Open benefits for simulation users

As process simulation software packages become more popular, so the demand is growing from users for a more 'open' approach to the architecture of such systems.

The latest version of Process Systems Enterprise's gPROMS simulator has tackled this by incorporating 'a revolutionary new Foreign Object Interface that permits any software component (proprietary calculation procedures and best-of-class solutions from different vendors) to be wrapped into calculation objects and used within a single simulation model', says Costas Pantelides, PSE director and head of gPROMS development.

While users can construct their own 'Foreign Objects', in gPROMS v1.6 prebuilt interfaces are provided to two state-of-the-art thermophysical property computation packages Multiflash and IK-Cape.

Both these packages perform the physical properties and phase equilibrium calculations needed to develop simulation models.

IK-Cape is supported by a consortium of German user companies such as BASF, Bayer, Degussa and Hoechst.

Multiflash, which can simultaneously handle any number of phases of any type, was developed in the UK by Infochem Computer Services, whose marketing director Beryl Edmonds says of the gPROMS development: 'this technology breakthrough makes the wide industrial simulation market more readily accessible to our specialist skills and software, and vice versa.'

Infochem has also entered into a marketing agreement for Multiflash with Expro North Sea, one of the UK's leading oilfield service companies. Multiflash includes models for hydrates, waxes and asphaltenes, which allow engineers to understand the potential problems arising from solids deposition in pipelines and vessels and to take remedial action where possible.