Plant Wide Simulation Using

the Free Chemical Process

Simulator Sim42: Natural
Gas Separation and
Reforming
RAFAEL SILVA DIAS,1 LEANDRO CARDOSO SILVA,2 ADILSON JOSE DE ASSIS2
1
School of Chemical Engineering, State University of Campinas, Av. Albert Einstein, 500, Campinas 13083-970, Brazil
2
School of Chemical Engineering, Federal University of Uberlandia, Av. Joao Naves de Avila, 2121
Bl. 1K, 38408-100
Uberlandia, MG, Brazil

Received 5 February 2007; accepted 2 September 2007

ABSTRACT: This article addresses the use of Sim42, a steady-state free process
simulator, as a powerful tool to teach heat integration and parametric optimization in a
complete plant. It was considered a natural gas plant as a case study. The thermodynamic
package used in the simulations was validated using experimental data published in the
literature. The results were compared with the commercial simulator HYSYS and plant
information. Good agreement was achieved. 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ;
Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI 10.1002/cae.20200

Keywords: chemical process simulation; heat integration; parametric optimization;

steam
methane reforming; chemical process design

INTRODUCTION Free software is, therefore, a matter of freedom; it

Free software is a concept related to the users
freedom to run for any purpose, copy, distribute,
study, change, and improve the software. Access to
the source code is a precondition for free software.
Correspondence to A. J. Assis (ajassis@ufu.br).
2009 Wiley Periodicals Inc.
does not refer to zero-cost software [1]. While free
software refers to software distributed in a source
form, which can be freely modified and redistributed,
the concept of Open Source, instead, refers to the fact
that the source code is open to and for the world to
take, to modify, and to reuse. An open source software
and free software, however, have different rationals,
views, and goals. The question can be summarized in

1
2 DIAS, SILVA, AND DE ASSIS
the following sentence: For the Open Source move-
ment, the issue of whether software should be open
source is a practical question, for the Free Software
movement it is an ethical and social matter [1,2].
Plant-wide simulation is fundamental to the
design, control, and optimization of process systems.
Additionally, in senior design courses, integrated
process design allows engineering economic and
profitability analyses; heat integration and network
design (Pinch technology); analysis of process
performance, including process troubleshooting and
debottlenecking; risk assessment and process hazard
analysis [3] as well as control strategies development
[4]. In all cases, the process simulator plays the
important role of fast calculation including rigorous
mass and energy balances, avoiding then the use of
short cut models and/or idealizations that shifts the
results far from the real-world [5
8].
There are several commercial chemical process
simulators available in the market, such as HYSYS,
ASPEN PLUS, PRO II, gPROMS among others.
Nevertheless, they are costly and the undergraduate
student does not have the possibility to install them at
home unless a licence is bought. This is not the case of
Sim42 that is free of charge and more important than
this, it is open source. This outstanding facility lets
everyone consult, modify, add, and iterate with the
mathematical models implemented for the several unit
operations available, provided that one knows the
computer language in which it is written, namely
Python. Additionally, due to its open source facility
Sim42 can be greatly extended in order to include
other unit operations not available yet.
Natural gas, commonly referred to as gas, is a
gaseous fossil fuel consisting primarily of methane. It
is found in oil fields and natural gas fields, and in coal
beds. Natural gas is important as a major source for
electricity generation through the use of gas turbines
and steam turbines. Environmentally, natural gas
burns cleaner than other fossil fuels, such as oil and
coal, and produces fewer greenhouse gases. For
an equivalent amount of heat, burning natural gas
produces about 30% less carbon dioxide than burning
petroleum and about 45% less than burning coal.
Combined cycle power generation using natural gas is
thus the cleanest source of power available using
fossil fuels, and this technology is widely used
wherever gas can be obtained at a reasonable cost.
Natural gas can be used to produce hydrogen, through
reforming process, which can be used in hydrogen
vehicles. Natural gas is also used as a clean auto-
mobile fuel in several countries; it is supplied to
homes where it is used for such purposes as cooking
and heating/cooling. Natural gas is a major feedstock
for the production of ammonia, via the Haber process,
for use in fertilizer production. It is also used in the
manufacture of fabrics, glass, steel, plastics, paint, and
other products. Therefore, simulation, heat integra-
tion, and parametric studies involving natural gas is an
important process to be used in every senior chemical
process design course.
THE FREE CHEMICAL PROCESS
SIMULATOR SIM42
Simulator42 or Sim42 is an open source process
simulator that aims to provide an accessible simulator
to the Chemical Engineering community. Some
features: (i) it is being written in the Python language,
(ii) the simulator core was designed to be independent
of both user interfaces and thermodynamic methods
provider, (iii) a graphical interface has been developed
for the project and an independent command/scripting
interface is also available, (iv) the flowsheet solver
can propagate partial information both backwards and
forward, this feature allows many complex problems
to be solved without iterative calculation of recycle
loops. Consistency checks are used to avoid unin-
tended over specification of problems, (v) the simula-
tor does not require recycle unit operations, but rather
the use of estimate values allows the solver to
recognize the existence of recycles and converge
them simultaneously [9].
Table 1 presents a short description of some
Sim42s operation models. The simulator code has
been licensed using a BSD style open source licence.
This permits the free distribution and modification of
all source code and unlike GPL style licences does not
require redistribution of modifications. Perhaps, the
main drawback of using Sim42 is the fact that it does
not contain an open source property package system.
The one available is freeware (it is not open source)
and contains only a simple equation of state-based
package (RKRedlich Kwong) and an ideal solution
property package. Both packages are from Virtual
Materials Group. Nevertheless, as Sim42 is an open
source project one can develop their own property
package. The simulator and its source code can be
downloaded for free from its site developers [10].
CASE STUDY A: NATURAL
GAS SEPARATION
This case study is reported by Seider et al. [11]. It is
required to process a natural gas stream at 10,000
lb mol/h, 708F, 150 psia, and composition in Table 2.
 PLANT WIDE SIMULATION USING SIM42 3

