PDF 3

Aspen Plus Manual
Department of Chemical Engineering

Monash University
2015 Edition
Aspen Plus v.8.4
Aspen Plus Manual v.8.4
Contents
1 Introduction to Aspen Plus 3
2 Setting up Aspen Plus Simulation 4
2.1 The Basics 6
2.2 Setting up the Simulation 7
2.3 Component Lists 9
2.4 Models and Methods 11
3 Setting up a flow-sheet 14
3.1 Flow-sheet 14
3.2 Material and Energy Streams 16
4 Mixers 19
5 Separators 26
6 Pumps, compressors and turbines 30
6.1 Pumps 30
6.2 Turbine and Compressor 32
7 Heat Exchange Equipment 36
7.1 Heaters and Coolers 36
7.2 Heat Exchangers 40
8 Reactors 45
8.1 Conversion or Stoichiometric Reactors 45
8.2 CSTR Reactors 52
9 Distallation Columns 58
10 Design Specifications 63
11 Sensitivity Studies (Case studies) 72
12 Reading Resources and References 78
Page 2
1 Introduction to Aspen Plus
In designing and analysing engineering systems, the calculations become too complex and involved
to be readily solved by hand calculations. This is why most engineers make use of simulation
packages. Throughout your studies in chemical engineering, you will be using one of the common
simulation packages, Aspen Plus, to help solve complex calculations for complex process systems.
The purpose of Aspen Plus is to simulate, or predict how a process is going to work. In particular,
Aspen Plus allows us to determine what effect changing the plant operating conditions will
have on the overall process. This allows for optimisation of the plant’s performance without
having to trial these conditions on the real equipment. This is an important part of engineering.
We will be using Aspen Plus as a tool for simulating a range of engineering operations. This will enable
us to expand on the work covered in lectures, as it allows you to simply estimate the performance of a
plant without having to do long and tedious hand calculations. Aspen Plus can help you put together entire
process flow diagrams for common systems such as a gas turbine, refrigeration plant or combined cycle
power generation plant. You will also be able to interrogate the process flow diagrams; in other words, you
will be able to change operating conditions to see what effect they have on the performance of the process.
When you set-up the process simulation in Aspen Plus, the software translates each fluid package and
equipment item into a section of code, which are compiled together into a simulation code that will perform
mass and energy balances, and design calculations when you run the simulation.
The purpose of this manual is to help you set up simulation properties and build your own chemical
engineering processes in Aspen Plus.
Page 3
2 Setting up Aspen Plus Simulation

Setting up case study simulations in Aspen Plus requires a series of steps. But firstly, we need to open the
Aspen Plus software!
Throughout this manual, the areas of interest will be high-lighted with a green box, while areas where you
need to click or type information into will be high-lighted with a red box.
Figure 2.1: An Aspen Plus page with the area of interest high-lighted
in a green box and the area to click high-lighted in a red box.
To open the Aspen Plus program, click on the Windows ‘Start’ button , then click on the ‘Aspen Tech’ folder
→ “Process Modelling V8.4” folder → “Aspen Plus” folder → “Aspen Plus V8.4” icon.
(a) (b) (c) (d)

Figure 2.2: The steps to open the Aspen Plus software program: (a) Step 1: click on the main ‘Aspen Plus’ folder; (b) Step 2:
Click on the ‘Process Modelling V8.4’ sub-folder; (c) Step 3: Click on the ‘Aspen Plus’ sub-folder; and (d) Step 4: Click on
the ‘Aspen Plus V8.4’ software icon. The red boxes indicate the folders/icons to click to progress to the next step, while the
green boxes indicate the parent folder from which the folder/icon to click next originates from.
Page 4 Chapter 2: Setting up Simulation

When you open the Aspen Plus software, you will be taken to the main screen or “Start Page” as shown in
Figure 2.3 or Figure 2.4.
Figure 2.3: Aspen Plus main or ‘Start’ page.
Figure 2.4: A different version of the Aspen Plus main or ‘Start’ page.
Chapter 2: Setting up Simulation Page 5

2.1 The Basics

File Types
In Aspen Plus, there are few different types of files in which you can save your Aspen Plus simulations:
Format: .apwz - Contains: Model file (BKP or APW file), external files used by
the model, supporting documents to APWZ file
- For complex simulations
- Large file size - NOT suitable for email
Format: .apw - Contains: Simulation input, results and some convergence

information
- For simpler simulations
- Small file size - suitable for email
Format: .bkp - Contains: Simulation input and results

- For simpler simulations
- Small file size - suitable for email
Format: .apt
- Contains: Template with default inputs
Icons
In Aspen Plus, you will notice that there are little icons to indicate the status of completion for various sections
of the simulation:
Completion of required input
Required input not yet compete
Simulation complete with errors (requires trouble-shooting)
Simulation complete with results available
Data Type
Input by user [Blue text]
Data calculated from simulation (cannot be changed) [Black text]

2.2 Setting up the Simulation
Whenever you use Aspen Plus, there are a number of steps which need to be taken in order to get things
working. By looking at the side of the main screen (see Figure 2.5), you can start a new simulation case by
clicking on ‘New’ → ‘Blank Simulation’.
Figure 2.5: Starting a new simulation case from the ‘Start’ page.
You can also create a

new simulation case
by clicking on ‘File’ →
‘Case’ → ‘New’
Figure 2.6: Starting a blank simulation.

This starts a new file and opens the simulation manager beginning with the components list as shown in Figure
2.7.
Figure 2.7: Starting a new simulation case from the ‘Start’ page.
The easiest way to navigate yourself through the set-up process is to establish up a “simulation set-up” routine.
In Aspen Plus, this is straight-forward with only two main sections to be considered:
• Components
• Methods
By simply going down the folders in the “Properties” side-bar, this would create a routine to ensure that you
have the component list and simulation model required for the process before you enter the simulation board.
Figure 2.8: Properties navigation side bar.

2.3 Component Lists
In Aspen Plus, you need to specify what chemical compounds will be
present in the simulation. This is set in a ‘Component list’ where you
specify the chemical components that you will be using your Aspen Plus
simulation. This includes ALL the chemicals that you will be using in
ALL your streams in your simulation (make sure you include all chemical
compounds that take place in reactions).
To add a component, click on ‘Find’ as high-lighted in Figure 2.9.
Figure 2.9: Component list page.
Click in the ‘Name or Alias’ box, and begin typing the name of the component to search for a component. For
example, type “nitrogen” (or “N2”), and then double-click on “nitrogen” under the ‘Simulation Name’ to add
it to the list of current components. Or you can hit the ‘Enter’ key on your keyboard after you typed in the
nitrogen component. It should appear in the box on the left hand side of the screen. Repeat for hydrogen and
ammonia. You will also notice that Aspen Plus has ticked the Component List folder to show it is ready.

Always choose
chemical components
which have ‘PURE28’.
PURE28 indicates
that the chemical
component was
migrated from the
older version of Aspen
Plus.
Figure 2.10: Adding a chemical component in the ‘Component’ window.
Figure 2.11: Chemical components added in the ‘Components’ page.

2.4 Models and Methods
In Aspen Plus relies on mathematical models to run the simulations. The fluid package models involved are
of a thermodynamic or numerical nature to facilitate in calculating the chemical component properties for
a particular reaction or perform iterative calculations around a recycle loop until the mass balances have
converged. You may have encountered some of these models during your studies. One example of a model that
is used by Aspen Plus is the Peng-Robinson equation of state, which is presented below:
To add the fluid package model, click on the ‘Methods’ folder on the side bar. Then click on the drop-down
box arrow under the ‘Method name’ section.
Figure 2.12: Adding the Peng-Robinson (PENG-ROB) model in the Methods page.

