DYNAMIC SIMULATION OF A DISTILLATION COLUMN IN DWSIM, KPR Institute Engineering and Technology, Autonomous Engineering Institution, Coimbatore, India

The event was preponed to 28.03.’23 09:00 to 10:00 AM as the resource person had to coordinate value added course at 02:30 PM same day. The session started with the need to learn software tools relevant to Chemical Engineering such as AutoCad, solid works for 3D drawings, python or MATLAB coding and process simulators such as Aspen or DWSIM. The typical steps involved in creating a new steady state simulation in DWSIM were stated. Adding all the compounds involved in the simulation, choosing an appropriate thermodynamic package based on the compounds, operating condition and application were explained briefly. Then choice of system of units was shown.
A tutorial problem on distillation of carbon disulphide and carbon tetra chloride was chosen for the demonstration. The more volatile material was identified by viewing boiling point of individual compounds and by generating a binary phase envelope utility. In the utility, Txy and xy graphs were generated. A shortcut distillation column was added and the feed stream parameters were given based on the problem statement. In the parameters for the shortcut column, CS2 was given as the light key, their required compositions were entered as given. The minimum reflux ratio and minimum number of stages were noted for next step.
The shortcut column was deleted and a rigorous distillation column was added to the flowsheet for the same feed stream. In the rigorous column, number of stages, feed stage location, quality of product in condenser and reboiler were specified and solved. An adjust controller was added to solve the problem repetitively. However, the number of stages remained the same for any change in the reflux ratio.
The dynamic simulation mode was enabled but since DWSIM did not support dynamic simulation of distillation columns, the demo was restricted to steady state simulation. The event ended at about 10 AM.