AixCAPE® e.V. is a not-for-profit consortium with focus on facilitating new technologies and on speeding up innovation transfer in the area of Computer Aided Process Engineering & Plant Technology for Energy and Material Conversion. The consortium was founded in 2002 as a spin-off from the Chair of Process Systems Engineering at RWTH Aachen University. Many of the worldwide leading chemical and petrochemical companies are members of the consortium which is in the process of attracting new member companies. AixCAPE® is also actively inviting other leading research universities to join and efficiently promote the transfer of their innovations within the AixCAPE® network together with the member companies.
CAPE-OPEN provides an ideal basis for the AixCAPE projects as it allows the algorithms to be used within a software environment that is widely available in chemical engineering companies. Engineers can continue to work with the tools they are accustomed to, instead of having to be trained on new software. Further, the integration of existing thermodynamic data and models is greatly simplified.
Lars von WEDEL represented AixCAPE e.V. from February 2006 till Frank ALSMEYER took the position. Marcus SOEMERS took the position of representative of AixCAPE e.V. in CO-LaN in February 2010.
As of January 1, 2021 AixCAPE e.V. is an Associate Member in Group C as per the bylaws adopted on October 15, 2020.
CAPE-OPEN related activities:
Together with RWTH Aachen Lehrstuhl für Prozesstechnik, AixCAPE e.V. published a paper on the “Management and Reuse of Mathematical Models in the Industrial Design Process” that describes a Repository for a Modeling Environment (Rome) supporting CAPE-OPEN. Also with RWTH Aachen Lehrstuhl für Prozesstechnik, Lars von WEDEL published on a Shortcut Separation algorithm wrapped as a CAPE-OPEN Unit Operation.
Lars von WEDEL presented on “Integrating shortcut algorithms into flowsheet simulators by means of the CAPE-OPEN standard” at ACHEMA 2006.
Following the major contribution Lars von WEDEL brought to the definition of a roadmap from COM to .NET with respect to CAPE-OPEN, a work performed within the Methods & Tools Special Interest Group, William BARRETT, Michel PONS, Lars von WEDEL, and Bertrand BRAUNSCHWEIG presented a paper at ESCAPE 17. Published as An overview of the interoperability roadmap for COM/.NET-Based CAPE-OPEN, Computer Aided Chemical Engineering, Volume 24, 2007, Pages 165–170.
Lars von WEDEL, then working at AixCAPE e.V., was an instructor for the one-day short course organized by CO-LaN at AIChE’07 on November 4, 2007.
Lars von WEDEL provided a critical review of CAPE-OPEN in a paper published by Chemie Ingenieur Technik in February 2008.
Marcus SOEMERS attended the CAPE-OPEN 2012 Annual Meeting.