Figure 2.13: Adding the PENG-ROB equation of state for method specification.
In the list of fluid packages under ‘Method name’, find and click on ‘PENG-ROB’. Details about the empirical
model(s) and chemical component information that the Peng-Robinson fluid package will then be displayed.
Now we need to check the coefficients of interaction between the different chemical components before you
can enter the simulation environment. To do this, click on the ‘Parameters’ folder in the navigation side bar.
Figure 2.14: The methods page with the ‘Parameters’ folder not completely defined.

Next, click on the ‘PRKBV-1’ interaction set (shown in Figure 2.15) to view the interaction coefficients
(shown in Figure 2.16).
Figure 2.15: The binary interaction page with the ‘PRKBV-1’ interaction set high-lighted to view the
coefficients.
If you are unsure

whether you
have checekd
the interaction
parameters,
look at the icon
next to the
fluid property
interaction
parameter
name. A red icon
indicates that
the parameters
have not been
checked yet. A
blue tick icon
indicates the
parameters have
been checked.
Figure 2.16: The binary interaction page with the ‘PRKBV-1’ interaction coefficients.

3 Setting up a flow-sheet
3.1 Flow-sheet
Once you have entered the property package and components, you need to start drawing the process block
diagram. To start setting up your flowsheet with your the streams and equipment items for the simulation click
on “Simulation” tab towards the bottom of the side bar.
Figure 3.1: The main flow-sheet page showing the ‘Simulation’ button (high-lighted in red).
Once you have entered the simulation environment, you will be taken to the main flow-sheet page. Figure
3.2 shows the different features of the simulation environment.
Figure 3.2: The main flow-sheet page with different sections of the page high-lighted.
Page 14 Chapter 3: Setting up a Flow-sheet

In the simulation environment, the equipment ‘Model palette’ allows you to put all kinds of streams and process
equipment found in the chemical engineering industry to create your own chemical engineering process! The
types of process equipment that are commonly used in Apen Plus are summarised below:
Mixer
Mixer
Separators
Separator (two outlets)

Pumps, compressors
and turbines
Pump Compressor/Turbine
Heat exchange
equipment
Heater/Cooler Heat exchanger

Reactors
Stoichiometric reactor CSTR

Distillation
columns
Rad-Frac distillation model
Chapter 3: Setting up a Flow-sheet Page 15

3.2 Material and Energy Streams

There are three types of streams in Aspen Plus: (1) Material streams; (2) Energy streams and (3)
work streams. Each of these streams can connect to or from a process equipment or between two
process equipments.
Material streams represent the chemical component (or mixture) physical flow as either a liquid,
vapour or gas. Energy streams represent ‘thermal’ energy (such as heat loss from cooling down
a stream). Work streams represent the mechanical energy in the form of electrical energy (such
as in a case of a pump where electricity drives the blade to pump the liquid to higher operating
pressures) or shaft work from turbines and compressors.
Figure 3.3: A pump and compressor showing the material and work streams.
Heat and work streams are only used when you are showing that two equipment items are sharing a single heat
or work stream.
To determine the duty or energy flow to or from from an equipment item, Aspen Plus will calculate this and
will show the duty in the ‘Model summary’ results table.
To place a material stream in your flow-sheet, click on the material stream icon and select the material stream
option. Your cursor will change from an arrow to a cross. Click any where on the main flow-sheet canvas
to place your stream. Once you have placed your stream, right-click on the mouse to de-activate the stream
placement function.

Figure 3.4: The main flow-sheet page showing the ‘Material’ stream button.
Figure 3.5: Placing a material stream in the main flow-sheet.
Chapter 3: Setting up a Flow-sheet Page 17

To move the stream

label along the
arrow, click on the
label and hold, then
drag the label across
the arrow.
Figure 3.6: A material stream in the main flow-sheet.

To connect a stream to an euiipment item, place the desired equipment item on the flow-sheet canvas. For a
feed stream, right-click on the stream and select ‘Reconnect’, then click ‘Reconnect destination’. Now you
are able to onnect to the red arraows on the equipment. For a product stream, right-click on the stream and
select ‘Reconnect’ then click ‘Reconnect source’ and connect to the red arrows on the equipment item.
For complex
simulations, build
up each section of
the process, one at
a time.
Figure 3.7: Connect a material stream to the mixer.

4 Mixers
We will start by adding three steams: (1) containing pure
hydrogen; (2) containing pure nitrogen, and (3) containing
a mixture of nitrogen, hydrogen and ammonia. These
streams would represent typical feed streams to the reactor
in an ammonia plant.
Firstly you need to place a mixer onto the flow-sheet

canvas. Click on the mixer icon in the equipment model
palette. Then click on the flowsheet where you want to
place the mixer (Figure 4.1). Next we will connect the
streams entering and leaving the mixer.
Figure 4.1: Mixer models in the equipment model palette ribbon.
Figure 4.2: Mixer model in the main flow-sheet page.
Chapter 4: Mixer Page 19

Click on the material stream icon, located on the left of the equipment model palette ribbon. Next click on the
flow-sheet canvas where you would like to place the feed material stream and click on the red arrow going
into the mixer to connect the first feed stream to the mixer. Connect two more streams entering the mixer and
one stream leaving the mixer.
Figure 4.3: Mixer model with three feed streams and one product stream in the main flow-sheet page.
You can change the name of the feed stream by double-clicking on the ‘S1’ label and renaming the stream.
However, we will leave this as ‘S1’ for now. Double-click on the arrow ‘S1’ to open the S1 stream properties
page. Under ‘Temperature’, enter ‘300 °C’, and under ‘Pressure’, enter ‘100000 kPa’. For a mass balance on
a mixer, the temperature and pressure are not important, but Aspen Plus likes to know them anyway. Under
‘Mass flow’, enter ‘1000 kg/hr’.
For the component section, change the units to ‘Mass-Frac’ and enter ‘0.76’ for ‘nitrogen’, ‘0.16’ for ‘hydrogen’,
and ‘0.08’ for ‘ammonia’. Make sure that the ‘Total’ at the bottom of the form is equal to ‘1’ as the sum of the
component mass fractions for a mixture should always be equal to one. Once all the information is entered
into the properties page, you will notice that the half-filled red symbol has changed to a tick to indicate the
completion of defining the stream properties.
Another way to access the stream properties page is to click on the expand arrow next
to the ‘Streams’ folder in the simulation side bar, then click on the ‘Stream name’ (e.g.
S1) folder.
You can reposition the label of the equipment item by left-clicking on the label, hold,
then drag the label to the position or location on the flowsheet canvas that you want.
Page 20 Chapter 4: Mixer

The quality of
the information
entered into
the simulation
is important
for good quality
results.
Figure 4.4: Properties page for the first feed stream ‘S1’.
Close the window and enter the information for the other two streams as given in Table below. The procedure
is identical to that described above.
Table 4.1: Properties of two feed streams, ‘S2’ and ‘S3’, entering the mixer.
Temperature Pressure Mass fraction Mass fraction Mass frac-
Stream Mass Flow
[°C] [kPa] H2 N2 tion NH3
S2 300 100000 150 0 1.0 0
S3 300 100000 30 1.0 0 0
Figure 4.5: Properties page for the second feed stream ‘S2’.

Figure 4.6: Properties page for the feed stream ‘S3’.

