An Integrated Environment for Heterogeneous Process Modeling and Simulation

Abstract

The development of chemical processes requires the consideration of different areas such as reaction, separation, or product conditioning from several perspectives such as the economic efficiency of the steady-state process or the performance of the control system during operation. Mathematical modeling and computer simulation have become vital tools in order to perform such studies. However, various applications are supported by a number of tools with different strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, the formulation of the mathematical model and the data structures underlying the implementations of these tools are incompatible. Their integration at runtime for chemical process development poses technical problems to the engineer who carries out the work. This section describes an environment that accounts for the differences of mathematical modeling and simulation tools, and facilitates modeling and simulation across the boundaries of incompatible tools. The use of this environment is illustrated in the context of the IMPROVE reference scenario, addressing the production of Polyamide-6 from ε-caprolactam (cf. Subsect. 1.2.2); the simulation tools used in this case study are currently used in industrial design processes.