CAPE-OPEN UPDATE, Volume 10

CAPE-OPEN UPDATE is a publication of the CAPE-OPEN Laboratories Network (CO-LaN), a non-profit consortium for the development of the CAPE-OPEN standard.

LATEST NEWS

2nd Annual US CAPE-OPEN Meeting, 25 & 26 May, National Energy Technology Laboratory

The US National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) graciously hosted the 2nd U.S. Annual CAPE-OPEN Meeting in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA on May 25 & 26, 2005.  NETL's CO-LaN representative, Dr. Steve Zitney, was the host for this productive meeting. Over 50 participants registered for this event, representing universities, research groups, industrial users, and software developers. An excellent array of technical presentations, progress reports, and CO information was on offer. Each attendee received a CD of all the presentations (and most demos).

Some key highlights of the meeting:

• CO-LaN reported on the progress made since last year on the implementation side, with live demos showing actual interoperability of UNIT and THRM plugs and sockets.
• Honeywell discussed their commitment to CAPE-OPEN and plans to implement CO standards in their products. SimSci-Esscor, AspenTech and Process Systems Enterprise, Ltd (PSE) renewed their commitment to support CAPE-OPEN.
• US Department of Energy (DOE) showed how they are using the link between a CFD tool (Fluent) and CAPE-OPEN compliant PMEs (Process Modeling Environments). Their library of CFD models embedded in process models is expanding and consequently the usage of such a link.
• Fluent Inc. reviewed their experience in making Fluent CAPE-OPEN compliant as well as in developing a COM-CORBA bridge.
• The US EPA Metal Finishing Pollution Prevention process simulator (a CO compliant full Process Modeling Environment) source code will be made available via EPA and CO-LaN web sites as an aid to software developers.
• Alstom Power showed their activities in applying CAPE-OPEN technology for their power generation modeling projects.
• Heat Transfer Research Inc. (HTRI) showed how a they are using CAPE-OPEN to enlarge their customer base and usage as well as aiming at reducing the cost of interfacing their software with the multiplicity of PMEs used by their clients. They are progressively making use of the different arrangements made possible by the CO standard, using HTRI software either as a UNIT plug or THRM socket, as examples.
• CO-LaN reported on new directions in the CO standard: dynamic simulation, Thermo 1.1 and solids and encouraged the participants to join in the development of these new extensions.
• CMU (Carnegie Mellon University) showed a completely new direction for CO implementation: solvers/optimizers.  This should be a strong signal to PME vendors to implement the corresponding socket to provide end-users with the opportunity to use the most recent NLP solvers.
• SIMULIS and gPROMS demonstrated (separately) that once a CO interface is properly implemented, the corresponding software component is usable with quite a number of tools.
• Good discussions were held among some of key players on expanding the role of North American participants in the CO effort generally and CO-LaN in particular.

More information and the full presentations have been posted on the CO-LaN web site.  Topics covered are below:

.         Introduction to NETL Computational & Basic Sciences (Cugini - NETL)

·         Introduction to CAPE-OPEN and CO-LaN (Braunschweig - IFP/CO-LaN)

·         End User Perspectives (Pons - CO-LaN)

·         CAPE-OPEN Concepts and Usage (Braunschweig - IFP/CO-LaN)

·         Demo of gPROMS Unit Operation Models in the Aspen Plus, HYSYS, and PRO/II Simulators (Pons - CO-LaN)

·         CO Integration for Advanced Process Engineering Co-Simulation (Zitney - NETL)

·         Survey CAPE-OPEN Compliant Components (Pons - CO-LaN)

·         Overview of AspenTech CO Support (McGough - AspenTech)

·         Process Systems Enterprise: gPROMS and CO (Keeping - PSE)

·         CO in SimSci-Esscor PRO/II (Jerome - SimSci-Esscor)

·         Honeywell UniSim Design current and future CO compliance (Saha - Honeywell Canada)

·         CO-ChemSep Non-Equilibrium Modeling: the CO Way (Taylor - ChemSep)

·         Simulis Thermodynamics from ProSim SA (Pons - CO-LaN)

·         A CO-Compliant Object for Large-scale NLP (Lang/Biegler - Carnegie Mellon)

·         Property Generation in HTRI Xchanger Suite using CO - (Aguirre - HTRI)

·         Transient Integrated Network Analysis (TINA) (Braunschweig - IFP)

·         Metal Finishing Pollution Prevention Application (Barrett - US EPA)