Now, double-click on the mixer to open the properties form for the mixer (Figure 4.7). Type in the absolute
pressure or the pressure drop for the mixer:
- Absolute pressure: set the pressure to any number greater than zero,
- Pressure drop: set the pressure to zero,
In this example, we will set the pressure drop of the separator to be 0 kPa by typing in ‘0 kPa’ in the pressure
property box. Also set the phase of the mixer, ‘Valid phases:’ to be ‘Vapour-Liquid’.
‘Run’ icon
Figure 4.7: Properties page for the mixer model ‘B1’. The red box high-lights the ‘Run’ icon to run
the simulation
The simulation is ready. Click on the ‘Run’ icon, located in the ‘Home’ tab of the ribbon to run the mixer
process simulation (shown in the high-lighted red box in Figure 4.7). When the simulation calculations have
converged, a window will pop up indicating the convergence of the simulation. Close the window and click
on ‘Stream summary’, located on the home ribbon.
You can also find the ‘Run’ icon

in the quick access ribbon at
the top left-hand corner of the
window.
Get into the habit or routine of

saving your file before starting or
running a simulation.
Figure 4.8: Convergence notification window after runing the mixer simulation.
This will show you a summary of the results for the temperature, pressure and component flow rates of the feed
and product streams. When the simulation has Double-click on ‘S4’, and look at the properties. Not surprising,
the mass flowrate of stream 4 is 1180 kg/hr. This is what we would calculate using an overall mass balance.
Figure 4.9: Summary of results in the Results Summary - Streams table.

To add the component mass fraction to the summary table, position your mouse cursor over the ‘Default’ tab
and right click on the tab. Then click on ‘Add New’, which will bring up a window to allow you to type in a
name for the customised results.
Figure 4.11: Entering a name for the cus-

tomised summary of results stream table.
Figure 4.10: Adding a customised version of the summary of results stream

table.
Position your mouse cursor over the property column and right click to click on ‘Edit view’.
Click on the ‘Property Selection’ tab and from the ‘Existing properties’ column, click on the ‘Component
Mass Fraction’. Bring the component mass fraction property to the ‘Selected properties’ column by clicking
on the ‘>’ button.
Figure 4.13: Stream summary edit view wizard page.

Click ‘OK’ and this will take you back to the result summary page with the component mass fraction property
added to the bottom of the list (you will need to scroll down to see the component mass fractions). You can
see that S4 contains 91.2 % mass nitrogen, 3.7 % mass hydrogen and 5.0 % mass ammonia. These numbers
are calculated using the component mass balances. The power in Aspen Plus is the ability to simply change
conditions, and have the simulation calculate the results. Try changing the flowrate of ‘S3’ to 50 kg/hr. This
increases the hydrogen content of S4 to 5.3 % mass.

5 Separators
In its most basic form, a separator is used to separate a stream into liquid and vapour
fractions. Separators can also be used to calculate the liquid-vapour equilibrium
conditions for a single stream which undergoes change in temperature or
pressure, or for the mixing of multiple streams. In this example, there will be
drop in pressure for the liquid stream after it enters the separator. This causes
some of the liquid to evaporate.
Start a new Aspen Plus file, enter ‘propane’ and ‘n-butane’ (butane) as components, and select the ‘PENG-
ROB’ property package (do not forget to check the binary interaction between the different components).
Figure 5.1: Chemical components used for the separator simulation.
The separator unit can be found under ‘Separators’ tab in the model palette ribbon. Click on the ‘Flash2’
separator icon and add it to the flowsheet. Connect a feed stream and two product streams to the separator.
Rename the ‘S1’ stream to ‘FEED’, the ‘S2’ overhead stream to ‘VAPOUR’ and the ‘S3’ bottoms stream to
‘LIQUID’.
Figure 5.2: Separator models in the model palette ribbon.
Page 26 Chapter 5: Separators

Figure 5.3: Separator model with one feed stream and two product streams in the main flow-sheet.
The feed stream contains 50 mol% propane and 50 mol% n-butane at 20 °C. The pressure is 600 kPa, and
the molar flow rate is 100 kmol/hr, as shown on Figure 5.4.
You can also

click on the B1
‘Input’ icon in the
navigation side
bar to enter the
properties for the
separator. This can
be done for any
equipment item.
Figure 5.4: Properties page for the feed stream ‘FEED’.
Chapter 5: Separators Page 27

Click on the flash separator to open the properties page. For the flash type, change the ‘Temperature’ to
‘Duty’. Enter ‘-200 kPa’ as the ‘Pressure:’ to indicate a pressure drop of 200 kPa. Enter 0 kJ/hr for the
‘Duty:’
Figure 5.5: Properties page for the separator model ‘B1’.

Once the information is entered, the separator will be defined and is indicated by the tick symbol next to the
‘B1’ folder in the simulation side bar. The separator simulation is now ready to run. Click on the ‘Run’ icon
to run the simulation. Set up a customised stream summary page to include the component mole fraction in
the results and have a look at the vapour and liquid product streams. The vapour stream is rich in propane
(mole fraction propane = 0.774 as seen in Figure 5.6).
Figure 5.6: Results summary - streams page for the separator simulation.
Page 28 Chapter 5: Separators

However, the amount of vapour produced is only 5.8 kmol/hr. It is also clear that these streams have been
cooled by the evaporation within the separator.
We can either specify the energy flow to the separator, or we can set the outlet temperature. Double-click on
the separator and for ‘Flash type:’, change the ‘Duty’ property to ‘Temperature’. Set the temperature to 20 °C
(an isothermal flash) and run the simulation. Now you can see that at the higher temperature we have produced
58.9 kmol/hr of vapour. However, the purity of the product is lower (mole fraction propane = 0.62).
Figure 5.7: Property page for the separator model ‘B1’ with the pressure and temperature conditions specified.
The summary table

can be viewd as a
text file by clicking
on ‘Report’ in the
‘Home’ ribbon, or the
data can be exported
to Excel by clicking
on ‘Copy all’ in the
summary table and
pasting the data in
Excel.
Figure 5.8: Results summary - streams page for the separator simulation with the temperature and
pressure specified.
Chapter 5: Separators Page 29

6 Pumps, compressors and turbines

6.1 Pumps
Pumps are used for liquid streams, and expanders and compressors are used for gas streams.
Start a new case and add a ‘water’ stream and an ‘air’ stream to your simulation with the ‘PENG-ROB’ fluid
package. Click on the ‘Simulation’ icon below the ‘Properties’ side bar to enter the simulation page.
Figure 6.1: Chemical components used for the pump simulation.

The pump can be found under the ‘Pressure Changers’ tab of the model equipment palette. Click on the pump
icon and click on the region of the flow-sheet canvas to place the pump.
Figure 6.2: Pump model in the model palette ribbon.
Page 30 Chapter 6: Pumps, compressors and turbines

Connect a feed stream and a product stream to and from the pump. Double-click on stream ‘1’ to open up the
stream properties page. Set the ‘Temperature:’ to be 30 °C and the ‘Pressure:’1000 kPa. Change the units of
the ‘Total flow basis:’ from ‘Mole’ to ‘Mass’. Enter the ‘Total flow rate:’ as 20000 kg/hr of pure water. Make
sure you change the ‘Composition’ units to ‘Mass-Frac’ before entering ‘1’ for the mass fraction of water.
Figure 6.4: Properties page for the feed stream ‘1’.

Go back to the main flow-sheet and double-click on the pump. Specify the model is a pump by checking on
the ‘Pump’ circle. We will specify the outlet pressure. Under the ‘Pump outlet specification’, click on the circle
next to ‘Discharge pressure’. Set the pressure in the outlet stream as 2000 kPa, and pump specifications will
be completely defined as indicated by the tick symbol next to the ‘B1’ folder.
Figure 6.5: Properties page for the pump model ‘B1’.
Chapter 6: Pumps, compressors and turbines Page 31

The pump is now ready to run the simulation. Click on the ‘Run’ icon to run the simulation. When the simulation
has converged, click on the ‘Stream summary’ icon to view the results.
Figure 6.6: Results summary stream page for the pump simulation.
6.2 Turbine and Compressor

An expander (turbine) is used to expand (decrease the pressure) of a gas stream. The turbine uses the expansion
of the gas to produce power. The turbine model can be found under ‘Compr’ in the model palette ribbon. Click
on the ‘Compr’ icon and place the turbine in the main flow-sheet canvas.
Add an air stream and connect it to the turbine. Set the inlet conditions to 400 °C, 10,000 kPa and 10,000 kg/h.
Connect a ‘Work’ stream by clicking on the ‘Material’ stream icon, then selecting the ‘Work’ stream from
the pop-up box. Go back to the flow-sheet and double-click on pump/turbine model. Specify the model as a
‘Turbine’ and set the ‘Discharge pressure’ to be 200 kPa.
For help in Aspen Plus, press the ‘F1’ key on your keyboard or click on the ‘Question
mark’ icon toward the top right-hand corner of the window. When working in one
section of the software (e.g. turbine), press the ‘F1’ key or click on the ‘Question mark’
icon to bring up help and information specific to that section of the software.

