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Our own Trevor Rice has been awarded the South Texas Section AIChE’s Outstanding Young
Professional Award for 2013!
Trevor is a valued member of the development team here at Chemstations, and we've seen his devotion to working on quality projects for our customers, so it's little surprise to us that his passion for the profession of chemical engineering has been rewarded by the local section leadership. He continues to contribute his time and effort to make STS a great institution, and we are all very proud of him and his efforts.
Trevor's award will be presented at the 6th AIChE Southwest Process Technology Conference at the Moody Gardens Conference Center and Hotel in Galveston, TX (October 9th and 10th, 2014; more information here). Chemstations technical and sales staff will be present throughout the conference, so stop by to congratulate Trevor and visit with us to chat about process simulation and CHEMCAD!
Worrying about a license for your process simulator is probably not how you want to spend your time. We get it. You just want CHEMCAD to be available when you need it--so we try to make our licensing as invisible as possible to you, our customers and users.
 To that end, we offer a variety of software and hardware licensing solutions, with the aim of providing a "set it and forget it" path for your organization:
- System Authorization software keys for single-machine licensing
- SafeNet(TM) hardware keys for single-machine licensing
- SafeNet(TM) hardware keys for network licensing
- SafeNet(TM) RMS software keys for network licensing
In all scenarios, CHEMCAD can be installed on any or all machines in your organization. Now let's look at licensing options for some typical organizations.
Large organization (multi-user, multi-site, wide area network)
- Access a pool of licenses from any client computer on the network, served by a hardware key placed on any machine on the network.
- Access a pool of licenses from any client computer on the network, served by a software license server (RMS). This further allows commuting of licenses: for example, a laptop connected to your network can 'check out' a license and then leave your network to use CHEMCAD at a remote site.
Small organization (multi-user, single-site, local area network)
- License a single, dedicated CHEMCAD machine with a software key.
- Share one or more hardware keys.
- Use either of the network options listed above on your local area network.
Individual consultant (single user, one or more machines)
- License a single, dedicated CHEMCAD machine with a software key.
- Use a hardware key to enable the most convenient machine (desktop, laptop, etc.) at any given time.
Whether you have a dedicated IT staff, have outsourced IT, or do your own IT, we're here to help. Our technical support staff not only are chemical engineers themselves, but also have a wealth of experience addressing the complex IT needs of all kinds of organizations. We can generate license files, help debug licensing issues, and in some cases, provide contingent licensing if you have network access problems.
If you'd like to explore licensing options, you can browse the CHEMCAD knowledgebase on our customer portal, where you'll find articles that address common licensing questions. You can also get in touch with us directly, and let our staff show you how flexible and available CHEMCAD can be in your computing environment.
Water. It's in almost every plant and system . . . if it's not in your process streams, it's likely in your utilities. If your process is defined by aqueous electrolytes, you've probably already been modeling or planning to model concentration, boiling point rises, precipitation, pH, and so forth.
CHEMCAD has both the modified NRTL and Pitzer thermodynamic systems built right in. They are available for calculation in any unit operation, including distillation columns. With mNRTL, you can run in apparent species or true species modes (we have a great discussion on the pros & cons of each in our help system, and we'd be happy to go over it with you). There are a significant number of common electrolyte species and electrolyte reaction data sets included with the program. If you don't have reaction equilibrium constants, CHEMCAD will estimate them from Gibbs free energy of formation for the electrolyte species or you can regress from laboratory/experimental data.
Even if you don't have electrolytes in your process streams, you can still benefit from this feature: if you'll recall from a prior post on modeling utilities ( here), there are economic benefits to analyzing your cooling water system. You can watch the buildup of carbonates or other salts, to determine optimal bleed/purge rates or timing for injection of cleaning chemicals.
To jump-start your next aqueous electrolyte modeling work, get in touch with us--we'd love the chance to help make your project a positive one!
Do you have an existing vessel reactor in your process? Often, we hear from customers that they have an existing operating procedure, but they aren't sure exactly how much time the reaction actually requires.
Maybe you have a basic reaction analysis from an R&D group that requires scale-up from the lab to a full-scale vessel reactor. We've worked with organizations that would like to use the same software tool for R&D, process development, and operations.
CHEMCAD has you covered.
It's helpful to think of reaction systems in four parts: (1) the reactants/products/by-products, (2) the reaction, (3) the vessel, and (4) the operation step(s).
 For the chemicals, CHEMCAD's database of physical properties includes all the DIPPR( TM) data for pure compounds, as well as a wide variety of methods for calculating mixture properties and the phase equilibria.
For the reaction, you can specify Arrhenius constants (or extended Langmuir-Hinshelwood constants), or you can define your own reaction equation for ultimate flexibility. If you don't yet have the kinetics worked out, CHEMCAD also includes regression facilities that you can use with laboratory or operating data.
For the vessel, you can simulate everything from a laboratory flask to a full-scale, continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR) with jackets and coils. You can define ancillary equipment like pumps, control valves, and PID controllers for feed streams, product streams, and utilities. Add a vent condenser or even a distillation column to the top of the reactor. You can even model safety scenarios by adding relief devices to the vessel.
