Propane Refrigeration Loop 1

Propane Refrigeration Loop

2 Propane Refrigeration Loop

Workshop
Refrigeration systems are commonly found in the natural gas processing industry and
in processes related to the petroleum refining, petrochemical, and chemical
industries. Refrigeration is used to cool gas to meet a hydrocarbon dewpoint
specification and to produce a marketable liquid.
In this module you will construct, run, analyze, and manipulate a propane
refrigeration loop simulation. You will convert the completed simulation to a
template, making it available to connect to other simulations.

Learning Objectives
After you have completed this module, you will be able to:
 Add and connect operations to build a flowsheet
 Use the graphical interface to manipulate flowsheets in Aspen HYSYS
 Understand forward-backward information propagation in Aspen HYSYS
 Convert simulation cases to templates

Prerequisites
Before beginning this module, you need to know how to:
 Define a fluid package
 Define streams
 Navigate the Workbook interface

2
 Propane Refrigeration Loop 3

Process Overview

3
4 Propane Refrigeration Loop

Building the Simulation

The first step in building any simulation is defining the fluid package. A brief recap
on how to define a fluid package and install streams is described here. (For a
complete description, see the previous Getting Started module).

Defining the Simulation Basis

Create a New Case and add a fluid package.
Enter the following values in the specified fluid package view:

On this page... Select...

Property Package Peng-Robinson

Components Propane

Click the Enter Simulation Environment button to start building the simulation.

Installing a Stream
There are several ways to create streams. (For a complete description, see the
previous module.)
 Press F11. The Stream property view displays.
or
 Double-click the Stream icon in the Object Palette.

Defining Necessary Streams

Add a stream with the following values.

In this cell... Enter...

Name 1
Vapour Fraction 0.0
Temperature 50°C (120°F)
Composition C3 - 100%

What is the pressure of Stream 1? _______________________________________________

4
 Propane Refrigeration Loop 5

Add a second stream with the following properties:

In this cell... Enter...

Name 3
Vapour Fraction 1.0
Temperature -20°C (-4°F)

Adding Unit Operations to a Flowsheet

As with streams, there are a variety of ways to add unit operations in Aspen HYSYS:

To use the... Do this...

Menu Bar From the Flowsheet menu, select Add Operation
or Press F12.
The UnitOps view displays.

Workbook Open the Workbook and go to the UnitOps page,

then click the Add UnitOp button.
The UnitOps view displays.

Object Palette From the Flowsheet menu, select Palette, or press

F4. Double-click the icon of the unit operation you
want to add.
PFD/Object Palette Using the right mouse button, drag and drop the
icon from the Object Palette to the PFD.

The propane refrigeration loop consists of four operations:

 Valve
 Chiller
 Compressor
 Condenser
In this exercise, you will add each operation using a different method of installation.

Adding a J-T Valve

The J-T Valve is modeled using the Valve operation in Aspen HYSYS. The inlet to
the valve comes from the condenser outlet. The condenser outlet is at its bubble
You can filter the Available point.
Unit Operations list by
selecting an appropriate
1. Press F12 to add the valve. The UnitOps view displays:
Category. In this case,
Piping Equipment would
filter the list to include the
Valve operation.

5
6 Propane Refrigeration Loop

Figure 1

2. Select Valve from the Available Unit Operations list.

3. Click Add. The Valve property view displays.

4. On the Connections page, supply the inlet and outlet connections as shown in
the following figure:

Figure 2

Drop-down lists, such as

for the Feed and Product
streams, contain lists of
available streams that can
be connected to the
operation.

6
 Propane Refrigeration Loop 7

Adding a Chiller
The Chiller operation in the propane loop is modeled in Aspen HYSYS using a
Heater operation. The outlet of the Chiller will be at its dewpoint.
To add a heater:
1. Open the Workbook and click the Unit Ops tab.
2. Click Add UnitOp. The UnitOps view displays.
3. Select Heat Transfer Equipment from the Categories group.
4. Select Heater from the Available Unit Operations list.

Figure 3

5. Click the Add button or double-click Heater. The Heater property view
displays.

7
8 Propane Refrigeration Loop

6. On the Connections page, enter the information as shown in the following

figure:

Figure 4

7. Go to the Parameters page.

8. Enter a Delta P value of 7.0 kPa (1 psi) and a Duty value of 1.00e+006 kJ/h
(1.00e+06 Btu/hr) for the Chiller.

Figure 5
The Parameters page will
be common to most unit
operations and contains
parameters such as Delta
P, Duty, and Efficiency.

