(588c) Development of An Open Architecture Software Platform for Computer-Aided Design Simulation and Optimization of Polymerization Processes

A new software platform has been developed for the design, simulation, parameter and state estimation, optimization and control of polymerization processes. Based on state-of-the-art mathematical models, describing the various physicochemical phenomena taking place over different time and length scales in a polymerization process, an open-system computer-aided platform has been developed to increase the plant overall production, improve the product quality and reduce the impact on the environment. The proposed platform provides a user-friendly interface, including a design environment that can be accessed from the engineer's desktop, allowing graphical interaction and expert system guidance on how to use the various components or make engineering decisions (e.g., selection of various operations or physical property calculation methods).

The adoption of an open-system architecture is an important requirement in the development of a new process modeling component (PMC). To address the last issue, the CAPE-OPEN initiative has established specific interface standards to allow different PMCs to be used in any compliant process modeling environment (PME) ^[1]. Thus, the user-engineer can utilize models for polymerization reactors, unit operations or/and physical properties evaluation routines obtained from different sources. As a result, one can exploit the ??best of breed'' offered by the CAPE community and, thus, build a new process simulator in a CAPE-OPEN compliant PME.

The proposed computer-aided software platform includes an open-system architecture allowing the collection of models from different sources in order to build a process flowsheet ^[2]. A standard flowsheeting user interface is utilized comprising a palette of icons, each representing a different model in the library database, and a ?white space area' used for constructing and editing a flowsheet. Finally, the CAPE-OPEN (CO) specifications are adopted and applied to the process modeling components (PMCs) in order to be transparent to any CO-compatible process modeling environment (PME), following the process modeling standardization and allowing the collection of models from different sources. Thus, the user-engineer can synthesize models for polymerization reactors or/and physical properties evaluation routines obtained from different sources. As a result, one can exploit the ?best of breed? offered by the CAPE community and, thus, build a new process simulator in a CAPE-OPEN compliant PME. In the present work we report on some recent advances regarding the development of CAPE-OPEN compliant software packages for specific polymerization systems.

References

1. W.M. Barrett and Jr., J. Yang, ?Developing of a chemical process modeling environment based on CAPE-OPEN interface standards and Microsoft .NET framework', Computers & Chemical Engineering, 2005, 30, 191.

2. A. Krallis, P. Pladis, V. Kanellopoulos and C. Kiparissides, ?Development of advanced software tools for computer-aided design, simulation and optimization of polymerization processes', 2010, in press.