J. ZHOU, H.A. KOOIJMAN and R. TAYLOR have published today a paper in Chemical Engineering Research & Design where they describe their rate-based, equation-oriented, parallel column model and its application to dividing wall columns (DWCs).
This model has been implemented in ChemSep Unit Operation and is therefore seamlessly pluggable in any process simulator featuring a CAPE-OPEN Unit Operation socket such as Aspen HYSYS, Aspen Plus, COFE, DWSIM, Petro-SIM, ProSimPlus, ProMAX, PRO/II, UniSim Design, VMGSim, etc…
Through this paper, the authors want to show other parties how CAPE-OPEN is a key enabling technology.
The authors also hope their paper will help spread the application of the DWC separation technology that they consider a cheap way for chemical plants to cut their CO2 emissions. The authors have frequently seen that energy savings are 10%, but sometimes they can amount to 30% and with a CO2 tax of 50 or 100 Euro per tonne, these savings make a revamp feasible. Since, usually, there are also 10-30% CAPEX savings, payback time is accelerated even more.
CO-LaN welcomes this enhancement brought by ChemSep to the modelling of Dividing Wall Columns. It represents the latest development of the ChemSep Unit Operation which has a long history with CAPE-OPEN, starting back at the CAPE-OPEN 2015 Annual Meeting held in Como, Italy where Ross TAYLOR presented the first implementation of ChemSep as a CAPE-OPEN Unit Operation.
CO-LaN would appreciate any feedback on the use, through CAPE-OPEN, of the rate-based parallel column model in ChemSep, as applied to the simulation of Dividing Wall Columns.