9. Close the property view.

8
 Propane Refrigeration Loop 9

What is the molar flowrate of propane? ___________________________________________

What is the pressure drop across the J-T valve? ____________________________________
What is the temperature of the valve outlet (stream 2)? ______________________________

Adding a Compressor
The Compressor operation is used to increase the pressure of an inlet gas stream.
Placing the mouse arrow To add a compressor:
on a button in the Object
Palette will display a fly-by 1. Press F4. The Object Palette displays.
description for the button.
2. Double-click the Compressor icon on the Object Palette. The Compressor
property view displays.
3. On the Connections page, enter the stream information as shown in the
Compressor icon
following figure:

Figure 6

9
10 Propane Refrigeration Loop

4. Complete the Parameters page as shown:

Figure 7

Adding the Condenser

The Condenser operation completes the propane refrigeration loop. It is placed
between the Compressor and the Valve and is modeled as a Cooler operation.
Working with a graphical representation, you can build your flowsheet in the PFD
using the mouse to install and connect objects. This procedure describes how to
install and connect the Cooler using the Object Palette drag and drop technique.
Using Drag and Drop in the PFD
1. Click the Cooler icon on the Object Palette.
Cooler icon 2. Move the cursor to the PFD. The cursor will change to a special cursor with a
box and a plus (+) symbol attached to it. The box indicates the size and location
of the Cooler icon.
3. Click again to drop the cooler onto the PFD.

10
 Propane Refrigeration Loop 11

There are two ways to connect the operation to a stream on the PFD:

To connect using the... Do this...

Attach Mode toggle 1. Press the Attach Mode toggle button.
2. Place the cursor over the operation. The Feed Stream
connection point is highlighted in dark blue.
3. Move the cursor over the stream you want to connect.
4. Press and hold the left mouse button.
5. Move the cursor to the operation icon and release the
mouse button.
Ctrl key 1. Press and hold the Ctrl key and pass the cursor over the
operation.
2. Place the cursor over the stream you want to connect.
3. Press and hold the left mouse button.
4. Move the cursor to the operation icon and release the
mouse button and the Ctrl key.

4. From the PFD, connect stream 4 to the Condenser inlet and connect the
Condenser outlet to stream 1.
5. Double-click the Condenser.
6. On the Parameters page, enter a Delta P of 35 kPa (5 psi).

Figure 8

Hint: Clone a unit set and

set the Power to “hp” units.

What is the compressor energy in hp? ____________________________________________

Save your case!

11
12 Propane Refrigeration Loop

Manipulating the PFD

The PFD is designed to be used with the mouse and/or keyboard. In many instances,
either the mouse or the keyboard can be used to perform the same function. One very
important PFD function for which the keyboard cannot be used is object inspection.
You can perform many of the tasks and manipulations on the icons in the PFD by
using object inspection by right-clicking the icon you want to inspect. An appropriate
menu is produced depending upon the icon selected (Stream, Operation, Column, or
Text Annotation).
A list of the objects that you can object inspect is shown in the following table with
the corresponding menus.

Object... Object Inspection Menu...

PFD

12
 Propane Refrigeration Loop 13

Object... Object Inspection Menu...

Unit Operations

Streams
(Depending on where on the stream
you click, either of these two menus
will display. To see the long menu,
right-click the stream icon. To see
the short menu, right-click the
stream line.)

13
14 Propane Refrigeration Loop

Object... Object Inspection Menu...

Workbook Tables

Unit Operation Tables

Text Annotations

To customize the PFD:

1. Add a Title: Propane Refrigeration Loop.
2. Add a Workbook Table for the material streams in the simulation.
3. Add a Table for stream 4.

Save your case!

14
 Propane Refrigeration Loop 15

Analyzing the Results

This section describes how to retrieve and print unit operation results.

Printing Datasheets for Unit Operations

In Aspen HYSYS you can print results through:
 The menu bar
To set up the printer, select
Printer Setup from the File  Object inspection of unit operations
menu, then select either
the Graphic Printer or the  The Report Manager
Report Printer. This allows
you to set the printer
configuration and paper Printing Using the Menu Bar
orientation, size, and
source.  By right clicking on the Menu bar of unit operation, you can generate a
Datasheet to either preview or print it. Below are the steps:

Figure 10

Choosing the Print

command when the PFD is
the active view will print the
PFD. There are no
datasheets available for the
PFD.

15
16 Propane Refrigeration Loop

Click on the “Preview” to preview the data sheet for Chiller.

 From File (Menu Bar) | Print Window Snapshot, it prints a bitmap of the
active Aspen HYSYS view.

16
 Propane Refrigeration Loop 17

Printing Using Object Inspection

Object inspect the Title Bar of the Unit Operation property view and select Print
Datasheet. A list of available Datablocks is displayed for the object.