Figure 6.8: Pump and compressor models on the main flow-sheet page.
Figure 6.9: Results summary stream page for the compressor simulation.

Figure 6.10: Properties page for the compressor model ‘B2’.
The turbine is now ready and you can run the turbine simulation by clicking on the ‘Run’ icon in the home
ribbon bar. When the simulation has converged, click on the ‘Stream summary’ icon to view the results for
the streams.
You can also view the properties of the turbine model by clicking on the ‘Model Summary’ icon, which is
located above the ‘Stream Summary’ icon.
The duty of the turbine can be viewed by going back to the main flow-sheet page and double-clicking on
the turbine work stream (In this case stream ‘5’). You will see that the turbine duty is 923.6 kW. Note Aspen
Plus also calculates the temperature of the stream exiting the turbine (the temperature of the gas drops as it is
expanded). If you want to specify the turbine duty, then remove the pressure specification of the stream exiting
the expander first before entering the turbine ‘Power produced’ value.
The procedure for setting up a compressor is virtually identical to the turbine, except that you specify the
model is a ‘Compressor’ instead of a ‘Turbine’.
7 Heat Exchange Equipment

7.1 Heaters and Coolers
There are two ways to implement heat transfer in HYSYS. Firstly, one can use a heater or cooler. Set up a new
simulation case, adding ‘water’ as the chemical component with ‘PENG-ROB’ as the fluid package method
(do not forgot to check your binary interaction coefficients).
Figure 7.1: Chemical components used in heater simulation example.
Go to the ‘Simulation’ tab to go to the simulation environment. The heater model can be found under the
‘Exchanger’ tab of the equipment model palette ribbon.
Figure 7.2: Heater model in the equipment model palette ribbon.
If you are unsure of what to do, click on the ‘Next’ icon, next to the ‘Run’ icon and Aspen
Plus will take you to or advise you of the next step
Page 36 Chapter 7: Heat exchange equipment

Click on the heater model in the palette and place it in the main flow-sheet. To heat up a stream, add a feed and
a product, as shown in Figure 7.3.
Figure 7.3: Heater model with a single feed and product stream in the main flow-sheet page.
Set the inlet stream to be pure water with the temperature set to 25 °C, the pressure to 101.325 kPa, and molar
flow to 1000 kg/h.
Figure 7.4: Properties page for the feed stream ‘S1’.
Chapter 7: Heat exchange equipment Page 37

Double-click on the heater to enter the properties of the heater. We can specify the outlet temperature, pressure
or duty of the heater. Set the ‘Flash type:’ to ‘Pressure’ and ‘Temperature’. Enter a pressure drop of ‘0 kPa’ and
an outlet stream to be 150 °C, as shown in Figure 7.5.
Figure 7.5: Properties page for the heater model ‘B1’.
Once the information is entered, the heater is ready. Click on the ‘Run’ icon to simulate the heater. You will
see that the duty of has been calculated for this heater.
Figure 7.6: Summary stream results table for the heater simulation.

If you want to specify the duty, double-click on the heater, and change the ‘Temperature’ to ‘Duty’ under
‘Flash type:’. Next, specify the duty to be ‘1000 kW’. Reset and run the simulation again. Now the heater exit
temperature is calculated to be 551.2 °C. A similar procedure is used for the cooler.
Figure 7.7: Properties page for the heater model ‘B1’ where the pressure and duty properties are the
inputs.
Figure 7.8: Model summary results table for the heater simulation with the pressure and duty specified.

Figure 7.9: Summary stream results table for the heater simulation with the pressure and duty specified.
7.2 Heat Exchangers

The second heat transfer option is a heat exchanger. In this instance, there are two inlet and two outlet streams.
Basically, one hot stream is used to heat up a cold stream (the cold stream is thus cooling down the hot stream).
Set up a problem using the ‘Peng Robinson’ fluid package, with components ‘oxygen’, ‘nitrogen’, ‘carbon
dioxide’, and ‘water’.
Figure 7.10: Chemical components used for the heat exchanger simulation.

The heat exchanger model (‘Heat X’) can also be found under the ‘Exchanger’ tab in the model palette ribbon,
as high-lighted in Figure 7.11.
Figure 7.11: The heat exchanger model in the model palette ribbon.
We will look at the recovery of heat from the flue gas of a natural gas burner. Click on ‘Simulation’ and in the
flowsheet, add a heat exchanger. We will now need to add two feed streams and two product streams. When
connecting the feed streams to the heat exchanger, ensure that you are aware of which side is the cold and hot
stream - there will be a little pop-up box that will indicate the type of feed or product stream.
Figure 7.12: Heat exchanger model with cold and hot inlet and outlet streams in the main flow-sheet.
Add a ‘Hot-gas’ feed stream (800 °C, 200 kPa, 3100 kgmol/hr). The composition of this stream is 76.5 mol%
nitrogen, 13.9 mol% oxygen, 6.4 mol% water, 3.2 mol% carbon dioxide. Add a ‘Water’ stream (30 °C, 1000
kPa, 20000 kg/hr of pure water). Double-click on the heat exchanger to open the properties page.

Figure 7.13: Properties page for the cold inlet stream ‘S1’.
Figure 7.14: Properties page for the hot inlet stream ‘S3’.

In the ‘Specifications’ page, the ‘Calculation’ should be set as ‘Shortcut’ with the ‘Flow direction:’ being
‘Countercurrent’. In order to run the simulation, an outlet specification needs to be set. The outlet specification
can be based on the temeprature of the hot/cold streams, the temperature drop, vapour fraction or the heat
exchanger duty. Under ‘Exchanger-specification’ specify the outlet condition to be ‘Hot stream outlet
temperature’ for the ‘Specification (as shown in Figure 7.15) Then set the ‘Value’ of the hot stream outlet
temperature to be 270 °C (therefore specify the temperature of the gases exiting the exchanger to be 270 °C).
Figure 7.15: Property ‘Specifications’ page for the heat exchanger model ‘B1’.
Click on the ‘Pressure Drop’ tab and ensure that both the hot and cold sides of the heat exchanger have a 0 kPa
pressure drop. You can do this by selecting either the ‘Hot side’ or ‘Cold side’ (for the ‘Side:’ option) and for
the ‘Outlet pressure’ (drop), ensure that the pressure drop is ‘0 kPa’.
Figure 7.16: Pressure drop property page for the heat exchanger model ‘B1’.

The heat exchanger is now ready. Click on the ‘Run’ icon to start the simulation. When the simulation has
converged, click on the ‘Stream summary’ icon at the top of the page. You can see that ‘Overall UA’ (you may
need to scroll down) for this exchanger is 44.56 kJ/s.K (change the units by double-clicking on ‘UA’, then
right click to select ‘Change units’) . So if we know the overall heat transfer coefficient, U, we can calculate
the heat exchanger area, A. You can see that the water is being heated up to generate steam. Determine the
outlet steam temperature.
Figure 7.17: Summary streams results table for the heat exchanger simulation.
Figure 7.18: Model summary restuls table for the heat exchanger simulation.

