reactions and applies its own free
energy minimization technique to it. Only components listed as
reacting in the reaction set undergo any reaction. Note that
HYSYS will not allow you to attach a reaction set which
would include all of the possible independent reactions as that
would simply duplicate the effect of setting the reactor to full
opens Gibbs reactions. The part of this that is important to you in the
design classes is that the results of the Gibbs calculations
come extremely close to the values obtained in the
equilibrium reactor using correct data, while not making use of
then, any data on Keq. Thus if you need to simulate a reactor in
which you want certain reactions equilibrated, but not others
(for instance, because a certain catalyst is employed allowing
those particular reactions to equilibrate quickly, but not aiding
any other reaction) and yet have no or untrustworthy data on
the equilibrium constants, you are better off using the Gibbs
reactor set on "Specify Equilibrium Reaction" than using
the Equilibrium Reactor.
Two postscripts on this: 1) If you use the above technique, it
doesn't matter what you set the equilibrium constant, a fixed
constant of 1 is fine, because you only need the stoichiometry.
2) Before using the above technique, check the equilibrium
reaction library. The one you need may already be there, in the

63
 temperature range you desire (even then, however, the Gibbs
way may still be better).

One last note, there appears to be a minor bug in HYSYS, in

that, when operating the Gibbs Reactor in Equilibrium Reactor
mode, a button appears that would show you the % conversion,
reaction extent, etc. Unfortunately, even when the Gibbs
Reactor had completed its calculations, the matrix remained
blank.

If you would like to experiment with the similarities and

differences between the Gibbs reactor and the Equilibrium
Reactor yourself, see the example for a good way to go about
it.

The Equilibrium Reactor uses reaction sets with only,

surprise, equilibrium reactions in it. You can read more about
it in Section 13.13.4 of RV 2. You can also see the example in
which I compare it to a Gibbs Reactor. In general, I
recommend making use of the Gibbs Reactor over the
Equilibrium Reactor.

opens

then,
The Conversion Reactor deals with, yep, you guessed it,
conversion reactions. You use it when you know how much of
the reactants will be converted into products. As mentioned in
the section on conversion reactions, it can handle multiple
reactions which may be ranked to occur simultaneously or
sequentially. Reactions with the same ranking are
simultaneous and the total conversion of the same reactant can
not exceed 100% (all subject to limiting reagents, of course).
The product of one reaction can be the reactant of another
reaction.

Quirks of the Conversion Reactor: Though the specified

conversion cannot exceed 100%, the actual conversion can.
This is because the actual conversion is the percentage
opens conversion over the original amount of base component

64
 present. However, if that base component is the product of a
lower ranked (meaning reacts first) reaction, there may be
more available than was originally there. This allows the actual
conversion to exceed the specified conversion (it's still
then, behaving correctly, so don't panic). The conversion could thus
be much greater than 100%. You can see this in my conversion
example. If none of the base component was initially present,
the actual conversion field will remain blank. Conversely, if
the base component of a reaction is a reactant in an earlier
occuring reaction, or if there are limiting reagents, the actual
conversion will be less than the specified conversion.
If the reaction producing the base component of another
reaction is ranked equally with it, the second reaction would
not convert any of the component produced by the first
reaction, but would only convert the specified percentage of
the original amount present.
Ranking cannot be changed locally in the reactor. It may only
be altered in the reaction set on the global level.
The General Reactor is like a combination of the CSTR and
the Equilibrium Reactor. If you put in all kinetic style
reactions, it acts like a CSTR. If you put in all equilibrium
reactions, it acts like an Equilibrium Reactor. The General
Reactor, unlike any other type of reactor available to you, will
also allow you to mix equation types. You can combine kinetic
and equilibrium reactions into one reaction set (you still cannot
combine conversion reactions with any other type, though you
can attach a conversion reaction set to the general reactor as
well). That set will then be a mixed type and can be attached
to the general reactor. Unfortunately, verifying the accuracy
and method is somewhat involved (though not necessarily
difficult). I leave it to you to investigate this. Rather than
create an example for you. This time I simply added the
General Reactor to my file comparing all the other reactors.
Not Accessible from the That way, you may use all the reactions and reaction sets that
Object Palette. Can only be were created for the other examples as a way of exploring the
reached via the Unit Ops results that the General Reactor gives you. The name of the file
View (obtainable by is AllReactors.hsc and it is located
pressing <F12>, "Add an under \\Hartsook\Hysys\SAMP403.
Operation" under the
Flowsheet Menu, or from Quirks of the General Reactor: A strange problem,
the Unit Ops Page of the somehow tied into the number of product streams attached,
Workbook. results if you try to attach an equilibrium set immediately after
a conversion set. It fails to find a solution even if it had done
so before. If something like this happens to you click off then
back on again the Act as a Separator when cannot
solve button and it should solve.
The same quirks of the CSTR apply when using any
kinetic reactions in your reaction set.
Reference http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~ceng403/hysys/reactions.html

65
Introduction to Aspen Plus
Rule-of-thumb is that Aspen Plus is better suited for chemical process design whilst HYSYS is
best for hydrocarbon process design (both upstream and downstream but mainly downstream).
They are both products of AspenTech though HYSYS was bought over years ago.

Starting the ASPEN Plus

When you start Aspen plus, a window as shown above will come in front of your eye. Here,
you can either restore recently saved work or if you are new, you have to click new. You can
also import or export a file if you have saved before in form of aspen file (.apwz).
Let’s start by assuming that we are new to the Aspen plus. Click new, and the separate window
will come out which will ask you to select a process based on your project work, choose any
of them if they are relevant, otherwise, choose a blank template to start a fresher’s work. It is
important to note that a selection of template made from the selection window is not a rock
solid, it only represents limited properties and models related to selected process design, thus
helps in cutting down un-necessary things before the Aspen work actually starts.

66
Example
Air separation unit:
It includes the pre-defined components like argon, nitrogen and oxygen. And property sets,
molecular structure and methods are predefined. Surely, you can alter all the sets whether pre-
defined or not. So, it is not important to think about whether it is easy to have many properties
and vice versa, predefined. The important thing is about your knowledge and understanding
about your process design, your requirements and your way of designing the process related to
your project work. Here, you have option to go with English units which includes pound, feet,
cubic feet etc. Or you can go with metric units which are kg, g, m etc.
However, such reporting of template features is tedious job for both author and readers, so let’s
follow a simple method of getting knowledge of any of given template properties and features.

It is really easy now to understand that what each specified template in its sub-category brought
to us. What you have to do is to click a template from list on left-hand side. Then, in a middle
window, a list of processes will be observed based on sub-categories of your design class. Like
here, air separation class have two sub-categories like air separation with English units and air
separation with metric units. Click on any sub-category which lies closest to your desired
process. It is very rare to have a direct mark, which means the given template have exactly the
same properties as your requirement is. And it also means that you are very lucky because now
your simulation work is reduced to simple modelling as properties are predefined. But it is
really rare. Like air separation have such startup with components predefined.

67
Adding components in Aspen Plus:

Adding components procedure is visualized above by step 1 to step 5. It is important to note

that the components you will select here are not directly involved in the process. These selected
components will belong to your process. Like you want to have a water shift reaction, then not
all of above shown components can’t be used. Only water, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide
and hydrogen maybe needed. Selecting extra process related components will help avoiding
confusion in later procedure.

Your Component is not present in the library (What to do now?):

Use the molecular editor to draw the molecular structure of your desired missing component.
You can make a custom structure from all elements of periodic table but by default, only
commonly used will present in start. Click more to explore more. And draw structure by simple
drag and drop.

68
Or you can use non-conventional (User defined) ID to set important characteristics of your
component if molecular structure is complex or unknown. Click on “User Defined” button to
enter in a setup window:

You can select conventional, non-conventional or solid type here. This section is most often
used for non-conventional components addition. And if you enter a unique component ID or
Alias, clicking next button will automatically justify the selection of non-conventional
component.

