This section presents results from a survey of process

modellers or modelling managers in the process industry

based in various countries...
Chemical plants, processes and products have lifecycles
a sequence of phases they go through... Here are some
steps in the process lifecycle.
The graph shows the percentage of survey respondents who
answered yes to undertaking modelling activities in that
phase of the lifecycle. Modelling was defined as the
activity of developing or using mathematical forms to
describe the behaviour of a system and then using that
model for simulation or other purposes.
This is closely related to the previous graph...
Why are modelling and simulation activities undertaken?
Focus on the blue parts of the graph (strongly agree and
agree responses).
Predominantly it is for product and process design,
optimisation and feasibility assessment, but also for
operator support and fault diagnosis (e.g. investigations to
find why something is not working), risk assessment and
operator training.
The table shows technical software only, so we are not
including here word processing, presentation, database and
similar applications.
FORTRAN is a engineering computing language
developed in the 1950s. It has undergone extensive
revision. It is still used in places in industry (ie you might
need to write or modify some FORTRAN code) and it is
also used in Aspen Plus (for example, when typing in
equations, you can use FORTRAN statements).
Excel is ubiquitous remember that VBA (Visual Basic for
Applications) underpins Excel you can write macros or
more extensive VBA programs within Excel.
Matlab has great numerical routines and graphics. It has
many add-on toolboxes that extend its functionality e.g.
optimisation, neural networks, signal processing, image
analysis, statistics, mapping,
Polymath is another general maths package, but was
developed by some chemical engineers
(http://www.polymath-software.com/).

Scad and JKSimMet are more common for minerals

simulation.
Details extracted from the C&I paper:
* A sample of industrial process modellers or modelling
managers was asked which lifecycle activities (horizontal
axis) their work group addressed through modelling and
simulation work. They indicated either yes or no to each
category.
* The percentage figure reported (vertical axis) is the
number of yes responses in that category divided by the
total number of yes responses summed over all categories
x 100%.
* A wide range of software is used as shown. Microsoft
Excel and flowsheeting packages are the most frequently
used tools, each accounting for 17% of all responses.
Earlier survey work by Edgar in 2003 reported that only
48% of chemical engineering organizations used
flowsheeting packages, yet 9899% of recent chemical
engineering graduates used a spreadsheet, most often
Excel. Other tools that find high use in our study include
Matlab (13%), direct coding ie programming (11%), CFD
(8%), hybrid modelling and simulation software (7%), and
optimisation programs (6%).
* It is understandable that flowsheeting packages should
find strong use for modelling and simulation of process
systems (17% of responses), but, in fact, when the three
most popular general mathematical/programming methods
(Excel, Matlab and direct coding) are combined, they
account for 41% of responses. This suggests that there are
often tasks that require custom modelling, and they are not
adequately handled by flowsheet simulators alone. For
SMEs (small to medium sized enterprises), cost may also
be a significant factor in the choice of modelling software.
Excels spreadsheet format may be so popular for this
custom modelling and data analysis role because of its low
cost, wide distribution, ease of learning, ease of interface
development and adequate graphics. Spreadsheets are
particularly useful for quick, interactive analysis. However,
some situations tend to be more suited to a programming
environment (Matlab, direct coding), for example:
complex conditional statements, variable numbers of
entities, dynamic simulation and so on. Programming is
also available in Excel through Visual Basic for
Applications (VBA), possibly also contributing to Excels
appeal.
This will be something of a theme in this unit... How do
you know your simulation is ok?
Standard validation procedures are well-established
company approaches to treating data and comparing it with
model predictions to arrive at a decision regarding the
validity of the model.
Seventy percent of respondents said that steady state
models are readily validated, but this reduced to about 35
percent for dynamic models. Another study (Foss et al.,
1998) also found that efficient validation procedures are
lacking for dynamic models and for very detailed non-
standard steady state models. The way to modify
inadequate models is clear for only around 40 percent of
respondents. One survey respondent remarked that
modelling and validation are often carried out by different
people in his work group.

There is around 65 percent agreement and 20 percent

disagreement that it is easy to set up models for a stated
purpose.
In terms of the model solution phase, 45 percent agree that
tools are available for resolving solution failures, yet only
around 25 percent believe that existing diagnosis systems
provide good advice.
Approximately 35 percent agree that it is easy to recall
previous modelling scenarios and case studies, but 40
percent or so disagree.
These responses suggest that there needs to be work on
improving the tools for diagnosing and fixing solution
failures, and for archiving modelling scenarios.
CAPE = Computer Aided Process Engineering
which is virtually synonymous with
PSE = Process Systems Engineering
CAPE / PSE lies at the interface of chemical engineering,
maths and computer science all good stuff!
Scene from the BBC TV series Little Britain ... and what
we would like to avoid in process engineering blindly
accepting what the computer says.
This picture used to be at:
http://www.davidwalliams.com/LittleBritainTv2Ep1.htm
not there any more!
Under sizing of equipment cannot meet specifications;
Gross oversizing of equipment costly, may not meet
specifications, may have operability problems
Inefficient operation e.g. higher than expected losses of a
solvent, increased cleaning frequency, higher energy costs,
; Operability problems not just from oversizing
equipment, but possibly also from choosing the wrong
equipment shape or configuration
Have difficulty meeting product specifications have
trouble selling product, need to reprocess poor product, or
accept lower price
Misidentifying faults and consequently taking the wrong
corrective action e.g. Kister examples in section 2
Need to operate at reduced throughputs
A non-viable process it just doesnt work
Safety incidents (property damage, near misses, injuries,
deaths) as a result of serious design faults
Environmental damage (pollution of the air, land and
water; injuring or killing flora and fauna)

You can imagine a matrix with the simulation elements

in the columns, and the dimensions down the rows.
Possibly there is something to discuss in each cell. For a
short critical review, think about which cells are the most
important (i.e. prioritise them) and just mention these.
Lets look at some of those references on software-related
problems in chemical engineering...
Best and Kister are available from the librarys e-reserve
system. The IChemE report can be downloaded (see
references list on the next slide).