8 Reactors
Reactors are the heart of chemical engineering that facilitate chemical reaction processes. Aspen Plus has
several different models of reactors, however this manual will only cover two models:
- RStoic: this reactor model is based on reactors which take into account stoichiometry and extents of reaction,
- RCSTR: this reactor model is based on Continuously Stirred Tank Reactors, which take into account the rate-
controlled reaction kinetics.
To learn about the other types of reactor models in Aspen Plus, please refer to the reading resources and
references in Chapter 12 of this manual.
8.1 Conversion or Stoichiometric Reactors

Entering reactions in Aspen Plus is done within the reactor model. Start a new simulation, and add nitrogen,
hydrogen and ammonia as the components, and enter PENG-ROB as the property package or ‘method’. Click
on ‘Simulation’ to enter the simulation environment.
Figure 8.1: Chemical components to be used for the stoichiometric reactor simulation.
The stoichiometric reactor can be found in ‘Columns’ tab with the icon. Click on stoichiometric reactor and
then click on the flowsheet where you want to place the reactor. Position your mouse cursor over an empty
region of the simulation canvas and right click to disable the ‘reactor addition’ function.
Figure 8.2: Reactor models in the model palette ribbon.
Chapter 8: Reactors Page 45

Figure 8.3: Reactor models in the model palette ribbon.
Add a feed stream and a product stream to your reactor. Change the name of the stream entering the reactor (by
double-clicking the stream name label, highlight the stream name) and type in ‘FEED’. Change the product
stream name to ‘PRODUCT’. Position your mouse over the stream ‘FEED’ arrow and double-click to open
up the properties form for the feed stream.
Figure 8.4: Reactor model with one feed and one product stream.
Page 46 Chapter 8: Reactors

Set the temperature to 300 °C, the pressure to 10000 kPa, and molar flow to 100 kmol/hr. Under the composition
section, use the drop-down box to change the ‘Mole-Flow’ property to ‘Mole-Frac’. Enter a mole fraction of
‘0.25’ mol % for nitrogen, ‘0.75’ mol% for hydrogen and ‘0’ mol % for ammonia. Ensure that the total sum of
the mole fraction is equal to 1.
Figure 8.5: Properties page for feed stream ‘FEED’.

You will notice that the status icon of the “FEED” folder in the Simulation bar has changed from half-filled
red to a tick symbol. This means that the feed stream is completely defined. Close this form, and double-click
on the reactor. This opens the properties form for the reactor.
Set the temperature of the reactor to 300 °C, the pressure drop to 0 kPa by entering 0 into the pressure property
input box and changing the pressure units from ‘bar’ to ‘kPa’.
Figure 8.6: Properties page for stoichiometric reactor ‘B1’.

Click on the ‘Reactions’ tab and then click on ‘New’to add a reaction.
Figure 8.7: Reaction properties page for the stoichiometric reactor.
The reaction we are trying to model is:

N2 + 3H2 → 2NH3
Under ‘Component’, click on the arrow of the drop down box and select ‘nitrogen’. Repeat for ‘hydrogen’ and
‘ammonia’.
In Aspen Plus, reactants are being used up in the reaction and therefore are treated as having a negative
stoichiometric coefficient, whilst products have a positive stoichiometric coefficient. Hence in the ‘coefficient’
column, we enter the stoichiometric reaction coefficients: ‘-1’, ‘-3’ and ‘2’ as the stoichiometric coefficient for
nitrogen, hydrogen and ammonia respectively. The form should now look like:
Figure 8.8: Entering the stoichiometric coefficients of the reactants and products for the reaction for the
stoichiometric reactor.

The conversion of the reaction can be entered in the ‘Products generation’ section, which is located on the bot-
tom of the conversion reaction page. We will base the conversion on nitrogen, so we will assign a ‘fractional
conversion’ of 0.50 (50 % conversion) of component ‘NITRO-01’. The status icon at the bottom of the page
will now show a tick symbol. You can close the window and begin the simulation step. Click on the ‘Run’ icon,
located in the ‘Home’ tab of the ribbon to run the reactor process simulation.
Do not forget
to specifiy the
component to set
up the fraction
conversion for the
reaction.
Figure 8.9: Completed reaction condition page for the stoichiometric reactor model.
When the simulation calculations have converged, a window will pop up indicating the convergence of the
simulation. Close the window and click on stream summary.
This will show you a summary of the results for the temperature, pressure and component flow rates of the
feed and product streams.
If you are on the

last step of setting
up your simulation
before clicking on
the ‘Run’ icon,
you can also run
the simulation by
clicking on the
‘Next’ icon in the
‘Home’ ribbon or in
the quick access tab.
Figure 8.10: Summary results stream page for the stoichiometic reactor simulation.

To add the component mole fraction to the summary table, position your mouse cursor over the ‘Default’ tab
for the stream summary window and right click on the tab. Then click on ‘Add New’, which will bring up a
window to allow you to type in a name for the customised results.
Position your mouse cursor over the property column and right click to click on ‘Edit view’.
Figure 8.12: Entering a name for the customised

summary results stream page.
Figure 8.11: Stream summary edit view wizard page for the
stoichiometic reactor simulation.
Click on the ‘Property Selection’ tab and from the ‘Existing properties’ column, click on the ‘Component
Mass Fraction’. Bring the component mass fraction property to the ‘Selected properties’ column by clicking
on the ‘>’ button.
Figure 8.13: Selecting the customised result properties for the customised results summary
stream page.

Click ‘OK’ and this will take you back to the result summary page with the component mass fraction property
added to the bottom of the list (you will need to scroll down to see the component mass fractions).
Figure 8.14: Customised results summary stream page.
From the component mass fraction, you can see that the mass fraction of nitrogen, hydrogen and ammonia are
0.41, 0.08 and 0.5 respectively.

8.2 CSTR Reactors

Start a new Aspen Plus file, enter ‘sucrose’, ‘water’, ‘ethanol’ and ‘carbon dioxide’ (do NOT enter a space
between carbon and dioxide, just keep typing) and ‘ethanol’ as components, and select the general ‘NRTL’
property package (do not forget to check the binary interaction coefficients). Enter the simulation page.
Figure 8.15: The chemical components to be used for the CSTR simulation.
The CSTR reactor can be found in ‘Columns’ tab with the icon. Click on CSTR and then click on the flowsheet
where you want to place the reactor. Position your mouse cursor over an empty region of the simulation canvas
and right click to disable the ‘reactor addition’ function.
Figure 8.16: The CSTR model in the model palette ribbon.
Set up two feed streams: one containing water (Rename the stream ‘WATER’), the other sucrose (Rename the
stream ‘SUCROSE’). The molar flowrate of sucrose is 100 kmol/hr, and water is 1000 kmol/hr. The pressure
of each stream is 110 kPa and the temperature for each stream is 10 °C. Set the composition of the water
stream to be pure water, and the sucrose stream to be pure sucrose. Change the overhead product stream name
to ‘VAPOUR’ and the bottom product stream to ‘LIQUID’.

Figure 8.17: The properties page for the ‘WATER’ feed stream to the CSTR.
Figure 8.18: The properties page for the ‘SUCROSE’ feed stream to the CSTR.

Double-click on the CSTR on the main flow-sheet and set the reactor to be at 10 °C and 0 kPa pressure drop
(set the pressure to 0 kPa). In the ‘Hold-up’ section, define the ‘Valid phases:’ to be ‘Vapour-Liquid’ and the
‘Specification type:’ to be ‘Reactor volume & Phase volume fraction’. Enter ‘20m3’ for the volume (units are
defined as m3 = cum), ‘Phase’ to be ‘Condensed phase’ and the ‘Volume frac:’ to be 0.90. Once the CSTR
conditions are all defined, the ‘Specifications’ tab will show a tick symbol to indicate this. We now move onto
the ‘Streams’ tab.
Figure 8.19: The specifications properties page for the CSTR model ‘B1’.
In the ‘Streams’ tab, we need to define which product stream is the vapour and the liquid stream. For each
‘Vapour’ and ‘Liquid’ stream, under the ‘Phase’ column, use the drop-down box to define the phase of each
product stream.
Figure 8.20: The stream properties page for the CSTR model ‘B1’.

