(311b) Practical Solutions for Engineers Via Development of Excel-Based Models

Designing, maintaining a safe and stable operation, as well as troubleshooting of chemical plants are parts of the everyday life of a process engineer. Models that adequately describe the process would greatly help the engineer in this job, especially when they are implemented in user-friendly computer applications. Since the engineer's concern is to find a practical solution for the problem in hand, often with a tight deadline, a model that involves too many details and complexities is not practical as it potentially requires a lot of experimental data to determine the unknown parameters. On the other hand, it is crucial that the model captures the physical phenomena involved, so as to ensure it gives the correct trends.

Various models have been developed at the Super Stable Operation Technology (SSOT) group of Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation. The models are customized to solve either generic or specific problems, and have been used to help engineers address a wide variety of issues. They are implemented in Excel for easy usage and straightforward presentation of the results. A few examples of such models would be discussed to illustrate the approach.