And then a window will pop-up, where you have to specify enthalpy and density of your unique
component. And here model that have been used for calculating enthalpy and density have to
be specified individually. Use general enthalpy method if your component has existing
literature enthalpy data or if empirical models or correlations have been used. Then go for other
models that matches the literature reference.

69
The next thing that will be automatically specified at left bottom is attribute. The following
visual will define briefly what it is. Attribute selection knowledge is only needed if you are
doing a unique research (most often).

After clicking next or finish (it hangs sometimes, so close it manually and your non-
conventional component will be added as shown below.

You can also manually specify your component as part of following groups shown below in a
visual in the main component addition window.

Creating a Petroleum Assay or blend:

There are two ways of adding components for a petroleum refining or petrochemical process
simulation. One is choosing a particular case that is available in the library of Aspen plus. The
accessing procedure is shown below:

70
After clicking edit input in the procedure visualized above, you will be directed to the assay
property window. Remember that the assay selected from Aspen library will have all properties
and analysis complete. Therefore, you won’t have to come to this section. But if you have
created your own assay or blend, you have to come here for sure.
First you have to enter the distillation curve data that either is available in your own literature
study or you have sample whose % distilled vs temperature data can be generated using batch
distillation apparatus in energy engineering laboratory.

You can also change your distillation curve type, but it is better to go with true boiling point
curve. As, it is commonly avaliable in literature and experiment is simple to do if you have
sample.

71
Next thing to specify here is Mid-percent distilled and API gravity data. You have to do
calculate density of your distilled % and find specific gravity of it. Then use following formula
to calculate API gravity.
API = (141.5/SG) -131
After that enter the data like have done as an exemplary procedure below:

And if you want to have graph of this data for using in reports or presentations. Click on Dist
curve option highlighted below:

Select all if you have more than one data plots of true boiling point curve or if you want to
include API gravity curve also. Click Ok to proceed.

72
A distillation curve will be generated as shown below:

If you have more than one streams from distillation apparatus that can be attributed as light-
ends and heavy-ends. Then, you can separately define and manage the composition of light
ends because the light-ends are part of unique stream and must be managed separately.

Types of Distillation Curve

1- True Boiling point (TBP) Distillation 2- ASTM Distillation
4 Semi-fractionating Distillation
5 Equilibrium Flash Vaporization (EFV)
1) TBP: This type of distillation is commonly used due to the accuracy of the results obtained
by this method which is very close to that obtained via real distillation or industrial distillation.
In this distillation, there is a fractionation column located between the condenser and the flask.
In general, this type of distillation is carried out by two steps: firstly, under atmospheric
pressure until 300°C (1% distilled very 2 min), secondly under vacuum pressure (to prevent

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 cracking process and to reduce the boiling point) at 40mmHg (1% distilled every 3-5 min). In
this process, the vapor press. temp. is plotted vs. distilled(%) to get TBP curve.

2) ASTM: In this type of distillation there is on fractionation column located between the
condenser and the flask. On the other hand, the raised vapor will not be fractionated in this
process. This distillation is used with fractions having short range of the boiling point.
3) Semi-fractionating distillation: In this type of distillation, their will be some fractionating
process on the raised vapor via package located between the condenser and the flask.
4) Equilibrium Flash Vaporization (EFV): Is a single stage separation technique. A liquid
mixture feed is pumped through a heater to raise the temperature and enthalpy of the mixture.
It then flows through a valve and the pressure is reduced, causing the liquid to partially
vaporize. Because the vapor and liquid are in such close contact up until the "flash" occurs,the
product liquid and vapor phases approach equilibrium.

A quality advice:

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Workspace overview:

The workspace starts with the properties same as explained before in the Aspen HYSYS
section. However, the procedure of process simulation and modelling is quite different as
compared to HYSYS.
First as you click a template, the components section will appear which will have a number of
components based your selected/reference process design. But if you select a blank template
or start a fresh work, first you have to setup the system for defining further properties. The
following steps are required for completing the setup:
• Specifying the title of your project
• Selecting a global unit set, here abbreviations will be complex to understand but
hovering over the mouse cursor will show a note-box which will show you which units
are involved in abbreviated unit set.

• Valid phases whether it is liquid-vapor, liquid-liquid and many more. But if you left it,
you will come up with vapor-liquid phase validation.

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• Free water if your system can have. You can mention here, yes, no or dirty water. Free-
water calculations involve special methods for calculating the solubility of water in the
organic phase and a test for the presence of a pure water phase. Free-water calculations
are always faster than rigorous three-phase calculations and require minimal physical
property data preparation. Just like free-water calculations, dirty-water calculations
also involve special methods for calculating the solubility of water in the organic phase.
In addition to this, special methods are used to compute the solubility of organic
compounds in the water phase.

The next thing that is needed to specify is description of your process. It is only
necessary for memorizing the overview of your own process in comparison with the
template you have selected.

Handling a real-world industrial project with a good amount of funding you have. You
should mention your account credentials in next section which is “accounting”.

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The next tab is diagnostic tab, it only shows messages about your steps taken during modelling
and simulation process. The scale is graduated from 0 to 8 (minimum number of messages per
step to maximum number of messages per step). The steps can be interpreted in two ways:
• About mistakes you have made or about errors
• About steps only you have taken and results related to it

The calculation options show the type of mathematical calculations you need in your process
design. Like heat balance equations needed if heat exchangers are included or flow rate
derivatives needed if the flow is unsteady and multi-dimensional. By default, all commonly
needed calculations are included and you do not have to mess with whole calculation options
tab until you desire to have certain special characteristics in your process design.

It also includes following more tabs which are briefly described below:
• Flash convergence (Specify temp. and pressure limits and tolerance plus maximum
number of iterations if some kind of special mathematical model is being used for flash)
• Model options includes the phase allowance, number of iterations included and
tolerance factors of all models available for the process.
• Results include the options to calculate or not to calculate results of mass balance and
phase equilibrium results.

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 • Reactions include stoichiometry check options, activity coefficient check options for
both mixed and aqueous phases and electrolyte chemistry tolerance check in form of
fugacity tolerance as it is deciding factor in electrolyte chemistry.

Stream types in Aspen Plus:

Here, in first tab, you will see the section “global”. You can change global to any other library
section you have. However, by default, your all properties and data scheme is belonged to
global section. So, it is better not to mess up with the section title.
Note: It is not only just a title, if you change title, your data will be correlated with the modified
title of section. A section is a library.
There are many stream classes in aspen library, which are demonstrate below:

To begin with explanation, it is important to understand that there are many substreams that
belongs to each stream class, you would select in above mentioned tab. That sub-stream class
window will look like this:

The stream class is a big family or hierarchy and for optimal process simulation, a stream class
is configured to have certain subclasses based on what conditions are actually important for a
feed or product stream to have if a process involves a phase change, phase equilibrium, or if

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solids are present then particle size distribution information is related. It is very critical as the
phase of fluid stream or mixed solid stream have more than 80% overall affect on your
simulation results. Because all reactions, temperature distributions, physical changes and
separation is based on how phases are treated in a context that shows its generic behavior as a
stream. It is to be noted that a stream class directly represents your components, so make a
decision based on understanding of flow behavior of your components that are involved in the
process. A common confusion for beginners will be related with conventional and non-
conventional components). Let’s explain it before we go to stream classes definition:

Conventional and non-conventional components:

The conventional components correspond to all components that are present in the ASPEN
Plus databank. It is rare that Aspen plus databank is missing a common name. All conventional
components like hydrocarbons methane, ethane etc. will have a predetermined set of properties
and behavior in ASPEN properties bank. What you have to do is only selecting a method of
approaching a result based on your design, requirements and analysis.
On the other hand, the non-conventional components involve the unknown properties and
behavior as marked by ASPEN Plus databank. For example, biomass, it is termed as non-
conventional as its exact properties and composition can never be guaranteed. So, you have to
consider a NC stream classes with creating that biomass like component combining different
compositions of available components. You can use proximate analysis or you can go with
ultimate analysis. But with proximate analysis, first distribution of non-conventional
components will be needed. Like in fixed carbon section which components to include or in
ash section which components are needed to be defined in the biomass stream set.
Now let’s first understand what all sub-stream classes meant to our design:

• Mixed (It handles conventional components that which participate in phase

equilibrium). It is important to note that always not all the components that are present
in a process involving phase equilibrium are is phase equilibrium).
• CISOLID (It handles conventional components that are solids but not in phase
equilibrium). And thus, re-defining above analogy, we can use two sub-streams in one
stream classes if solids are present in a phase equilibrium system with no phase
equilibrium. Read previous sentence carefully).
• NC (It handles non-conventional components).
• NCPSD (It handles non-conventional components with particle size distribution)
• CIPSD (It involves CISOLID category with information of particle size distribution)
Now, it is easy to understand what all stream classes meant to our design:

Conv:
It is used with sub-stream mixed when there are no solids involved in simulation or solids are
defined as salts using chemistry.