Table 1 Selected Unit Operation Models in Sim42

Category Model Description
Balance BalanceOp Energy and material balance calculator around
any given streams
Streams Stream_Material Material carrying stream
Stream_Energy Energy carrying stream
Stream_Signal Signal carrying stream
Heat generation and transfer Cooler Cooling device
Heater Heating device
HeatExchanger Two-sided heat exchanger
Reactors ConvReactor Conversion reactor
EquilibriumReactor Chemical equilibrium reactor
Fluid handling Compressor Adiabatic compressor
Expander Adiabatic expander
Mixer Stream mixer
Pump Theoretical pump
PumpWithCurve Real pump with one set of pump curves
Splitter Stream splitter
Valve Isenthalpic valve
Distillation, gas absorption, liquid ComponentSplitter Multi-outlet component separator
extraction, and other separations LiqLiqExt Liquid
liquid counter-current extractor
SimpleFlash Two-outlet flash
Tower Rigorous distillation tower [16]

The gaseous product is required to be at 300 psia, with
at least 9,860 lb mol/h of nC4 and lighter species, and
a combined mole percentage of at least 99.5%. The
liquid product is required to be at least 150 psia, with
at least 67.5 lb mol/h of nC5 and nC6 and a combined
mole percentage of at least 75%.
The PFD for the natural gas process is shown in
Figure 1. The feed is compressed to 330 psia, cooled
to 1008F (DP 10 psia) by using cooling water, and to

158F (DP 5 psia) by using refrigerant, before
entering the flash vessel, FLASH 1, at 305 psia. Its
vapor effluent and liquid product are heated to 808F.
The latter enters the flash vessel, FLASH 2, at
300 psia. Its liquid effluent is fed to the distillation
column, SPLITTER, which is designed to remove
most of the propane in the overhead stream. It has 12
Table 2 Molar Flow Rates of the Feed, Gas, and Liquid
Product Steams (in lb mol/h)
Component Feed Gas Liquid (stream S10)
theoretical trays, with the feed to the fourth tray from
the top, and recovers 99% of nC5 in the bottom
product and 99% of nC3 in the distillate.
Seider et al. [11] used the commercial chemical
process simulator HYSYS to simulate the process and
they presented results that were computed using the
Peng
Robinson Properties Package. This choice
can be justified by Figure 2, where it is predicted
vapor
liquid binary equilibria for CH4
C2O6 and
C2H6
N2 using the cubic equations of state RK and
Peng
Robinson in Sim42. It is clear that the second
provides much better agreement with experimental
data than the first, although none of them are good
near critical point.
Next, it was considered the heat-integrated
process simulated by Seider et al. [11] as shown in
Figure 3. In this configuration, the hot stream, S2, has
supply and target temperatures of 164 and
158F, and