For the operation step(s), CHEMCAD's dynamic simulation system allows you to set run times, control schemes, dosing rates, ramp controls, and more. CHEMCAD will rigorously calculate properties, reaction rates, phase equilibria, pressure (if desired), and heat transfer for heating/cooling systems. You'll see volume, composition, temperature, pressure, and more versus time so you can optimize your design or your existing operations. And, of course, you can model batch, semi-batch, or continuous operation.
Want to join the ranks of customers who've successfully designed and optimized their vessel reactors? Contact your CHEMCAD sales or support representative today!
Your process (or process design) is probably not fully optimized. Of course, you know that, and you own a simulator to improve your process. For example, you may make a relatively simple calculation like finding the optimal feed tray location in a distillation column.
In our training courses, we teach a simple method of using CHEMCAD's sensitivity analysis to vary feed tray location while measuring reboiler duty, and we've heard back from a number of you who've achieved significant savings from doing just that.
But did you know that you can have CHEMCAD do the work for you? This is not only possible, but also very straightforward.
Included with CHEMCAD is an optimizer (using General Reduced Gradient, Successive Quadratic Programming, or Simultaneous
Modular SQP routines) that allows you to define an objective function and tell the program which variables it can adjust in order to find the optimum (min/max). After just a few clicks, you'll have your solution.
Now let's go even further: many dedicated optimization engines allow "multi-variable" optimization, but you don't need to look beyond the software you already have.
An easy-to-understand example is a CAPEX/OPEX calculation, designed to find the optimal allocation of resources over a given period of time. Using CHEMCAD's cost algorithms, you can get a total equipment cost and an operating cost (energy, utilities, feeds, etc.), which can all be fed to an Excel(TM) spreadsheet using CHEMCAD's Data Map. Another approach to calculating the CAPEX and OPEX values and ratio would be to write a routine in CHEMCAD's Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) tool. The ratio is then available as your objective function in the optimizer.
We told you money was hiding in your process--isn't it time you went out and got it?
To find out more, get in touch with our sales or support representatives. Happy optimizing!
CHEMCAD's CC-THERM module has offered embedded rigorous modeling of heat exchangers for many years. Why is this a valuable tool?
In many cases, general heat transfer calculations for exchangers are sufficient. In other circumstances, though, you really need a more rigorous model. Let's look at a few examples where rigorous heat exchanger modeling can help you obtain faster, more accurate results.
Imagine you're a plant engineer and are asked to find a way to improve throughput. Can your existing heat exchangers handle the increased flow? You can use CC-THERM in Rating mode to enter specifications for the existing exchanger (TEMA type, # of tubes, baffles, etc.) and get the flows, temperatures, and pressures to match current conditions. Then increase the flow in the model to see if you exceed any constraints on the exchanger.
Suppose there's a concern with fouling in a particular stream. You can switch to Fouling Rating mode in CC-THERM to calculate the fouling rate that allows the model to fit reality. Then increase the flow in the model as before, to determine whether the existing exchanger will be sufficient.
Is the exchanger you have not big enough to handle the increased throughput? You can use CC-THERM in Design mode to design a replacement exchanger. Use the specifications of the existing exchanger to create your initial estimates, since you know these specs are close to your requirements. Now you can approach your heat exchanger manufacturers with a much clearer picture of what you need and what their proposed design should look like.
CC-THERM is available as a stand-alone product or as an add-on to your existing CHEMCAD package. Please contact us at 1-800-CHEMCAD for more details!
Steam. Cooling water. Thermal fluids. Air. Nitrogen. Fuel. Almost every facility
has them, and they can represent a great opportunity to improve your processes’
efficiency and reduce costs. Knowing if your equipment (pumps, compressors, cooling towers, heat exchangers, piping, etc.) is properly sized and
your maintenance regimen (water treatment, equipment cleaning, etc.) is properly timed can represent both capital and operating
cost improvements. This topic is covered in some detail in our training
courses, and I’ve seen the “idea bulb” above trainees' heads when they realize
the ease with which they can chase down significant process improvements.
One example we cover is the use of a distillation column
UnitOp to model a cooling tower. You can add as much or as little complexity to
the simulation as you like, and in our training course, we even go into details
such as aqueous electrolytes and blowdown. We’ve also helped customers with
models of incredibly extensive piping networks that deliver steam and cooling
water throughout large facilities. Again, depending on your needs, the level of detail can vary, but we’ve seen
everything from simple heat and material balances all the way to rigorous
piping pressure-drop calculations, control valves, dynamic response, and even
reverse flow (more on reverse flow and hydraulic balancing in a future post
here--stay tuned).
Just remember: don’t let the process side dominate your
thinking about how and when to use process simulation software. The utility side
can be just as important and valuable!
If you need some help getting started, contact our technical
support group, and we can direct you to an example or discuss your specific
questions.
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