MIXNC:
It is used with sub-stream mixed and NC, when there are non-conventional solids like mixed
oxide catalysts, transition salts etc. with no particle size distribution.

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MIXCISLD:
It is used with sub-stream CISOLID and mixed, when are conventional solids like Cu catalyst,
Pt catalyst or NaCl crystals etc. that are ordinary solids with ordinary properties and behavior.
MIXNCPSD:
It is used with sub-stream mixed and NCPSD, as the abbreviation is showing that it will involve
non-conventional solids with particle size distribution.
MIXCIPSD:
It is used with sub-stream mixed and CIPSD, which involves conventional solids with particle
size distribution. It is critical not to make a mistake that fluids do not involve PSD but only
solids will involve PSD.
MIXCINC:
As the abbreviation complexity is telling us that it will involve sub-stream class mixed, NC
and CI, which involves both conventional and non-conventional solids with no PSD.
MCINCPSD:
It involves sub-stream classes mixed, CI, NC, PSD as it involves both conventional, non-
conventional solids with particle size distribution.

Sub-stream classes
MIXED CIPSD CISOLID NC NCPSD
CONV Present
MIXNC Present Present
MIXCISLD Present Present
MIXNCPSD Present Present
MIXCIPSD Present Present

MIXCINC Present Present Present

MCINCPSD Present Present Present

Table 1.1 (For key-map understanding of selecting a stream class with sub-classes)

Most important questions and their answers:

Why there are non-conventional solids but not non-conventional fluids?
The answer is simple, that a fluid which can have many components mixed can have many phases or a
single phase, which directly corresponds to many properties/behaviors or a single property/behavior.
So, things are not actually non-conventional in this case where every happening in the process can be
predicted using a simple model. While in case of solids, there is always one phase boundary. And solids
can show much uncertainty in its properties from dimensions, inner side, outer side etc. So, they can be
non-conventional based on this uncertainty of properties/behavior determination. Catalysts in fluidized
bed reactors must be specified as solids and mixed solid stream must be used.

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WHY PSD is important parameter here?
Because in a solid-phase system, the results of process is determined by distribution of solids.
For instance, if a solid system is homogenous, there will be good temperature distributions. If
energy changes involved have to calculated as compared to a solid system with a uneven
particle size distribution. Reaction homogeneity is also directly dependent on the particle size
distribution in a solid system and thus yield is directly proportional to the particle size
distribution. And many other systematic concepts can be applied here.
There, PSD use is must when particles are coarser, and PSD use can be skipped if there are
finer particles involved in the process.
For better explanation on PSD, please refer to the “Coulson and Richardson, Vol. 2”

PSD Management Overview:

You can manage your PSD if used by clicking on PSD tab under solids option, then click on
PSD mesh type dropdown list, by-default user is selected which means you can manually
specify particle size distribution in upper and lower sections of a mesh in above highlighted
window. However, there are there are three other generalized types in which you don’t have to
specify the PSD mesh, as the algorithm is itself defined. These types are explained below:
• Equidistant (The difference between size limits of each interval is constant)
• Geometric (Each size interval covers a factor of 2 in particle volume. The upper and
lower limits will be obeyed strictly. And mean particle size will be geometric mean of
these two limits)
• Logarithmic (The ratio between size limits of each interval is constant, it is used when
there are larger number of intervals that have to be specified between upper and lower
limits)
• User (As explained earlier, you can manually modify any thing using this type option)

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After selecting a PSD mesh type, then you have specified your number of intervals that you
want to take between your own specified upper and lower limits. After that, you have to enter
your upper and lower size limits. At the end, you can choose any size unit in which you want
to make your end calculations or in which results have to be presented. The caution which
shows “if you reduce the number of intervals, data will be lost for removed intervals wherever
PSD is used”. It is only telling simply that specify number of intervals carefully if your PSD is
showing a changing behavior. Maybe what interval you have missed may not contain the
change and the end results of your calculations may ends up with a story-teller/false-covering
justification.

Property Sets in ASPEN Plus:

There are three tabs which are shown below:
• Properties
• Qualifiers
• Comments

In the left-side simulation tab, you can see many property sets listed. The required property sets are
automatically defined by the software when you complete the setup. However, to manually modify,
configure and add a property set, click on a property pre-defined. Then you will be directed to the
“Properties” window. Then, click on substream drop-down list, choose Mixed or All. Mixed are for

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mixed streams while for all other streams, use All option. Then choose a physical property from a drop-
down list which is demonstrated below:

In the above window, you can see that there are hundreds of physical properties, individual explanation
of all these is a tedious job. But here a simple solution is represented, hover over the mouse on any
property abbreviation and its definition will be shown on a popped-up text box. For example, TG means
glass transition temperature as shown in above figure. The two more examples are shown below like
V-FL means volume flow for a pure component and U-FL means internal energy flow for a pure
component.

Then, we have to select the units of the physical properties used:

83
Find Properties Dialog Box

Use this dialog box to search for physical properties to add to a property set. You can restrict
the search using the Limit search to pure components properties and Exclude petroleum
correlations boxes.

When you type part of a property name, the search results automatically update. Click the
checkbox next to each desired property in the results to mark it for adding. If you select
multiple properties, you can click the arrows to reorder them. When you have selected all
desired properties, click OK to add them to the property set.

When you open this dialog box from the Add Properties command in the Customize tab
of the ribbon, it is called Create Property Set and allows you to specify the ID of the
property set and its description at the top.

Note: When you select certain mole-based properties here for a property set, you
can configure them in the property set to use mass-based or flow-based units, but
this is not recommended. If you do so, you will not be able to display them in
these units in the Stream Summary. There are mass-based properties (containing
mass in the description here) and flow-based properties (containing flow) for all
applicable properties, which only use the indicated unit type.

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Qualifiers:

Use this sheet to specify the qualifiers that define how the Aspen Physical Property System
will calculate the properties selected on the Properties sheet.
Units for Temperature, Pressure, Boiling point range, and Base boiling point range are from
the applicable units set and are displayed on the sheet. These units cannot be changed.

Descriptions
Phase
Phase from the MIXED substream for which properties will be calculated (for free-water or
dirty-water, specify 2nd Liquid)
Components
Components for which properties will be calculated. The default is all components specified
for the simulation.
2nd Liquid Key Component
Key component used to identify the second liquid phase
Temperature
Temperature at which properties will be calculated

Pressure
Pressure at which properties will be calculated

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% Distilled
Liquid volume percent points on distillation curves
Water basis
Indicates whether properties are calculated on a wet (with water) or dry (without water) basis
Component group
Component group ID for which properties will be calculated.

Base component
Base component ID for calculating RAT-MLFR, RAT-MSFR, and RAT-VLFR properties.
Base component group
Base component group ID for calculating RAT-MLFR, RAT-MSFR, and RAT-VLFR
properties.
Boiling point range
Lower and upper bounds of the normal boiling point range used to identify components for
which the properties are calculated.
Base boiling point range
Lower and upper bounds of the normal boiling point range used to identify base components
for which calculating RAT-MLFR, RAT-MSFR, and RAT-VLRF properties.

