(535g) Hybrid Solution Approach – Cape-Open in Unisim Thermo Unit-Operations

Chemical process simulators play a vital role as a tool to evaluate different design options in refinery or chemical process industries. The CAPE-OPEN interface standard aids process modeling components to seamlessly integrate thermodynamic packages and unit operation modules provided by different vendors in any CAPE compliant process modeling environment. This paper presents how a hybrid computing approach will be advantageous and effective in solving future challenges faced by process industry for plant wide energy optimization by integrating detailed simulation module of Heat Transfer Research, Inc. (HTRI) within Honeywell UniSim Design's flow sheet simulator. This paper also presents the inconsistencies found in CAPE-OPEN interface and also proposes solution in providing non-existing phase properties by UniSim Design process modeling environment. The performance impact of CAPE-OPEN unit operation calling native process simulator's thermodynamics property package is analyzed and discussed in this paper.