Once the stream phase has been defined, we move to the ‘Reactions’ tab. Click on the ‘New’ button and accept
the default name for the reaction (or you can change the reaction name if you wish).
Figure 8.21: Setting the reaction set name ‘R-1’ for the CSTR model.
Click on ‘OK’ and a new window will pop up asking for the type of reaction for the CSTR. Choose the
‘POWERLAW’ reaction and click on ‘OK’.
Figure 8.22: Setting the reaction type for the CSTR model.
Go to the Simulation side-bar and go to the ‘Reactions’ folder and expand the folder. Click on the ‘R-1’ folder
to enter the reaction stoichiometry.
Figure 8.23: Setting-up the ‘Reaction’ tab for the CSTR model.

The reaction occurring is sucrose + water = ethanol + carbon dioxide:

C12 H22 O11 + H2O → 4C2H5OH + 4CO2
This is a fermentation reaction, which is used to produce beer (ethanol is of course alcohol).
Click on the ‘New’ button and a new window will pop up. Add the reactants and products components using
the drop-down boxes under the ‘Component’ column. Under the ‘Coefficient’ column, enter stoichiometry
(‘-1’ for sucrose, ‘-1’ for water, ‘4’ for ethanol, ‘4’ for carbon dioxide). Under Reactants ‘Exponent’ column,
type ‘1’ for sucrose and ‘0’ for water. Next type ‘0’ for ethanol and ‘0’ for carbon dioxide under the Product
‘Exponent’ column. This tells Aspen Plus that the reaction rate only depends on the sucrose concentration.
Figure 8.24: Setting-up the equilbrium reaction’ for the CSTR model.
Close the ‘Edit Reaction’ window and click on the ‘Kinetic’ tab. Ensure that the ‘Reacting phase:’ is ‘Liquid’
and ‘Rate basis:’ is set to ‘Reac (vol)’. Under the ‘Power Law kinetic expression’, enter ‘1e6’ for ‘k:’ and ‘5e4
kJ/kmol’ for ‘E:’. Ensure that the units for the activation energy coefficient ‘E’ is set correctly. These parame-
ters tell the simulation how fast the reaction is.
Figure 8.25: Setting-up the reaction kinetic properties’ for the CSTR model.

Once the reaction kinetic information is entered into Aspen Plus, the reaction ‘R-1’ folder will indicate that
it is completely defined with the tick symbol. The CSTR simulation is now ready. Click on the ‘Run’ icon to
begin the simulation process.
Figure 8.26: Completed reaction properties section of the CSTR simulation.

When the simulation has converged, set up a ‘Custom stream summary’ and add the component mole fractions
to the results (same steps as adding the component mole fractions for the stoichiometric reactor example pre-
voiusly). Notice that most of the CO2 produced is in the ‘VAPOUR’ stream.
Figure 8.27: Summary stream results table for the CSTR simulation.

9 Distallation Columns
In Aspen Plus, the distillation column is modelled by the RadFrac fractionation model. There are two levels
of entering information for the distillation column: (1) Minimum specifications and (2) Design specifications.
Start a new simulation case and enter ‘water’ and ‘methanol’ as components. Set ‘NRTL-RK’ as the property
method, check the binary interaction and enter the simulation environment.
Figure 9.1: Chemical components to be used in the distillation RadFrac simulation.
Figure 9.2: Checking the binary coefficients as part of the NRTL-RK fluid package method.
The ‘RadFrac’ distillation model can be found under ‘Columns’ in the model palette ribbon.
Figure 9.3: Distillation model palette ribbon.
Page 58 Chapter 9: Distillation Columns

Click on the ‘RadFrac’ model and place it on the simulation canvas. Connect a feed stream and an overhead
product distillate stream and a bottoms product stream.
Figure 9.4: Distillation RadFrac model with a feed stream, an overhead stream and bottoms stream.
Double-click on the feed stream, set the pressure to be 20 psia and the stream phase to be a saturated liquid
(change the ‘Temperature’ for the ‘Flash type:’ to be ‘Vapor Fraction’ and enter ‘0’ in the ‘Vapor fraction:’
section). Set the mass flow to be 120,000 lb/hr and the mass fraction of water and methanol to be 0.632 and
0.368 respectively
Figure 9.5: Distillation RadFrac model with a feed stream, an overhead stream and bottoms stream.
Chapter 9: Distillation Columns Page 59

Go back to the main flow-sheet and double-click on the distillation column to open the RadFrac property page.
In the ‘Configuration’ tab, set the ‘Calculation type:’ to be ‘Equilibrium’, the ‘Number of stages:’ to be ‘40’,
‘Condenser:’ to be ‘Total’, ‘Reboiler’ to be ‘Kettle’, ‘Valid phases:’ to be ‘Vapor-Liquid’ and ‘Convergence:’
to be ‘Standard’. Under the ‘Operating specifications’, set the molar ‘Distillate rate’ to be ‘1245 lbmol/hr’ and
the molar ‘Reflux ratio’ to be ‘1.3’.
Figure 9.6: ‘Configurations’ property page of the RadFrac distillation column model ‘B1’.
In the ‘Streams’ tab, set the ‘FEED’ stream to enter the column at stage 23 by entering ‘23’ in the ‘Stage’
column.
Figure 9.7: ‘Streams’ property page of the RadFrac distillation column model ‘B1’.

Next, move to the ‘Pressure’ tab and enter ‘16.1 psia’ for the ‘Top stage/Condenser pressure’. Under ‘Pressure
drop for rest of column (optional)’, set the pressure drop to be ‘0.1 psi’ for each stage.
Figure 9.8: ‘Pressure’ property page of the RadFrac distillation column model ‘B1’.
The ‘RadFrac’ distillation model is now ready. Click on the ‘Run’ icon to run the simulation. Click on the
‘Model Summary’ to view the results for the distillation column. For both ‘Condenser/top stage heat duty’
and ‘Reboiler heat duty’, right-click on the row and select ‘Change units...’. Change the units to ‘MMBTU/
hr’. You will see that the condenser duty is -43.25 MMBTU/hr, while the reboiler duty is 44.51 MMBTU/hr.
Figure 9.9: Summary streams results table for the RadFrac distillation column simulation - process of
changing the unit for the reboiler heat duty.
Chapter 9: Distillation Columns Page 61

Figure 9.10: Summary streams results table for the RadFrac distillation column simulation.
Create a ‘Custom Stream Summary’ from the ‘Stream Summary’ section and add ‘Component mass fraction’
to the results. From here, you will see that the mass fraction of methanol in the distillate stream is 0.9998,
while the mass fraction of water in the bottoms stream is 0.9465.
Figure 9.11: Customised summary streams results table for the RadFrac distillation column simulation with
the mass fraction of water in the bottoms stream.
10 Design Specifications
Sometimes in process simulation, there is a need to do minor calculations to ensure that two flow-rates of
different components are kept at a constant ratio or you need to do iteration calculations to determine a specific
design parameter. Aspen Plus can help you with certain calculations by including manipulator blocks as a part
of their equipment models. These blocks are not physical equipment items, rather they are calculation blocks
to help with simulation calculations.
Let’s have a look at how the manipulator blocks work by looking at two examples, starting off with an excess
air combustion example:
The combustion gas temperature can be achieved by iterating the air flow rate manually. You need to manu-
ally calculate the stoichiometric air flowrate required by taking into account the composition of the natural
gas stream and the combustion reactions. Then by manually entering a new value for the combustion air
flowrate, Aspen Plus can recalculate the temperature, continue until required temperature is reached.
If complete combustion (or 100% conversion) is required, the stoichiometric air flowrate becomes your
minimum air flowrate that you need to feed to the reactor for complete combustion to occur. Therefore you
need to add excess air to reduce the combustion temperature down. The relationship between the combustion
temperature and the combustion air flowrate can be represented by an inverted parabola as shown in Figure
10.1.
Figure 10.1: The relationshp between the reactor combustion temperature and the air flow rate.
The process of trial and error of the air flowrate to achieve the desired combustion temperature can be done
automatically by Aspen Plus using design specifications.
• We want to adjust the flowrate of the air stream automatically to achieve the desired combustion reac-
tion temperature (or gas outlet temperature).
• If required, we also want to make sure that complete combustion is occurring by increasing the air flow-
rate from the minimum theoretical flowrate.
Natural gas (at 25 ˚C and 200 kPa) with the composition given below is burned adiabatically (no heat loss -
set energy stream value to zero) with excess combustion air to produce a stream of hot combustion gases at a
temperature of 1200 ˚C.
Chapter 10: Design Specifications Page 63