Comments Tab:

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Working with Analysis

The Aspen Physical Property System provides the following types of Analysis:

Use this To generate

analysis
Pure Tables and plots of pure component properties as a function
Component of temperature and pressure
Binary Txy, Pxy, or Gibbs energy of mixing curves for a binary
system
Generic Tables and plots of properties from either a stream
composition or specified mixture composition. This analysis
type has been replaced by Stream Property and Mixture
analysis, respective, for the two types of analyses it can
perform, but Generic analyses may remain from files from
earlier versions.
Mixture Tables and plots of properties of vapor-liquid and/or two-
liquid mixtures resulting from flash calculations, or single-
phase mixtures without flash calculations
PTEnvelope Tables of temperature, pressure, and other properties
Residue Residue curve maps
Solubility Tables and plots of properties for a system in solid-liquid
equilibrium

Stream Tables and plots of properties from a stream composition

Property
Ternary Ternary maps showing phase envelope, tie lines, and
azeotropes of ternary systems

To use the analysis function, if needed. You can initiate by clicking on analysis option in left
side window, then in main window, click new, a window will pop-up, specify you stream-ID
and then click on type to select (Generic or PT Envelope analysis which will be most often
available).

87
Analysis PT Envelope Input Form:
Use this form to generate tables of temperature, pressure, and other properties. These tables are
parametric. They consist of one curve for each vapor fraction, through the critical point, and
its complementary vapor fraction. For example, the complementary branch for vapor
fraction=0.25 is vapor fraction=0.75.

Note: PT Envelope analysis is only designed to work with vapor-liquid systems.

For two-liquid systems, use another analysis type such as Generic.

This form contains the following sheets:

Use this To do this

sheet

System Specify the mixture composition and vapor fractions for which tables are
generated and select options for generating the envelope

Tabulate Specify physical properties to be calculated, default temperature, and

pressure tabulations

Properties Specify property method to be used in the calculations

Diagnostics Specify diagnostics message levels

Results View the tables of calculated properties as a function of temperature,

pressure, and compositions. You can plot these results using the plot
types available in the Home tab of the ribbon.

Comments View or specify the description and comments for an object

Status View the convergence status and warning or error messages generated
by an object

You should use the PT envelope only with property methods that generate consistent vapor and
liquid properties at the critical point, such as equation-of-state property methods.

88
Analysis Generic Input Form
Use this form to generate tables of properties of either:
• Multi-phase mixtures (for example, vapor and liquid) resulting from flash calculations
• Single-phase mixtures without flash calculations
This form contains the following sheets:

Use this To do this

sheet

System Specify the mixture composition by either entering component flow rates
or referencing a stream from the calculation

Variable Specify the independent variables, such as temperature or pressure, to be

used in the calculations

Tabulate Specify physical properties to be calculated

Properties Specify property method to be used in the calculations

Diagnostics Specify diagnostics message levels

Results View the tables of calculated properties. You can plot these results using
the plot types available in the Home tab of the ribbon.

Comments View or specify the description and comments for an object

Status View the convergence status and warning or error messages generated
by an object

Note: If you have Aspen plus installed, then Ctrl+click on any blue colored underlined sheet
option to go to the ASPEN help window which will completely explain you everything
necessary about using the analysis procedure. It is done to reduce the book length and to urge
reader to install and practice ASPEN Plus software.

Flowsheet tab:
Use this tab to manage your models, if you have drawn the flowsheet in simulation section.

89
Main Flowsheet workspace:
To understand block options in simulation process, first we have to draw a flowsheet. It is
simplest task to do, first click on any model type like mixers/splitters, separators, exchangers
etc. and then choose any model from choices that fulfil your process requirements.

And a model type shown below may have many sub types as shown below that SSplit have 12
sub-types and for instance, you need a scrubber so click on scrubber and put it on flowsheet/.

And then we have to connect a material/energy/work stream to the selected model, stream
properties/characteristics can be defined earlier or afterwards depending on your mindset that
provides you ease to cope with your simulation process.

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Unit Operation Models Reference
See Also The Manual of Drying Technology
This manual includes detailed technical reference information for all Aspen Plus unit operation
models and the Pres Relief model.
Models are grouped in sections according to unit operation type. The reference information for
each model includes a description of the model and its typical usage, a diagram of its flowsheet
connectivity, a discussion of the specifications you must provide for the model, important
equations and correlations, and other relevant information.
An overview of all Aspen Plus unit operation models, and general information about the steps
and procedures in using them is in the Aspen help manual as well as in the prompts in Aspen
Plus.

Contents:
• Mixers and Splitters
• Separators
• Heat Exchangers
• Columns
• Reactors
• Pressure Changers
• Manipulators
• Solids
• Solids Separators
• User Models
• Pressure Relief
• Batch Models
• Advanced Distillation Features
• Common Features for Solid Models

Note:
For providing ease of understanding and better overview of all unit operations, Aspen help
manual link is used to direct you to the in-depth details regarding the selection of any unit
operation model of an equipment type (Splitter/mixer, heat exchanger etc.) for your process
conditions.
You have to press CTRL-Click on the links to enter Aspen help section regarding all above
mentioned unit operations.

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Model Application example:
The model definition and application is as simple as the abbreviation of a model itself is, but,
the reactor models should be explained as it play a slightly more complex role if your
knowledge about your kinetics or reaction is vague or you are playing matching the kinetics
game in the arena of simulation. Therefore, these models are explained below briefly:

Reactor Models
There are 7 built-in reactor models, RSTOIC, RYIELD, REQUIL, RGIBBS, RPLUG, RCSTR
and RBATCH, in Aspen Plus™. RPLUG, RCSTR and RBATCH are rigorous models for plug
flow, CSTR and batch reactors, respectively.
RSTOICH should be used in cases where the stoichiometry is known but the reaction kinetics
is either unknown or negligible. If both, the reaction kinetics and stoichiometry is unknown
RYIELD should be incorporated into the simulations. For single phase chemical equilibrium
or simultaneous phase and chemical equilibrium calculations the reactor model of choice
should be either REQUIL or RGIBBS. REQUIL bases its calculations on simultaneous solution
of stoichiometric chemical and phase equilibrium calculations whereas RGIBBS solves its
model by minimizing Gibbs free energy.
All reactor models except RPLUG and RBATCH can have any number of material feed
streams. These streams are mixed internally. The rigorous models can incorporate built-in
power law or Langmuir-Hinschelwood-Hougen-Watson kinetics or custom kinetics specified
by user. Custom kinetics can be defined either in Fortran subroutines or in excel worksheets.
Table 1 Summary of reactor models in Aspen Plus™
Model Stoichiometry Kinetics Rigorous No. of Feed streams
RSTOIC Yes No No Any
RYIELD No No No Any
REQUIL No No No Any
RGIBBS No No No Any
RBATCH Yes Yes Yes 1
RCSTR Yes Yes Yes Any
RPLUG Yes Yes Yes 1

Cited: http://www.umich.edu/~elements/course/lectures/eight/aspenv10.2/02_reactor_models.ht

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The models available in the Aspen Plus are enough for general process design but if it is needed
to have a unique and sophisticated model for a particular process or utility. Then, it is good to
have the “Aspen Custom Modeler”.

What is Aspen Custom Modeler:

The Aspen custom modeler is needs the good knowledge of any of three computing languages
i.e Fortran, C++, or C.
Like here, a simple quadratic model using Aspen custom modeler is demonstrated:

93
Create a new model by clicking models in Custom modeling options and thus clicking on “add
model”. Enter the name like of above is quadratic model etc. and then click OK.
Now, define say “x” as a real variable in the scripting window shown below:

Then, write the mathematical model/equation of a quadratic function of variable x defined as

real variable above.

After, you have done and script window is closed. Aspen custom modeler runs itself and results
are displayed. We can also make complex models using icons, geometries, mathematics using
the knowledge of computing language. But it is rare, that an undergrad student may come up
with a case in which custom modelling is needed. Keep it simple, man!

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Blocks in Aspen Plus Simulation:
The blocks in Aspen plus overview represents individual equipment model in process flow
diagram. Like a simple PFD consist of four equipment blocks is shown below for better
comprehension.

