Engineers are constantly being called upon to predict the behavior of systems. Chemical engineers in particular must be able to predict the actions of chemical species, a very difficult task. As chemical engineering students, when confronted with a large chemical system, you might ask, "Where do I even begin? Mass balances? Energy balances? Thermodynamic properties? Reaction Kinetics?" Over the past few years as a student you've learned about each of these crucial topics separately, however, "real world" situations will require an engineer to incorporate all of these areas.
This is where the idea of a process model is helpful. A process model can be defined as an engineering system's "blue print." The process model is a complete layout of the engineering system including the following:
Sound confusing? Well can you imagine keeping track of all of this by hand, then solving all the mass and energy balances, determining thermodynamic behavior, and using reaction kinetics just to determine what size reactor to use, or how much product you'll achieve?
ASPEN PLUSTM allows you to create your own process model, starting with the flowsheet, then specifying the chemical components and operating conditions. ASPEN PLUSTM will take all of your specifications and, with a click of the mouse button, simulate the model. The process simulation is the action that executes all necessary calculations needed to solve the outcome of the system, hence predicting its behavior. When the calculations are complete, ASPEN PLUSTM lists the results, stream by stream and unit by unit, so you can observe what happened to the chemical species of your process model.
So continue on and check out how to use ASPEN PLUSTM as a tool in solving some reaction engineering problems.
Chapter 5- Example 5-3: Design of a Full Scale Tubular Reactor (Tutorial, ASPEN Backup File - Accessable from DVD)
Chapter 8- Supplemental Example: Pyrolysis of Benzene (Tutorial, ASPEN Backup File - Accessable from DVD)
Chapter 11- Example 11-3: Adiabatic Liquid-Phase Isomerization of Normal Butane (Tutorial, ASPEN Backup File - Accessable from DVD)
Chapter 12- Example 12-2a: Adiabatic Production of Acetic Anhydride (Tutorial, ASPEN Backup File- Accessable from DVD)
Chapter 12- Example 12-2b: Constant Heat Exchange Production of Acetic Anhydride (Tutorial, ASPEN Backup File- Accessable from DVD)
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