CAPE-OPEN UPDATE, Volume 11

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.

The University of Tulsa and especially its research activities in the domain of petroleum engineering has been approved for membership by the CO-LaN Management Board. The University's Department of Petroleum Engineering leading and participating in projects like TUWAX (Wax Deposition in Pipelines), TUFFP (Fluid Flow in Pipelines), and TUHDP (Hydrate Deposition in Pipeline & Wells). Contact Professor Cem Sarica (cem-sarica@utulsa.edu phone 1-918-631-5154) or www.pe.utulsa.edu.

The Intelligent Plant Group within the National Key Laboratory of Industrial Control Technology at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China is involved in a project called Internet-based Virtual Factory Integrating Process Simulation with Enterprise Simulation.

The project intends to establish a virtual refinery that integrates process simulation with enterprise simulation and can be used by remote users through internet or intranet. In this virtual factory, process simulation platform, which contains hardware-in-the-loop simulation, provides an open environment for modelling and simulating various industrial processes, while enterprise simulation platform which consists of methods and tools for enterprise modelling and analysis, supports the running of MES and ERP software. Further more, virtual reality technology is introduced to develop the user interface of the system.

The project will develop an open modelling environment so that users can model any unit and equipment operations or enterprise business in a refinery. The project intends to use the CAPE-OPEN standards in order to offer the potential to couple different modelling tools more flexibly.

Contact Prof. Dr. Rong Gang: grong@iipc.zju.edu.cn. 

SimTech was founded in 1991 as a spin-off from Graz University of Technology, applying several years of research and development in the area of modelling and analysis of power processes. In 1992 Simtech started to commercialize the heat balance code IPSE. IPSE made it possible to create process models graphically by choosing components from a menu. IPSE was the first and for several years the only Microsoft Windows based heat balance code commercially available. In 1996 SimTech expanded their activity by introducing the modelling package IPSEpro. IPSEpro is a completely open modelling environment. In 1997 IPSE has been merged with IPSEpro, making IPSEpro SimTech's key product. In 2000 SimTech installed the first on-line optimization system based on IPSEpro. This was the first step in extending the focus of IPSEpro to the entire lifecycle of plants.

SimTech is considering introducing CAPE-OPEN interfaces in IPSEPro in order to boost IPSEPro openness. Contact: www.simtechnology.com/english/SimTech.php

The AixCAPE consortium (www.aixcape.org) supports the use of research results not available in commercial software today. Technology assessment and benchmarking are performed against cases of industrial relevance in close collaboration with industrial and academic partners. As a result, industrial end users gain deeper knowledge about the potential of novel methods.

Several projects to improve academic prototypes and better integrate them into engineering work processes have been carried out in cooperation with member companies AirProducts, BASF, Bayer, Degussa, Dow, Lanxess, Shell, and Arkema/Total. Major activities are in the areas of data analysis, process synthesis, process model management, and tool integration including the use of CAPE-OPEN technologies.

As a result of one of those projects, an academic shortcut model developed at Systems Engineering (Prof. Dr.-Ing. W. Marquardt, RWTH Aachen - www.lpt.rwth-aachen.de) for quick assessment of feasibility and minimum energy demand of distillation columns has been made available as a CAPE-OPEN compliant unit operation.

AixCAPE has been in close contact with CO-LaN since AixCAPE foundation in 2003 and part of the work for the shortcut unit operation project was carried out as a consultancy action together with CO-LaN and Aspen Technology.

Lars von Wedel (vonwedel@aixcape.org) is responsible for tool integration and CAPE-OPEN technologies at AixCAPE and has worked in the European CAPE-OPEN and Global CAPE-OPEN projects. Lars is interested in further developing standards for simulation software as part of the AixCAPE membership in CO-LaN. It is expected AixCAPE will have an important role in the Methods&Tools SIG recently created. Contact AixCAPE: info@aixcape.org

Caspeo (www.caspeo.net) is providing services and products implementing innovative techniques in the field of process analysis and destined to industries of raw material transformation. The activity of Caspeo is centered on Material Balance Engineering. In the processing industries, a good balance of the manipulated, transported and processed material gives a more accurate picture of the process operation. The balance is based on different types of process measurements. These measurements are often obtained through sampling the material. The data reconciliation technique by statistically coherent material balance, improves the quality and the range of the measurement. The predictive material balance using modelling and numerical simulation is an efficient tool for process design and optimization.

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