Here heater is block 3 with required input incomplete. Without completing input for all blocks,
you can’t run a simulation. And the run button will not be available if any of block has
underspecified information.

Completing the input of a block:

Let’s start by clicking on blocks option in left-sidebar, it will expand all blocks options that
can be selected for further procedure. You can access an individual block in two ways:
• By double-clicking on any block in left-sidebar list
• By double-clicking any block in middle window

After clicking say B1, you are entered into the setup window of B1 block. Here, first you have
to specify the operating conditions of that equipment. For instance, you want to carry a reaction
in B1 which RYield reactor (explained in above section) at 1 atm and 550 oC. You have to
mention it here step by step for all blocks.
At the bottom, you have to specify the phase, dirty water and free water terms have been
explained earlier. But they are used to estimate the degree of fouling, play a major part in
determining equipment life, can modify the yield of specific product. So, these phases are also
taken into consideration in drop-down list of “specifications” sheet here.
Yield option that you will see in the demonstration below will not always present as I have
selected Ryield reactor. Every block have atleast one or two different sheets for specifying
input as every model have different characteristics and duties to perform.

95
Like if you choose the Rstoich reactor instead of Ryield reactor, the input sheet form will be
different as demonstrated below:

Here, you can see that Rstoich does not need yield specification. The thing that is needed is the
reactions, combustion, heat of reaction and selectivity while specifications, PSD, component
attribute, utility and comment section will be same. This results in a long definition of input
data needed for each block type. Insanely tedious job to do here!!.
Let’s reduce this work to a concise value to give our readers ease and well-demonstrated help
regarding blocks referring to Aspen plus help manual.

Getting complete information regarding input sheets of all blocks:

First of all, click on following help button on Aspen plus interface,

You will be directed to a help window demonstrated below, follow the steps that are visualize
below to get access to a block input sheet information

96
After clicking the “Simulation Environment Forms” you will be directed to the options shown
below:

After clicking blocks, you will be able to see the list of all models containing the good
information regarding the completion of input data for all blocks. For example, let’s take
“BatchOp” model from the option. Then, click “Work with BatchOp” to enter the complete
input forms help demonstration. Click using the procedure demonstrated below to get access
to simplified and brief explanation regarding filling all forms:

97
If you find any kind of confusions regarding information in the help section of Aspen, you have
to practice it. As information is quite simple and enough in blocks section of Aspen plus help.

Stream’s input management:

The streams that you connect to any equipment in the process flow diagram have to be specified
corresponding to its composition and parameters like temperature and pressure etc. For
example, you can see in our small design, we have two material streams 1 and 2 passing through
B2 and B1 respectively.

After entering to the streams section either by right-click selecting input by hovering over
mouse cursor on stream numbers or either by accessing streams option from left-sidebar.

Here, type of stream and status of input are critical things to carefully observe. You can see the
list of all streams here. Click on any stream number to enter the input sheet form of that stream.
It is important to note that energy stream and work stream will have different input sheet form.

Here, 1 is selected and it is a material stream. And the stream class is specified above as mixed
so you can see mixed input form here. You have to enter the temperature and pressure of your
stream and its flow rate. The composition also has to be completely specified here.
You can also change flash options like valid phases, maximum number of iterations and error
tolerance. And also, if you have to perform economic evaluation and cost analysis after
simulation, you can also manage the price of stream here. You can to calculate overall cost of
a stream here as individual component cost in a stream cannot be specified here separately

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Specifying the input of heat exchange stream:
We have connected a unique heat class stream say S1 to our exchanger, here to complete the
input, you have to enter the heat duty value and initial and final temperature.

You can also change the EO configuration for all equipment’s. You can select any run mode
whose brief details can be found in text box that is shown when you hover the mouse over any
option like I have hovered the mouse cursor over the parameter estimation and its brief details
are shown.

Specifying the input of a work stream:

Let’s connect a work stream to an agitator or mixer, a compressor or a turbine. Here you have
to specify only two things: One is power and other is the angular speed of motor. We can
change units as desired from drop list if needed.

99
Utility Streams and their significance:
Many chemical processes do not take place at ambient temperature or pressures. In order to
reach these non-ambient conditions, utilities will have to be used to raise or lower temperatures
and compress gases. (Towler, Towler/UOP) Utilities often contribute 5 to 10% of the price of
a product, and may come from public or private utility companies or on-site plants. For
purchased utilities, costs depend on consumption, while for company-owned utilities, there will
be both capital and operating costs. They include things such as steam for heating, electricity,
cooling water, refrigeration, fuels such as natural gas, wastewater treatment, waste disposal,
and landfill. Steam is often the largest utility cost. Cogeneration unit can supply electricity
accompanied with different steam pressures. (Seider 2009).
However in common process design applications, a heat exchange stream is always required if
a chemical reaction is involved in the process design and products leave at high temperature
which needed to be cooled down or maybe it is needed to heat the feed to a specific temperature
to increase the selectivity and yield of a reaction. Hence, utility stream plays an important role
in the controlling the final results on an estimated/desired track.

How to add utility streams to equipment’s in Aspen plus:

To add a utility stream, click on utility option in the left-sidebar. In the middle window as
visualized below, click new and small window will pop up. You can leave the “Copy from”
option blank or can choose any predefined stream. It is to be noted that the selected utility
stream input data can be changed even they are pre-specified on basis of
• Inlet and outlet temperatures
• Film coefficients (heat exchanger side, heating or cooling utility) or if film coefficients
are unknown, you can use properties to calculate film coefficients using Aspen built-in
correlations.
• Energy price
• Convergence
• Flow direction (Counter-current or co-current)
• Utility type (It is specified as general by-default, but you can re-specify again to any
desired option like water, oil, refrigeration etc.)
• Heating/Cooling value
• Minimum approach temperature
• Price of utility component (For coal, electricity)
• You can also manage flash options for your utility stream if required.
• Carbon tracking can be used to control, analyze and calculate CO2 emissions.
• Properties regarding electrolytes, petroleum calculation options and solving methods

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You can connect a utility stream to a model/equipment by double-clicking any energy
exchanger or special reactor like nuclear on the flow sheet and then on block input sheet,
clicking the utility tab and then selecting any pre-defined utility or creating new can fill the
bridge between your utility stream and a block/equipment.

Working with Reactions

Use the Reactions forms to specify stoichiometry and rate parameters for rate-controlled and
nonelectrolyte equilibrium reactions. These parameters are used by:

Models For

RadFrac Reactive distillation

RCSTR, RPlug, and Kinetics-based reactions

RBatch

Pres-Relief Depressurizing calculations in reactive systems

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Aspen Plus provides power law and user-defined kinetics models. You can use the generalized
Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson (LHHW) kinetic model for reactor models and Pres-
Relief. You can also use these forms to define nonelectrolyte equilibrium reactions. However,
RPlug, RBatch, and the Pres-Relief systems do not allow equilibrium reactions.
Supply an ID to identify each set of reactions and data that you define. Use these reaction IDs
to identify reactions on other forms, such as the RCSTR form or RadFrac Reactions sheet.
Use Reactions forms as follows:

Use this form To define

General A mixture of power-law, LHHW, and GLHHW

reactions in the same reaction set.

LHHW LHHW reactions to be used with RCSTR, RPlug,

RBatch, and Pres-Relief.

Power Law Power law reactions to be used with RCSTR, RPlug,

RBatch, and Pres-Relief.

Reactive Distillation Reactions to be used with RadFrac.

User-Define User kinetics to be used with RCSTR, RPlug,

RBatch,RadFrac, and Pres-Relief.

ACM User A custom reaction model imported from Aspen

Custom Modeler.

To modify or view an existing set of reactions, select an existing reaction ID. You do not have
to define the set of reactions on the Reactions forms before using other forms in Aspen Plus.
When the system prompts you for a reaction ID, you can enter a new or existing ID. If you
enter a new ID, you must define the set of reactions on the Reactions forms before running the
simulation.
Use the following Reaction forms to define reactions for Aspen Polymers:

Use this form To define

Emulsion Free-radical emulsion type polymerization kinetics.