Start a new simulation and add methane, ethane, propane, nitrogen, oxygen, water and carbon dioxide (type
‘carbon-dioxide) as chemical components. Use the PENG-ROB fluid package method. Once you have en-
tered the required information, enter the simulation environment.
Figure 10.2: The chemical components used for the excess air combustion reaction example.
In the main flow-sheet, add a stoichiometric reactor and connect a natural gas feed stream containing the
following composition at 25 °C and 200 kPa.The natural gas flows at 1 kmol/hr into the reactor.
Component Mole fraction
Methane (CH4) 0.87
Ethane (C2H6) 0.08
Propane (C3H8) 0.03
Nitrogen (N2) 0.02
The corners of
material stream
arrows can be
fixed by clicking
on the stream
which will display
a toggle with a
dot at the end.
Click on the dot
so that it turns
from grey to red
to set it in place.
Figure 10.3: The stoichiometric reactor with the combustion fuel and air feed streams and the reactor
outlet stream.
Page 64 Chapter 10: Design Specifications
Figure 10.4: The properties page for the fuel feed stream.
Add a combustion air feed stream, in which air is available at 25 °C and 200 kPa. the air flow rate is 15.1
kmol/hr.
Figure 10.5: The properties page for the air feed stream.

Add a product stream, then double-click on the reactor to enter the reaction conditions. In the ‘Specifica-
tions’ tab, set the reactor pressure drop to be 0 kPa and the reactor will operate at adiabatic conditions (duty
is 0 kJ/hr).
Figure 10.6: The ‘Specifications’ page for the stoichiometric reactor.
In the 'Reactions' tab, enter the three combustion reactions. Assume 100% conversion of the fuel. To add
additional reactions, close the window once you finish adding the information for one reaction and click on
'New...' in the reactions page.
Figure 10.7: The ‘Reactions’ page for the stoichiometric reactor.

The reactor is now ready for simulation. Run the simulation and have a look at the product temperature in
‘Stream Summary’. You will see that the reactor temperature is 2028.5 °C and that there are no component
flow rates of the fuel reactants (meaning complete combustion has taken place).
Figure 10.8: The ‘Results Summary - Steam’ page for the excess air combustion example.
However the reaction temperature is too high and it would be better (safety and material construction-wise)
to run the reaction at 1200 °C. To do this, we can add a design specification to the simulation. Click on the
‘Flowsheeting Options’ folder, located in the ‘Simulation’ navigation side bar, then click on the ‘Design
Specs’ folder. In the ‘Design Specs’ page, click on ‘New...’ and set a name for the design specification.
Figure 10.9: Defining the name of the ‘Design Specification’ (DS) study.
Once you click on ‘OK’, you will be taken to the ‘Define’ page where you will define the target variable that
you wish to apply the design specification on. In this case we would like to define the specified variable to
be the outlet temperature of the product stream leaving the stoichiometric reactor.
You will see in the ‘Define’ page, there is a table for the ‘Measured variables’. This is where we will define
the specified variable. To do this, we need to drag the variable data into the table but we need to rearrange
the windows to makes this easier.
Open the ‘Stream Summary’ table, if you have not done so. Click and hold on the ‘Stream Summary’ tab,
at the top of the window and drag it out by moving your mouse towards you. You will see that the ‘Stream
Summary’ window will undock from the rest of the tabbed windows as seen in Figure 10.10.

Figure 10.10: Undocking the ‘Results Summary - Streams’ page in preparation for setting-up the design
specification study.
You will notice too that a cross arrow appears in the middle of the window. The purpose of the cross arrow
is to help you position the undocked window. Move your curve to the right arrow and you will notice that as
you do so, the right arrow will be high-lighted as well as the right region of the window, indicating where the
‘Stream Summary’ window will be docked.
Figure 10.11: Positioning the ‘Results Summary - Streams’ page using the docking cross arrow in
preparation for setting-up the design specification study.
Release your mouse button and the ‘Summary Stream’ will be docked on the right hand side of the window
as shown in Figure 10.12 below:
Figure 10.12: The ‘Define’ page for the design specification study.
Click on the product stream temperature (in this case S2) of 2028.5 °C and drag the data to the ‘Measured
variables’ table in the ‘Define’ window. The outlet temperature will be defined as the specified variable.
Figure 10.13: The ‘Define’ page for the design specification study.

Click on the ‘Spec’ tab. This is where we will specify the target for the ‘target’ or specified variable from
the ‘Define’ page. Under ‘Spec’ type a name for the specified variable (in this case ‘TEMP’). Ensure that the
specified variable has the same name as the variable name in the ‘Define’ section. Also ensure you do not give
long names or include space characters in the name. In this case, we can give the name of ‘Temperature’. For
the ‘Target’ set the outlet temperature to be ‘1200’ °C and for the ‘Tolerance’ set the error tolerance to be ‘1e-
2’.
Figure 10.14: The ‘Spec’ page for the design specification study.
Click on the ‘Vary’ tab and under ‘Manipulated variable’ and ‘Type:’, select ‘Stream-Var’. When ‘Stream-Var’
is used, the variable refers to the variable that represents the entire or ‘total’ stream (as opposed to selecting
‘Mole-Frac’ which refers to the component mole flow rather than the total mole flow).
Select the ‘Stream’ to be the combustion air feed stream which is ‘S3’ in this case. For the ‘Variable:’, select
‘MOLE-FLOW’. Under ‘Manipulated variable limits’, set the ‘Lower:’ boundary to be 10.33 kmol/hr which is
the minimum theoretical amount of air required for complete combustion to occur. Set the ‘Upper:’ boundary
to be 100 kmol/hr. Set the ‘Step size:’ to be 0.1 kmol/hr. The smaller the step-size, the longer it takes for Aspen
Plus to compute the results.
If the tolerance range is too narrow, the iterations may not converage. Hence if you
find your simulation is not converging according to your design specifications, try
increasing the tolerance range.

Figure 10.15: The ‘Vary’ page for the design specification study.
The design specification is now ready for the simulation. Click on the ‘Run’ icon to run the simulation. Once
the simulation has converged, you will notice that the outlet temperature is now 1200 °C with an air flow rate
of 20.3 kmol/hr.
To set-up and run

a different design
specification
set, make sure
you disable the
previous design
specification set-
up by unchecking
the ‘Active’ box.
Otherwise the
iterations will
not converge
when you run the
simulation.
Figure 10.16: The ‘Results Summary’ page showing the results of the design specification study.

