Process Simulations Services

TAMI has extensive knowledge and wide experience in the implementation of modeling programs for the study of chemical processes. The use of different software tools allows researchers to handle various industrial problems that arise from the plant or during their laboratory work.

Simulation programs allow the acquisition of deeper knowledge about the effect of various parameters on chemical processes and provide practical recommendations, in some cases without even performing multiple laboratory trials. The correct use of simulation software for studying chemical processes can save time and money during the process development.

Aspen software is one of these tools and it has been widely utilized at TAMI by our chemists and engineers for more than 25 years. It allows the simulation of chemical processes according to the existing, known data, and then to a prediction of their performance under different working conditions. A wide range of batch and continuous processes has been simulated and designed at TAMI with the help of the Aspen software.

This is an efficient and extremely helpful tool, especially for the assessment of environmental processes: scrubber calculations, reduction of plant flue gas emissions, recycling of waste streams, etc. Other common problems that are best modeled and studied via the Aspen are different calculations for all kinds of separation columns (distillation, extraction and absorption processes).

This software is effective in the study of hydraulic parameters (pressure drops, flooding, etc.) and helps to choose the correct internal design of the column; it will reveal any limitations of the system and find the best operating conditions for the required performance.

The chemical process modeling is performed according to the client's needs, so the key to a successful simulation is open communication and full data sharing. The better, the more accurate and the broader the process parameters provided by the plant, the more reliable will be the designed simulation.

Aspen also has a rich built-in data-bank, and literature sources can also be integrated into the simulation model. Aspen is a highly valuable tool which can also provide quick answers about the basic properties of a pure component and the binary interactions and characteristics of mixtures (e.g., thermodynamic and physical properties). Actual experimental data obtained from the laboratory or plant are used to develop a detailed process model and then to verify the simulation results.

When there is good agreement between the simulation output and the behavior of the actual chemical system reviewed in the plant/lab, the model is defined as reliable, and then various scenarios can be run and reviewed in order to study the impact of different working parameters and their effect on the whole process and the expected final product.

VisiMix software is another extensively employed tool at TAMI. It uses mathematical models for technical calculations, process analysis and simulation of mixing equipment. This tool is very valuable to TAMI chemical and process engineers. It helps to visualize mixing processes and to calculate the most important parameters for process scale-up or scale-down. One of the critical and common issues for the transfer of a process from the laboratory to the pilot/industrial scale, and vice versa, is the proper selection of all the key working parameters in order to achieve good reproducibility of the process operation and final product quality.

The list of scaling parameters is quite long, and among others are power consumption, flow characteristics, shear rates, local concentrations, drop size, etc. These parameters, and all their critical factors, are already taken into account in the program calculations.

Visimix is an efficient software tool for understanding the effect of the system geometry and operating conditions on the hydrodynamic characteristics of the flow, and determining aspects of turbulence and heat-transfer.

A review of the scaling parameters and a study of their interactions via Visimix helps our engineers to adapt the existing equipment to the provided chemical process requirements, define the best operating conditions and improve the performance of the process. The initial data for all the calculations are the characteristics of the medium (viscosity, density, etc.) and reactor design, including the type and dimensions of the vessel, agitator and baffles, all of which are chosen according to the existing equipment and the software-given built-in data bank. It is important to note that the simulation can handle different kinds of media, including two-phase mixtures – liquid-liquid, liquid-gas, liquid-solid. Also, both types of flows - laminar and turbulent (low and high viscosity fluids) - are covered in the program calculations. This software is very helpful for in-depth understanding of chemical processes, and it can be implemented for different kinds of studies, for example suspension, dissolution, emulsification, crystallization and gas dispersion processes.