Free-Rad Free-radical polymerization kinetics.

Ionic Anionic, cationic, and group transfer polymerization

reactions.

Segment-Bas Reactions involving polymer segments and non-

polymeric species.

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 Step-Growth Step-growth polymerization reactions.

Ziegler-Nat Ziegler-Natta catalyst polymerization reactions.

It is to be noted that general reaction types include:

• Custom (any model with constants, variables and equation have to be specified here)
• Equilibrium (Simple equilibrium reaction model)
• GLLHW-1 (Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson model with the adsorption
parameters refer to shared sets)
• LHHW (Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson model with its own adsorption
parameters)
We can also “tick” the box reversible if our reaction is reversible. And stoichiometry for all
types of reactions have to be specified to complete the reaction input for a reactor model. For
this purpose, we have to select reactants and products including the coefficients of each of the
involved reactant and product. We can also add multiple reaction sets if more than one reaction
is taking place in the your reactor model.

So, we can summarize from above demonstration and explanations that following things are
must needed for all reactions type:
• Stoichiometry of reaction
• Kinetics of reaction
• Components that are involved and their stoichiometric coefficients (-n is for reactants
and +n is for products)
• If a reaction consists of two or more steps, like of that involving catalysts, you have to
add more reaction sets in which stoichiometry of the reaction corresponds to its kinetics
to avoid any confusion and improper results)
• Reaction model, you are going to use, i.e LHHW, crystallization, kinetic, depending
upon what type of reactor model you use and what reaction type is suitable for your

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 objective reaction. (You must correlate both Aspen plus information given above and
the literature data regarding your process).

Heterogenous catalytic reactions in Aspen plus:

These reactions need a proper consideration as there are many confusions still present about
managing a catalytic reaction in Aspen plus. We will simplify this concept to few sentences
here. There are two ways in which you can manage such catalytic reactions:
• Treating catalyst as a self-regenerating reactant
• Using plug flow type reactor with specifying catalyst characteristics
In first case, we can consider the catalyst as a reactant. Such kinetics is available in “Chemical
Reaction Engineering by Octave-Levenospial and Elements of reaction engineering by
Froggler”. An example regarding hexane cracking is shown below:

Here, Mn3O4 is a hybrid-metal oxide catalyst should be selected as a solid from components
database but above it is taken as a reactant. And so, the same kinetics shown above can be
directly added to “reactions” input form of Aspen plus as two separate reactions. Note that
reaction type is better to be selected as kinetics or LHHW. If your catalyst is not available in
the component database, create it or find a suitable alternative catalyst.
Now, for other case where you want to use plug flow reactor for catalytic reaction. Use LHHW
kinetics type or general reaction type. LHHW kinetics is already explained in Aspen HYSYS
reactions section.
To start with, first you have to select a plug flow reactor and to put it on flow sheet.

Then, click on mouse-cursor button to restore selection cursor instead of addition cursor.

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Then double-click on plug flow reactor model in flowsheet window, you will be directed to
input specification form with several tabs as shown below. Select your reactor type based on
your design operation. Adiabatic is most suitable if temperature effect on the kinetics is to be
neglected.

In next tab “Configuration” you have to specify the design features of your plug flow reactor
like number of tubes, tube length, tube diameter and existing phases.

After that, you have to create a new reaction set or add an existing one if you have. Use general
reaction type if you have any confusion regarding what type should be used.

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After reaction if you do not have to work with changing pressure along the length of your
reactor, Ignore, pressure and holdup, (although these are very simple form to fill) and go to
catalyst tab. Here, the catalyst present in reactor must be ticked and the catalyst volume should
be ignored in rate/residence time calculations until you are dealing with a very special fluidized
bed catalytic reactor case. Mention your catalyst loading and bed voidage here,

Next, you have to complete the input for your catalytic reactions, Like the same as explained
earlier, you to fill reaction stoichiometry and be assure of yourself that your stoichiometry an
kinetics are parallel. You have to enter elementary reactions only for kinetics, otherwise,
improper results will be generated. You can see here that solids will be taken as catalyst. So,
add a single solid component in system that is catalyst. So, it will be automatically taken as a
catalyst here.

Running a Simulation:
When your input is completed, you can simulate the process. You can do this by clicking on
“Run” button on the ribbon toolbar and click ok on a pop-up message box saying that your
input is complete.

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The simulation process will show you the scripted results and a pop-up window will ask you
to use economic analysis if required.

Report the results and thus the simulation process is completed using Aspen Plus here.

Possible reasons if simulation does not converge:

I'm assuming at some point you have had to iteratively solve an equation where you guess at a
value, calculate it, and then recalculate based off of your answer. Aspen does this for many of
the unit operations that are carried out. When it says that it can't converge, that means that it
tried to solve the equation too many times to reach the desired limit of error between the guess
and the solution.
There are a couple possible reasons why it can't converge.
1. Your limit on the number of iterations may be too low, or your tolerances too tight. You
can usually change those inside of the equipment.
2. Your input values are unreasonable for the specified equipment. If the sizing of the
equipment isn't appropriate, you may never reach a valid solution.
3. The order of the calculations carried out. Since you have a recycle stream, you may get
a circular loop where one piece of equipment tries to calculate a certain value that some
other equipment uses in an equation. Iterations can become a big deal here.
I don't know how to fix your problem, but those are some of the things that can happen with
simulation software that prevent convergence.

Convergence Control:
A tear stream is converged when the following is true for all tear convergence variables:
If -tol≤ (Xcalculated-Xassumed)/Xassumed≤ +tol
For streams, the default convergence variables are total mole flow, all component mole flows,
pressure, and enthalpy. When the Trace Option is Cut-off (specified on the Convergence |
Options | Defaults | Tear Convergence sheet), Aspen Plus bypasses this convergence test for

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components that have a mole fraction less than the Trace threshold. The default Trace threshold
is Tolerance/100. The alternative Trace Option, Gradual, adds a 100*Trace threshold term to
the denominator. This setting gradually relaxes the convergence test for trace components.

You can also change the converging state variables also in the above demonstrated form:

Convergence methods, tearing and their significance:

Sys-CAD uses an equation-based solver - i.e. it builds its solution by writing a set of
simultaneous equations and solves them by the inverse matrix method.
In handling recycle streams, Sys-CAD builds Tear Blocks. The concept of tearing has evolved
in connection with modular flow sheeting codes to solve material and energy balances. Tearing
involves decoupling the interconnections between the modules so that sequential information
flow takes place. Tearing is required because of loops of information created by recycle
streams. What you do in tearing is to provide guesses for values of some of the unknowns (the
tear variables), usually the recycle streams, and then calculate the values of the tear variables
from the modular subroutines. These calculated values form new guesses, and so on, until the
differences between the guessed values and the calculated values are sufficiently small (within
the tear tolerance).
The convergence of these tear blocks can be resolved by using one of the following methods:
• Direct Substitution:
• Adaptive Direct Substitution
For detailed explanation if you are interested, please refer to the link given below:

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https://help.syscad.net/index.php/Convergence_Methods

Model Analysis Tool:

Model based mostly analysis may be a technique of research that uses modeling to perform the
analysis and capture and communicate the results. For social issues the 2 main varieties of
modeling used are causative loop diagrams and simulation modeling. causative loop diagrams
are used for preliminary abstract attacks on the matter. this offers thanks to simulation models
for the remainder of the work. Thwink.org has elect system dynamics because the most
applicable simulation modeling tool, because of its simplicity, power, and stress on feedback
loops.
Model based mostly analysis is that the third of the 3 main tools in our toolkit for resolution
tough social issues. the method used, the System Improvement method, needs model based
mostly analysis to execute the method. the method uses a series of steps to raise queries, like
What are the feedback loops that are presently dominant and inflicting downside symptoms?
A model is made to answer the queries.
Sensitivity analysis is the study of how the uncertainty in the output of a mathematical model
or system (numerical or otherwise) can be divided and allocated to different sources of
uncertainty in its inputs.
Let’s start by creating a new sensitivity analysis case say S1,

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When the case S1 is created, the next task to select or create a variable say 1, and then its type
must be specified like mass flow, temperature, duty, mol.fraction etc. and then stream on which
sensitivity analysis has to be done must be specified like in the visual below, we have selected
stream 1. The sub-stream is automatically specified as specified during earlier steps. You have
to choose your component as every component will show different convergence and thus
sensitivity results of different components in a stream will be different. And units are important
to check here, otherwise, your results will different from your estimated case and thus a big
confusion will be caused.
For manipulated variable limits, first you have to select the method by which intervals between
two consecutive variable manipulation steps is better to use. Equidistant is selected most-often
as it is good for small-medium limit size. However, for large limit size, like between 10 to 10^6
as in heat duty cases, it is better to go with logarithmic method. After that you have to specify
the upper and lower limits of that specified variable and number of points/increments are
automatically selected based on method you have selected.

