A new edition of Chemical Engineering Process Simulation has recently be published by Elsevier/IChemE. The editor of the book Professor Dominic C. Y. Foo (University of Nottingham Malaysia) conducted a book launch on 24 Oct 2022, during the international conference of Energy, Environment and Digital Transformation held at Milan, Italy.

In his speech during the book launch event, Professor Foo told that in his observation, many universities do not have proper teaching of process simulation. In most cases, students are left to pick up the software by themselves, as if they are playing “computer games”. This motivated him to develop structured material in assisting the fellow colleagues in chemical engineering academia in the teaching of process simulation. This will enable the training of new generation of engineers in mastering this important skillset upon graduation, and hence to enhance their employability opportunities.

Professor Foo also invited the IChemE President Professor David Bogle to say a few words regarding the book during the book launch event. Professor Bogle said “I haven’t seen such a comprehensive book in this area. It is based around popular software with a particularly broad and impressive set of examples to help guide good practice and understanding.” (Figure 1)

Figure 1. Photo of book launch during the international conference of Energy, Environment and Digital Transformation held at Milan, Italy.

The new edition of the book consisted of 5 sections. Section 1 covers the basic steps in constructing a process simulation model, while sections 2 – 5 have guides and various case studies built on various commercial process simulation software in the market. In Section 1, the important elements of process simulation, such as solving algorithm, component addition, thermodynamic models, etc. are described. Among the 5 chapters in Section 1, Chapter 1 has several important elements. In particular, the basic structure and steps to perform process simulation are described (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Basic structure and steps to perform process simulation using commercial software (Foo, 2017)

Besides, it also describes the sequential modular algorithm (Figure 3a), which is the most widely used algorithm of the commercial software in the market. In essence, each unit module contains some algorithms that are utilized to solve a set of process models, provided that the inlet stream information and unit specifications are given. Once a module is solved to convergence, it then generates results for the outlet stream(s) that serves as feed stream for the following unit module. The latter is solved for convergence next. For flowsheet with recycle stream(s), tear stream (Figure 3b) strategy is commonly employed with sequential modular approach for the convergence. Besides, Chapter 1 also outlines “Ten important habits of process simulation”, hope to advice process engineers in converging their simulation flowsheet in more efficient manner. Novice to process simulation are high encouraged to read this important chapter.

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Figure 3: (a) Concept of sequential modular; (b) tear stream concept for recycle stream simulation (Turton et al., 2013)

Ready to read this book?

Chemical Engineering Process Simulation, 2nd edition available on the Elsevier store