Software for Process Engineering design , sizing and calculation and simulation 1

[Jackie2015]

Hi, I just have a question, what is the recommended software for process engineering design, for multi purpose , sizing, calculation, simulation? e.g. for process sizing of different types of pressure vessels, atmospheric tanks, relief valves, heat exchangers... and also for process piping sizing and process simulation (in the point of view of price and performance), is there only one software to cover everything or must be different? Would someone please help me in this regards? Thanks

 

[Latexman]

Aspen

Good luck,
Latexman

Technically, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.

 

[apetri]

there are so many tools available that it is really difficult to suggest something,
I would say that mainly it depends from budget and your attitude to work with a software which attempts to solve (with less or more success) the problems for you...

For example if you wish to draw a PFD, accepting the limits of predefined operations, and see the results without spending much time about details then a simulator such as Aspen, Chemcad, PROII, ProMAx etc. is a good solution.

Instead if you work (as I do) with specific operations (i.e. separators, reactors, multiphase pumps, depressuring, relief valves etc.) you may consider a solution based on Excel, Mathcad or Matlab,
main advantages are very low budget and possibility to create your own models (i.e. do not work with the black boxes normally available in simulators)
for some application examples see

http://www.harveyhensley.com/blog-che-old-school-and-new-school

(I have no relation with the author of the blog apart from using the same software)

 

[Jackie2015]

Thank you very much for your great answer. Just another question, is it possible to do sizing and calculation beside the simulation with ASPEN Hysys, or Chemcad, PROII, ProMAx? for sizing and process calculation of Process Treaters and pressure vessels, Atmospheric tanks in oil &gas industry, which one of these software is better and more suitable? and also in the point of view of price and performance which one would be more recommended in your opinion? I appreciate your help again.

 

[apetri]

>is it possible to do sizing and calculation beside the simulation software
yes, I work with Excel, you can do many things with Excel, Matlab or Mathcad (just to mention a few) as shown in the link above

>which one of these software is better and more suitable...
that will depend from your specific application, you may need a simulator (see above) or a different software, for example if you need to design/rate piping networks, pipelines etc. there are specific tools , the same for equipments such as compressors

>from point of view of price and performance which one would be more recommended...

see above, you should prepare a list of required features, then compare different tools, considering the cost of licence and so on...

 

[StoneCold]

I feel the need to point out that if you can't roughly calculate out what you want by hand or with the help of excel the simulation packages are not going to help you out much. You really have to know what your are doing to get good data out of them. Most vessel sizing is based on storage requirements or holdup times required in a process and don't really get sized in simulation packages, unless you are talking about reactors or columns.

Regards
StoneCold