In the next form, you have to specify a category from five options on which analysis have to
be done. Variable type, stream and component must again be specified same as before.

Note: Do not change the variables here, put as you have put in previous form.

Aspen plus makes sensitivity and general simulation results in form of tabulated data. So, in
this simple step, click “Fill Variables” to fill your specified variable in the analysis form.

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The next, you have to put the Fortran script if needed. Otherwise, it is better to leave it owing
to its complexity. After that, run the simulation again to get sensivity analysis results. A
graphical figure of a case analyzed is demonstrated below:

Optimization:
The procedure of filling the input data for “Define” and “Vary” form is same as explained
earlier in sensitivity analysis part. But here you have to fill a new form which is “Objective &
Constraints”. You have to first select the optimization case (maximization or minimization).
Then, you have to write the title of your constraint like here “Profit’ is selected.

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The use of Fortran is demonstrated below, in which the general objective to show you is that
you have to add components and variables which are specified above for
maximization/minimization. The only unique thing is about learning the Fortran 77 language.

After filling other two forms in the way as explained earlier. You can run simulation and check
the results as shown below for three example variables.

Safety Analysis:
See the section “Safety Analysis” topic in Aspen HYSYS part. The procedure is almost same.

Energy Analysis:
See the section “Energy Analysis” topic in Aspen HYSYS part. The procedure is almost same.

Cost Analysis (Sourced from Aspen help):

Integrated Cost Estimation:
Integrated Cost Estimation lets you easily estimate costs for a plant based on an Aspen
Plus simulation of the plant.
Use the Economics tab of the ribbon to perform integrated cost estimation with Aspen Process
Economic Analyzer (APEA).
Configuring Costing:
Before you can run integrated costing, you should configure the model with costing
information.

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 • Use the Costing Options form to specify the costing template, scenario name and
description, and optionally the operating life of the plant, length of plant startup, and
the date for the start of basic engineering.
o The costing template determines the units of measure and currency used
by APEA, as well as the schedules used for calculating costs and other options.
These may differ from units and currencies used in Aspen Plus. Pre-configured
templates are available for several locations around the world, with appropriate
currency and cost schedules, each in Inch-Pound (IP) or Metric units. You can
build your own template in standalone APEA to specify these or other options.
o The scenario name is used to identify this costing scenario. APEA files are
stored in a subfolder with this name.
o The description appears in APEA reports.
o The operating life of the plant, length of plant startup, and start of basic
engineering affect APEA's cost calculations. If these are not specified, default
values from the costing template are used.
• In order to get raw material results, specify stream prices.
• For best results, configure your model to use utilities. If you do not, APEA will guess
the utilities needed, but configuring the model to use utilities actually available in your
plant and specifying the costs of those utilities will produce more accurate results.
• APEA creates a new area, with additional costs for a civil foundation and electrical
cables for lighting and the associated engineering, for each flowsheet section in the
model. Use flowsheet sections to represent physically distinct areas which need to be
modeled in this way.
Performing Costing
Run the simulation. You must start with a converged simulation to perform costing.
Then Activate costing. This starts APEA in the background.
Next, you must Map the Aspen Plus unit operation models into equipment models. In this
step, Aspen Process Economic Analyzer loads data from Aspen Plus and generates a default
mapping for each unit operation model to models of equipment whose cost can be estimated.
This mapping may not be one-to-one; in particular, complex models such as distillation
columns may be modeled as multiple pieces of equipment. Next, you must Size the equipment,
determining appropriate sizes for the equipment based on data from the unit operation models
and streams in Aspen Plus. Finally, you must Evaluate the model to determine costs for each
piece of equipment.

Tip: After activating costing, you can evaluate the model immediately if desired,
accepting default values for mapping and sizing. If you check Auto-Evaluate
then Aspen Plus automatically starts the costing analysis after every successful
flowsheet run.

You can also perform partial costing of portions of the flowsheet.

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Viewing Results:
The Models Form is available at all times. This displays a summary of the Aspen Plus unit
operation model data, with models of the same type in columns on the same tab for easier
comparison. The Equipment/Economics Form is available after the model has been evaluated.
This displays a summary of the costs for the whole plant and for each equipment model.
The Investment Analysis report is also available after the model has been evaluated. This opens
an Excel spreadsheet produced by Aspen Process Economic Analyzer providing investment
analysis for the project.
For additional information related to cost estimation, see the help for standalone Aspen Process
Economic Analyzer.

Using Activated Economic Analysis

Dashboard Panel
Initially, the Economics button appears in the Activation dashboard without results and turned
off:

Before you begin to use the dashboard panel, use the Costing Options form to specify the
costing template, scenario name and description, and optionally the operating life of the plant,
length of plant startup, and the date for the start of basic engineering. In order to get raw
material results, specify stream prices as well, and configure your model to use utilities. For
more details on this configuration, see Integrated Cost Estimation.

Note: When Aspen Plus is running invisibly (such as from automation or

from Aspen Simulation Workbook), you must make the simulation visible in order
to fully initialize components needed to run activated economics. Once you have
done so it should work if you subsequently make it invisible.

Run the simulation. After your run is complete, in the Economics panel on the Activation
dashboard, click off to turn the on activated economics and perform cost analysis.

Note: If there are input changes since the last run, you must re-run. If you try to
use Activated Economic Analysis when there are changes since the last results, you
will be asked whether to re-run the simulation or cancel the action.

When you do so, Aspen Process Economic Analyzer calculates costs and shows them in the
panel:

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If there are warnings from economic analysis, such as some unit operations whose costs could
not be calculated, a yellow warning icon will appear on this panel. Click it to open
the Equipment tab of the Equipment/Economics form; information about the warnings
appears in the Evaluation Errors column at the far right of this screen. This area can also
display when economics is not available, a green check mark (as above) when results are
available, and a status message when economics is calculating.
Equipment/Economics Form
Detailed economic results appear in the Equipment/Economics form. Click the capital cost
result on the dashboard panel to see a summary of the costs. Click the utility cost result to see
details of the utility costs. You can click the other tabs on the Equipment/Economics form to
see information about specific types of equipment.

Flowsheet Overlays:
When you click the dashboard panel for Economics, the flowsheet displays green circles
around the blocks on the flowsheet with the highest costs. Click Settings on
the Economics tab of the ribbon to specify settings for flowsheet overlays. By default the 3
blocks with the highest operating costs are highlighted. You can specify 1 to 10 highest cost
blocks; specify operating cost, capital cost, installed cost, or weight as the ranking mechanism;
or turn off the display of the rings completely.

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 Note: Activated Exchanger Analysis has a similar feature to highlight blocks on
the flowsheet. When you turn on one of these features, the other is automatically
turned off. You must set the Windows display setting to Smaller or 100% for this
feature to work properly.