·         Power Plant Analysis Using CFD and Process Simulation (Sloan - Alstom Power)

·         Fluent COM/CORBA Bridge and CO-Compliant Unit Operation (Osawe - Fluent)

·         CO Thermo Specification Implementations - Lessons Learned (Pons - CO-LaN)

·         CO Numerical Solvers Interfaces (Keeping - PSE)

·         CO Component Development Wizards (Braunschweig - IFP)

·         CO Tester (Pons - CO-LaN)

·         CO Logger (Braunschweig - IFP)

·         Extensions for Dynamic Simulation (Pons - CO-LaN)

·         Extensions for Solids within Thermo Specification (Pons - CO-LaN)

·         CO-LaN Future Directions/General Discussion (CO-LaN)

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ProSim Press Release: Simulis Thermodynamics Successfully Demonstrates CAPE-OPEN Compliance  

ProSim, Toulouse, France, May 3, 2005 - Press Release:   Since its release, late 2004, 4, 4, Simulis^® Thermodynamics has undergone intensive testing by CO-LaN (CAPE-OPEN Laboratories Network – www.colan.org) and by major users in the process simulation field.  Simulis^® Thermodynamics is a thermophysical properties calculation server available as an MS-Excel^® add-in, a MATLAB^® toolbox, or as a module pluggable in any other software that requires quality thermophysical properties.

The tests focused, to a large extent, on the ability to plug Simulis^® Thermodynamics into other simulation packages intended for wider fields of application (equipment sizing, system modeling, etc).  These packages benefit, through the CAPE-OPEN standard, from the quality and the reliability of the thermodynamics provided in Simulis^® Thermodynamics. Simulis^® Thermodynamics allows the user to generate "Property Packages" that can be used with CAPE-OPEN compliant applications (Thermodynamic Plug). This functionality has been successfully tested in Aspen Plus (Aspen Plus 2004 and v12.1), Aspen Hysys 2004 and v3.2 (AspenTech), PRO/II v7.1 (SimSci-Esscor), gPROMS® (PSE), and XIST (HTRI). Additional testing in VALI (Belsim) and INDISS (RSI) is scheduled.  Simulis^® Thermodynamics also has the capability to use a thermodynamic model generated by a third party application (Thermodynamic Socket). Tests have demonstrated that Simulis^® Thermodynamics can already handle the packages from Multiflash (Infochem), PPDS (TUV-NEL) and Aspen Properties (AspenTech).

Simulis^® Thermodynamics is, to date, one of the few software components that provide this level of integration capability and CAPE-OPEN compliance. It naturally becomes the reference in this field, especially since any application that integrates Simulis^® Thermodynamics automatically benefits from its CAPE-OPEN compliance.  With these significant successes, ProSim confirms its ability to develop leading edge software that responds to industry requirements.

About ProSim

ProSim is an independent company, founded in 1989, with headquarters in Labège (Toulouse – France). The company provides state of the art simulation and optimization software that allows the process industries to increase their efficiency and their return on investment. ProSim solutions are designed for applications in the chemical, refining, gas treatment, and specialty chemical industries as well as in the pharmaceutical, food processing, and energy industries.  ProSim also provides engineering process consulting and custom software development.

ProSim solutions are used to improve process design, increase plant efficiency and reduce their impact on environment. Thanks to long term partnerships with major research centers and to substantial investment in R&D, ProSim continuously develops innovative software and has become a recognized player on the international market.

The success of the company comes from the efficiency and the robustness of the solutions and of the calculation packages it offers and from the quality of the services it provides. The expertise and the know-how of ProSim personnel covers vast domains, including thermodynamics, physico-chemical phenomenon modeling, process simulation, energy integration, optimization techniques, numerical methods, software architecture, and GUI development. ProSim is active in 43 countries around the world, with over 470 customers including major users like Air Liquide, Akzo Nobel, Alfa Laval, Arkema, Braskem, Ciba, Cognis, EDF, Linde, Pharmacia, Praxair, Schering, Sintef, Sanofi-Synthelabo, Technip, Total, and Wacker. For more information, please visit: http://www.prosim.net .

Contact :     

Gilles HAMEURY

ProSim SA

Stratège Bâtiment A

BP 2738

F-31312  LABEGE Cedex

FRANCE

Tel.: +33 (0)5 62 88 24 30

Fax: +33 (0)5 62 88 24 39

  e-mail : info@prosim.net

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