Over the past ten years, the Technical University of Denmark has made an effort to collect and disseminate research within chemical engineering thermodynamics to industrial collaborators through CAPE-OPEN [1]. Ensuring a successful knowledge transfer from university to industry is an iterative task that requires commitment from all partners as well as a good communication across disciplines. The development of CAPE-OPEN compliant scientific software is a multidisciplinary task that requires insight in software development and process simulation as well as an in-depth knowledge of the underlying research. Furthermore, as a project matures and the solution becomes more widely adopted and used in the industry, it becomes important to ensure the quality of the software and results produced from process simulation. A new software solution (ThermoSystem 4.0) has been built from the combined experiences and research from the CHIGP project [2]. ThermoSystem is a solution for performing calculations with state of the art thermodynamic models, including PC-SAFT and CPA. Version 4 consists of a new CAPE-OPEN 1.0 and 1.1 compatible C# library [3] and a robust core thermodynamic library (built in FORTRAN) [4].
We present how the new version solves a range of issues related to research, implementation and optimization, and those related to the state of the current implementation of the CAPE-OPEN standard in commercial process simulators. We show results from process simulation of larger flow sheets and present an overview of the future developments in the CHIGP project.
[1] M. P. Breil, G. M. Kontogeorgis, N. von Solms, E. H. Stenby, CAPE-OPEN: An International Standard for Process Simulation, Chemical Engineering, December 2007, p. 52-55
[2] Chemicals in Gas Processing (CHIGP)
[3] Maribo-Mogensen, G. M. Kontogeorgis, K. Thomsen, Development of a CAPE-OPEN compatible library for thermodynamic models and unit operations using .NET, 8th European Conference of Chemical Engineering, Berlin, 2011, 26-29 September
[4] G. M. Kontogeorgis; G. Folas Thermodynamic Models for Industrial Applications, Wiley, Chichester,2010, ISBN: 978-0-470-69726-9