Collecting data for completing input for simulation:

For collecting the data required for completing the input in reactions form of Aspen plus, you
have to read books, journals, patents and research papers relevant with your process design. In
reality, Aspen is not difficult to learn, the difficult part is your knowledge and understanding
regarding your process.
Author’s review about this discussion is:
“If you have knowledge of what information is needed to simulate the process, and you have
collected or mapped all that information in form of notes/report, you have nothing to do with
searching for un-existed treasure in the world of Aspen plus/HYSYS”.
So, pick up a pen and start to read all relevant topics, articles, research papers, patents and
books. For example, you can read “Unit Operations by Mcabe and Smith, 7th edition” regarding
information of completing input for unit operations and for completing input form for heat
exchanger, you can read “Process heat transfer by D.Q Kern”. There are always many options
are available to use if you have enough knowledge of which one can produce a better result.
For collecting data regarding the properties and parameters of components/equipment’s for
using in different design models, processes, reactions kinetics etc. You can use the following
best sources:
• Perry’s Handbook of Chemical Engineering, 8th edition
• Chemical Properties handbook, Carl. L Yaws, PhD. Published by McGraw Hill 1999
• CRC handbook of chemistry and physics by chemical rubber company, published by
Boca Raton Fla, CRC Press, 1977
• Knovel critical tables, 2nd edition
• NIST-JANAF thermochemical tables M. W.; Chase, M. W.; National Institute of
Standards and Technology (U.S.)
• Yaws' Handbook of Physical Properties for Hydrocarbons and Chemicals
• The Yaws Handbook of Thermodynamic Properties for Hydrocarbons and chemicals
by Carl L. Yaws

References:
“It should be noted that all the references that are used in this book are cited properly. And
there are very few outside resources that are used except Aspen help is most often used where
its information is more reliable. Best of luck for your future endeavors.”
Best regards,
Moosa Naseer (Author)

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Bonus Content
Physical modelling with COMSOL Multiphysics 5:
COMSOL Multiphysics is a cross-platform finite element analysis, solver and multi-physics
simulation software. It allows conventional physics-based user interfaces and coupled systems
of partial differential equations

List of Release Highlights Updates

Core Functionality
• New product: COMSOL Compiler™
• More than one Parameter node in the Model Builder
• Group Model Builder nodes into folders
• Coloring of models based on selections
• Faster solution time in the Windows® operating system

Electromagnetics
• Fully parametric and ready-to-use parts for coils and magnetic cores
• Electric currents and Joule heating in thin, layered structures
• More than 40 new substrate materials for printed RF, microwave, and millimeter-wave
circuits
• New boundary conditions for thin metallic layers and antireflective coatings
• Schrödinger-Poisson Equation interface for semiconductor simulations
• New and updated Part Library for ray optics
• More powerful STOP analysis
• Optical dispersion models for ray optics

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Structural Mechanics and Acoustics
• New product: Composite Materials Module
• Shock response spectrum analysis
• Material activation for additive manufacturing
• Microstructure modelling based on unit cells
• Axisymmetric shells
• Soft connectors
• FSI for shells, membranes, structural assemblies, and multibody dynamics
• Mullins effect for rubber
• Damage models for brittle materials such as concrete
• Acoustic ports
• Nonlinear acoustic Westervelt computations

Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer

• Large eddy simulation (LES)
• FSI for multiphase flow
• New phase transport models for free and porous media flow
• Multiphase flow in porous media
• Updated Euler-Euler, Level-Set, and Mixture Model formulations
• New non-Newtonian fluid models
• Heat radiation with diffuse-specular reflections and semitransparent surfaces
• Surface-to-surface radiation with arbitrary number of spectral bands
• Light diffusion equation
• Heat transfer in thin, layered structures

Chemical
• Updated Thermodynamics interface
• Equilibrium reactions in Maxwell-Stefan diffusion
• The Reacting Flow multi-physics coupling is now available for the Transport of Diluted
Species interface
• Lumped models for batteries
• Boundary conditions for membranes, such as for electrodialysis

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Using the COMSOL Multiphysics:
First, after splash screen have disappeared. You have to click on model wizard to select a 2D
or 3D model type to work with.

Secondly, you have to select a particular space dimension in which you want to make your
physical model. For example, I want to use the 3D model, so select it by double clicking it.

Next you have to select your case, for instance, I have to work with computational fluid
dynamics model with single phase fluid and laminar flow. So, select it by clicking and
expanding from bundle of options from list.

After, selecting it, double-click it and then click on study option downward after reviewing
variables notations from list in main window.

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Next, you have to specify what type of study you need like time-dependent, stationary in which
profile will be generated or a custom case based on frequencies and eigen vectors. I will go
here with a stationary case, because I need a fluid flow profile.

Click done and you will be now directed to workspace. First you have collected materials from
which you have to create a mesh or geometry. Like I want to use iron alloy 1008 (UNS G10080)
[solid, rimmed - 0.001/s strain rate]. The physical and thermophysical including electrical
properties will be shown in a block window like this.

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Next you have to built geometry, create meshes, specifying dimensional variables and then
running the study. The properties and dimensions specifying steps are simple but there is one
thing that is most complex in COMSOL which is “Creating a model using geometry and
materials”.
You can also create a hybrid geometry using different materials in COMSOL as shown below:

Geometry Modeling Examples:

Creating a 2D Geometry Model:
This section describes how to build a 2D cross section of a heat sink and introduces 2D
geometry operations in COMSOL Multiphysics.
Assume that you want to estimate the maximum amount of heat dissipated by a heat sink placed
around a resistor for high-power applications. The heat sink consists of an extruded aluminum
profile as in Figure 7-7. If the effects at the ends of the elongated heat sink are neglected, the
model can be simplified and a decent estimate obtained of the heat dissipated by creating a 2D
cross section.

Figure 7-7: Example of a 3D heat sink model with cross section.Creating

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Parameters for Geometry Parameterization:
The following steps explain how to create two circles to form the core of the heat sink in
Figure 7-7. To investigate different dimensions of the heat sink, parameterize the geometry.
Start by defining the radius of the outer arc of the heat sink, the radius of the inner arc, and the
thickness and the length of the heat sink flanges.

See Toolbars and Keyboard Shortcuts for links and information about all the
available toolbars. Also see The COMSOL Desktop Menus and Toolbars.
It is also useful to review Working with Geometric Entities and Named
Selections before continuing with these instructions.

1On the Model toolbar click Parameters ( ).

In the Parameters table, enter, or copy and paste the values in the table below. The Value
2column automatically displays the Expression value.

Name Expression Description

R1 5[mm] Radius circle 1

R2 2.5[mm] Radius circle 2

d 1[mm] Height

L 5[mm] Width

Adding Two Circles with Predefined Parameters

1Under Component 1, right-click the Geometry 1 node and choose Circle ( ).

2On the Settings window for Circle under Size and Shape, enter R1 in the Radius field.

3Click the Build Selected button ( ).

A circle (c1) with radius R1 displays in the Graphics window.

4Add another circle. Right-click Geometry 1 and select Circle ( ).

5On the Settings window for Circle under Size and Shape, enter R2 in the Radius field.

6Click the Build Selected button ( ).

A circle with radius R2 displays in the Graphics window. Click the Zoom Extents button (
) to see both circles.
Subtracting the Smaller circle

1On the Geometry toolbar, from the Booleans and Partitions menu, select Difference ( ).

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 On the Settings window, under Difference, the Active button is On ( ) by default. It
2activates the Objects to add list for choosing objects.
In the Graphics window, click to select object c1 (the larger circle). c1 is added to the Objects
3to add list.

4) Under Objects to subtract click the Active button to toggle and activate this section.
Select the object c2 (the smaller circle). This can be done by clicking it in the Graphics
window. Or open the Selection List window (from the Model toolbar, More
Windows>Selection List) and right-click c2 (solid) to Add to Selection.

Click the Build Selected button ( ). The object dif1 is created by subtracting the smaller
6circle from the larger circle.

Reference:
COMSOL help is used to demonstrate above topic “Creating a custom geometry”.

Author’s note:
Please use “Multiphysics Modelling Using COMSOL? A First Principles Approach” book by
Roger W. Pryor to understand fundamentals of using COMSOL Multiphysics as it is a very
complex software. Here, it is only demonstrated as an introductory demo.

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