11 Sensitivity Studies (Case studies)

From the excess air combustion example from the previous chapter, we can have a look at the relationship
between the reactor temperature and the air flow rate by using sensitivity studies.
If the previous reactor temperature design specification example is still active, deactivate the design specification
by unchecking the ‘Active’ box at the top of the ‘Define’ section. Close the ‘Results Summary - Steams’ side
window. In the simulation side bar, expand the ‘Model Analysis Tools’ folder to reveal the ‘Sensitivity’ folder.
Figure 11.1: The ‘Define’ page of the design specification study, showing the ‘Active’ box unchecked.
Figure 11.2: The ‘Model Analysis Tools’ page of the sensitivity analysis study.
Page 72 Chapter 11: Sensitivity Studies

Click on ‘New...’ to start a new sensitivity analysis case and define a name for the analysis study if you wish.
Figure 11.3: Defining a name for the sensitivity analysis study.
For this sensitivity analysis study, we wish to see the influence of the air flow rate on the reactor temperature.
Therefore we will be varying or manipulating the air flow rate (in this case stream ‘S2’) to calculate or
define the reactor temperature. In the ‘Vary’ tabl, to set the manipulated variable, click on ‘New...’ under the
‘Manipulated variables’ section. Aspen Plus will automatically assign a variable name of ‘1’. Under ‘Edit
selected variable’, choose ‘Stream-Var’ for the ‘Type:’ and select stream ‘S2’ for ‘Stream:’. The ‘Variable:’ of
the stream that we are interested in is the ‘MOLE-FLOW’.
Figure 11.4: The ‘Vary’ page of the sensitivity analysis study.
We can set the range of air flow rates that we want to investigate on the reactor temperature. To do this, under
‘Manipulated variable limits’, specify the ‘Lower’ limit to be ‘1’ kmol/hr and the ‘Upper’ limit to be ‘50’
kmol/hr. The ‘Number of points:’ is the number of data points you would like Aspen Plus to generate within
the lower and upper limits of the air flow rates to be investigated. The more data points there are, the longer
the computational time. For this example, we can specify the number of points to be ‘50’.
Chapter 11: Sensitivity Studies Page 73

Figure 11.5: The completed ‘Vary’ page of the sensitivity analysis study.
Click on the ‘Define’ tab to define the calculated variable or the variable that we wish to investigate. In the
‘Results Summary - Stream’ window on the right hand-side, click on the reactor outlet temperature (represented
by the temperature of stream ‘S3’) of 1200 °C and drag the numerical value across to the ‘Measured variables’
grid or table. Aspen Plus now defines the measured variable to be the reactor temperature.
Figure 11.6: The completed ‘Define’ page of the sensitivity analysis study.

Once the ‘Define’ tab input has been completed, click on the ‘Tabulate’ tab and click on the ‘Fill Variables’
button to set up the relationship between the air flow variable (represented by variable ‘1’) and the reactor
temperature ‘TEMP’.
Figure 11.7: The completed ‘Tabulate’ page of the sensitivity analysis study.
The sensitivity analysis study is now ready for simulation. Click on the ‘Run’ simulation button to run the
sensitivity analysis. The simulation will come up with a warning that the sensitivity analysis has some warnings
about some of the results the software has calculated. We will see soon what and why the issues are present. In
the ‘Summary’ tab, you will see a table of results with rows 1-11 giving warning statuses. Although the reactor
temperature is still calcuated under the ‘TEMP’ column, the reason for the warning status is because below the
theorectical air flow rate of 10.33 kmol/hr, the reaction that takes place is incomplete and hence the fraction
conversion of the fuel components would not be 1.
Figure 11.8: The numerical results of the sensitivity analysis study on the excess air combustion process.
You will be able to generate a plot of the reactor temperature as a function of the air flow rate. If you notice
towards the top right-hand corner, you will see a ‘Results Curve’.
Figure 11.9: The numerical results of the sensitivity analysis study on the excess air combustion process. The
red box high-lights the ‘Results Curve’ icon to generate a graphical representation of the sensitivity analysis.
Click on the ‘Results Curve’ icon and a new window will pop up asking you which variables you would like
to plot on the x- and y-axis. Since the reactor temperature is dependent on the air flow rate, the air flow rate
can be set on the x-axis and the reactor temperature can be set on the y-axis.
Figure 11.10: Assigning the x- and y-axis variables for the graphical representation of the sensitivity analysis.

Click ‘OK’ and the relationship between the air flow rate and the reactor temperature (represented by the
temperature of the reactor outlet) is generated and presented. You can close the ‘Results Summary - Streams’
window to enlargen the results curve plot.
Figure 11.11: The graphical results of the sensitivity analysis study on the excess air combustion process.
You can see from the results plot that the reactor temperature reaches a maximum temperature at the minimum
theorectical air flow rate for complete combustion to occur. Beyond the theoretical air flow rate, the reactor
temperature decreases with the reactor temperature being 1200 °C at approximately 20.3 kmol/hr as determined
using the design specification function in the previous chatper.
You can change the look of the plot by clicking on the ‘Plot’ ribbon towards the top of
the window and click on the ‘Format’ tab. You can change the shape of the data point,
line style and colours.

12 Reading Resources and References

Seider et al. (2009), “Product and Process Design Principles: Synthesis, Analysis and Evaluation”, 3rd Ed.
Wiley, New York.
Schefflan, R. (2011), “Teach yourself the basics of Aspen Plus”, Wiley.
Clipart images courtesy of FCIT, from http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/
Page 78 Chapter 12: Reading Resources and References

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Aspen Plus Manual

Department of Chemical Engineering

2 Setting up Aspen Plus Simulation

(a) (b) (c) (d)

Page 4 Chapter 2: Setting up Simulation

Figure 2.3: Aspen Plus main or ‘Start’ page.

Chapter 2: Setting up Simulation Page 5

2.1 The Basics

Format: .apw - Contains: Simulation input, results and some convergence

Format: .bkp - Contains: Simulation input and results

Completion of required input

Required input not yet compete

Simulation complete with errors (requires trouble-shooting)

Simulation complete with results available

Data calculated from simulation (cannot be changed) [Black text]

Page 6 Chapter 2: Setting up Simulation

You can also create a

Figure 2.6: Starting a blank simulation.

Chapter 2: Setting up Simulation Page 7

Figure 2.8: Properties navigation side bar.

Page 8 Chapter 2: Setting up Simulation

To add a component, click on ‘Find’ as high-lighted in Figure 2.9.

Figure 2.9: Component list page.

Chapter 2: Setting up Simulation Page 9

Figure 2.10: Adding a chemical component in the ‘Component’ window.

Figure 2.11: Chemical components added in the ‘Components’ page.

Page 10 Chapter 2: Setting up Simulation

Chapter 2: Setting up Simulation Page 11

Page 12 Chapter 2: Setting up Simulation

If you are unsure

Chapter 2: Setting up Simulation Page 13

Page 14 Chapter 3: Setting up a Flow-sheet

Separator (two outlets)

Heater/Cooler Heat exchanger

Stoichiometric reactor CSTR

Rad-Frac distillation model

Chapter 3: Setting up a Flow-sheet Page 15

3.2 Material and Energy Streams

Page 16 Chapter 3: Setting up a Flow-sheet

Figure 3.5: Placing a material stream in the main flow-sheet.

Chapter 3: Setting up a Flow-sheet Page 17

To move the stream

Figure 3.6: A material stream in the main flow-sheet.

Figure 3.7: Connect a material stream to the mixer.

Page 18 Chapter 3: Setting up a Flow-sheet

Firstly you need to place a mixer onto the flow-sheet

Figure 4.1: Mixer models in the equipment model palette ribbon.

Figure 4.2: Mixer model in the main flow-sheet page.

Chapter 4: Mixer Page 19

Page 20 Chapter 4: Mixer

Chapter 4: Mixer Page 21

Figure 4.6: Properties page for the feed stream ‘S3’.

You can also find the ‘Run’ icon

Get into the habit or routine of

Figure 4.9: Summary of results in the Results Summary - Streams table.

Chapter 4: Mixer Page 23

Figure 4.11: Entering a name for the cus-

Figure 4.10: Adding a customised version of the summary of results stream

Figure 4.12: Summary of results in the Results Summary - Streams table.