Printing Using Report Manager

1. Open the Tools menu. Select Reports. The Report Manager view displays as
shown in the following figure.

Figure 11

Hot key: Ctrl + R to access

2. Click the Create button to add a new report. The Report Builder view displays
as shown in the following figure.

Figure 12

17
18 Propane Refrigeration Loop

3. Click the Insert Datasheet button to add datasheets to your report. You can add
single or multiple unit operation Datasheets to a report.

Figure 13

Adding Unit Operation Data to the

Workbook
Each WorkBook has a UnitOps page that displays all the unit operations and their
connections in the simulation. You can add additional pages for specific unit
operations to the WorkBook. For example, you can add a page to the Workbook to
contain only compressors in the simulation.

Adding a Unit Operation Tab to the WorkBook

1. Open the WorkBook.
2. Open the WorkBook menu. Select Setup. The Setup view displays.
3. Click Add in the Workbook Tabs group. The New Object Type view displays.
4. Select Rotating Equipment and expand the list. Select Compressor as shown.

18
 Propane Refrigeration Loop 19

Figure 14

Workbook tab will only appear if there is an active opened Workbook.

19
20 Propane Refrigeration Loop

5. Click OK. A new page, Compressors, containing only compressor information

is added to the WorkBook.
6. Close this view.

Adding Unit Operation Data to the PFD

For each unit operation, you can display a Property Table on the PFD. The Property
Table contains certain default information about the unit operation.

Adding Unit Operation information to the PFD

1. Open the PFD.
2. Select the unit operation for which you want to add the Property Table.
Remember you can Object
Inspect an object by 3. Object Inspect the unit operation.
selecting it and then
clicking it with the right 4. Open the Show Table menu.
mouse button.
5. After the table has been added, you can move it by selecting it and dragging it
with the mouse.
6. If you Object Inspect the table, you can change its properties and appearance.
You can also specify which variables the table will show.

Templates and Subflowsheets

A template is a complete flowsheet that has been stored to disk and contains
additional information pertaining to attaching the flowsheet as a sub-flowsheet
operation.
Typically, a template is representative of a plant process module or portion of a
process module. The stored template can subsequently be read from disk and
efficiently installed as a complete sub-flowsheet operation any number of times into
any number of different simulations.
Some of the advantages of using templates are:
 provide a mechanism by which two or more cases can be linked together.
 employ a different property package than the case to which it is attached.
 provide a convenient method for breaking large simulations into smaller,
easily managed components.
 Can be created once and can be installed in multiple cases. Templates also
save the repeated modeling of the same thing over and over, many process
modules are common to many installations
Before you convert the case to a template, make it generic so it can be used with gas
plants of various flowrates. In this case, the Chiller Duty dictates the flowrate of
propane required.

20
 Propane Refrigeration Loop 21

Template Properties
The properties for the template can be set on the Main Properties window
(Simulation/Main Properties or CTRL M). The first few tabs of this window are
the same as for any simulation case. However, the two final tabs are exclusive to
Templates. These are Exported Connections and Exported Variables. These two tabs
only appear when the case has been converted into a template.
Figure 2

The Exported Connections tab lists all the feed and product boundary streams in the
flowsheet, and allows a Transfer Basis to be set; this will be used when the stream is
linked between flowsheets. Connections and Transfer Basis are covered in more
detail shortly.
The Template Tag is used to identify the flowsheet within the case.
The Installed Simulation Basis option controls what Fluid Package the flowsheet
will use when it is imported into another case.
 Internal – Use the Fluid Package it has now
 External – Use the Fluid Package of the parent flowsheet
Ticking Avoid Duplication tells Aspen HYSYS to try to use existing fluid packages
when the template is imported into another simulation case.

21
22 Propane Refrigeration Loop

Figure 3

Key variables within the flowsheet can be configured on the Exported Variables tab
and then easily monitored on the sub-flowsheet's property view when it is imported
into the parent flowsheet.
It is not necessary to make any changes on these two tabs. All settings can be
configured later when the template is imported as a sub-flowsheet into another case.

Creating a Template
There are three ways to create a template:
 Convert a whole flowsheet into a template
 Create a new template
 Convert part of a flowsheet into a template.

Before you convert the case to a template, make sure the case solves and looks
acceptable. Save the case as Propane loop.hsc.
If the Propane Loop is converted and saved as it is now, then when it is installed into
a case, Aspen HYSYS will generate a consistency error. This is because there are no
unknown variables in the Refrig unit, so when a chiller duty is set from the main
flowsheet the model will be over specified. To overcome this, the specified Chill-Q
value needs to be removed, thus leaving the loop unsolved. Now when the chiller
duty is set by the main flowsheet the loop will solve correctly.

To avoid the consistency error, remove the Chiller duty first; then convert the
case to a template following the instructions given below.

22
 Propane Refrigeration Loop 23

To convert a whole flowsheet into a template:

1. From the Simulation menu, select Main Properties. The Simulation Case
view displays as shown in the following figure.

Figure 9

2. Click Convert to Template button.

3. Click Yes to convert the simulation case to a template.
4. Answer No to the question, “Do you want to save the simulation case?”
5. Set the Template Tag, Transfer Basis (if a material stream) and other optional
template information if required. These settings are covered later in this module.
6. When you save the simulation, it will be saved as a template, C3 loop.tpl.

Convert your case to a template

and save!

Take a moment, reexamine your flowsheet, do you enter any flow data in this model? If not,
how you manage to obtain the value of the Propane flow for this Refrigeration Loop?
___________________________________________

23
24 Propane Refrigeration Loop

Summary

Understand forward-backward information propagation in

Aspen HYSYS
One of the key design aspects of Aspen HYSYS is how Modular Operations are
combined with a Non-Sequential solution algorithm. Not only is information
processed as you supply it, but the results of any calculation are automatically
propagated throughout the flowsheet, both forwards and backwards. The modular
structure of the operations means that they can calculate in either direction, using
information in an outlet stream to calculate inlet conditions. This design aspect is
illustrated using the Propane Refrigeration Loop.
Initially, the only information supplied in the case is the temperature and vapour
fraction for streams 1 and 3 and the composition of stream 1. Since the temperature,
vapour fraction, and composition of stream 1 are known, Aspen HYSYS will
automatically perform a flash calculation and determine the remaining properties
(pressure, intensive enthalpy, density, and so on) which are independent of flow.
When streams 1 and 2 are attached to the valve J-T, Aspen HYSYS first determines
what information is known in either the input or output stream. It will then assign
these values to the other stream. In this case, since no valve pressure drop was
specified, only the composition and intensive enthalpy of stream 1 will be passed to
stream 2.
By attaching stream 2 and 3 to the heater operation, Chiller, the composition of
stream 2 is passed to stream 3 (100% C3). Aspen HYSYS can now perform a flash
calculation on stream 3 and determine the remaining properties which are
independent of flow, such as pressure and enthalpy.
Using the calculated pressure of stream 3 and the specified pressure drop across the
heater, Aspen HYSYS back calculates the pressure of stream 2. Since the pressure,
composition, and intensive enthalpy of stream 2 are now known (the valve is
isenthalpic), Aspen HYSYS can calculate the temperature of stream 2.
In addition, Aspen HYSYS uses the specified heater duty and the intensive enthalpy
of streams 2 and 3 to calculate the flowrate, which is then passed on to streams 1, 2,
and 3.
Next, the Compressor is added to the simulation. Since all of the inlet information is
known, the compressor has only 2 degrees of freedom remaining. Parameters such as
Efficiency, Duty, or Outlet Pressure can satisfy one degree of freedom. The second
degree of freedom comes from the Condenser.
The Condenser connects the Compressor outlet to the Valve inlet (which is
completely defined). The user supplies the Condenser pressure drop, and Aspen
HYSYS calculates the inlet pressure, which is also the Compressor outlet pressure
(the second degree of freedom for the Compressor).

24
 Propane Refrigeration Loop 25

Exploring the Simulation

Use your saved case (not the template) for the following exercises.

Exercise 1: Design vs. Rating Scenarios

In the plant, you are unable to accurately measure or calculate the chiller duty. You
do, however, know that the compressor is rated for 250 hp and that it is running at
90% of maximum and 72% efficiency.

What is the chiller duty? _______________________________________________________

The Chiller Gas Flow meter has finally been calibrated and you can determine the
chiller duty. It has been decided to increase the chiller duty to 1.5 MMBTU/ hr.

With the compressor running at the same horsepower (225 hp), what is the best chiller
outlet temperature you can achieve (and thus maximize cooling for the process) while still
running the compressor at a reasonable operating point?
____________________________________________________________________________

Exercise 2: Refrigerant Composition

A local propane dealer arrives at your plant selling a 95/5 (mole%) Propane/ Ethane
blend.

What effect, if any, does this new composition have on the refrigeration loop?
____________________________________________________________________________

Use the base case for comparison:

Base Case: 100% C3 New Case: 5% C2, 95% C3

Flow, kgmole/h
Condenser Q, kJ/h
Compressor Q, hp

25