N2 211 211 0
C1 8,276 8,276 0
C2 871 871 0
C3 411 410 1
nC4 141 93 48
nC5 57 11 46
nC6 33 2 31
Figure 1 PFD for the natural gas process (base
Total 10,000 9,874 126
case).
4 DIAS, SILVA, AND DE ASSIS
Figure 2 Experimental [15] and predicted VLE using Sim42. [Color figure can be
viewed in the online issue, which is available at www.interscience.wiley.com.]
the two cold streams, S9 and S10, each has supply and
target temperatures of
15 to 808F, respectively. The
hot stream is split and used to heat two cold streams,
with a minimum approach temperature difference of
208F. The split ratio is chosen to obtain isothermal
mixing in the mixer, M-1. In this work, the heat-
integrated PFD (Fig. 4) was obtained by employing
the Pinch technology as described in Douglas [12] and
simulated in Sim42. The latter differs from the former
in number of heat exchangers and there is no stream
split since the feed stream after the compressor has
enough heat to supply the energy needed in both
streams leaving the first flash. The used specifications
Figure 3 A heat-integrated design for natural gas
processing [11].
in Sim42 simulations for both cases are shown in
Table 3.
Table 4 compares the energy requirements of the
original design (base case) with the heat-integrated
design using HYSYS [11] and Sim42 (this work). The
latter has no external heating requirement (apart from
the SPLITTER), and its refrigeration load is only 28%
of that for the original design. As it can be seen, the
results obtained using the two different simulators are
quite similar.
Figure 4 A heat-integrated design for natural gas
processing using Sim42 simulator. PFD generated by
the simulator. [Color figure can be viewed in the
online issue, which is available at www.interscience.
wiley.com.]
 PLANT WIDE SIMULATION USING SIM42 5

Table 3 Specifications Used in the Sim42 Simulation

Equipment Variable specified Value specified
Without energy integration
COMP Pressure out 330 psia
Efficiency 1
E-100-A Temperature out 1008F
DP 12.5 psi
E-100-B Temperature out
158F
DP 12.5 psi
FLASH 1
E-101 Temperature out 808F
E-102 Temperature out 808F
Operating pressure 300 psia
FLASH 2 Operating pressure 300 psia
SPLITTER Condenser pressure 300 psia
Propane recovery 0.99
n-pentane recovery 0.99
With energy integration
COMP Pressure out 330 psia
Efficiency 1
E-101 Temperature out 1 808F
DP0 6.25 psi
E-102 Temperature out 808F
DP1 0
DP0 6.25 psi
E-100-B Temperature out
158F
DP 12.5 psi
FLASH 1
FLASH 2 Operating pressure 300 psia
SPLITTER Condenser pressure 300 psia
Propane recovery 0.99
n-pentane recovery 0.99

In optimizing a chemical process, it is necessary
that the key decision variables are identified early in
the optimization procedure. This is necessary in order
to reduce the computational effort and time and make
the problem tractable. The choice of key decision
variables is crucial to the efficiency of the optimiza-
tion process. For a unity operation that lies outside a
recycle loop, optimization can be simplified. As a
case study, it was chosen the SPLITTER since such a
column does not impact any part of the process
upstream. Three variables were chosen to be inves-
tigated:

Table 4 Comparison of the Simulation in HYSYS [11] and Sim42

Without heat integration (base case) With heat integration
HYSYS Sim42 HYSYS Sim42

HEX HU CU HU CU HEX CU HE HEX CU HE

E-100-A 6.82 6.78 E-100-A 6.85 E-1 0.95
E-100-B 14.20 14.20 E-100-B 3.91 E-2 9.34
E-101 9.20 9.38 E-101 9.23 EC-2 10.70
E-102 0.98 0.95 E-102 0.98
Total 21.20 10.18 20.98 10.33 10.76 10.21 10.70 10.29
Energy consumption in Btu/h  106
Energy saving in Sim42 simulation 20.61  106 Btu/h
Energy saving in HYSYS simulation 20.44  106 Btu/h

HEX, heat exchanger; HU, hot utility; CU, cold utility; HE, heat exchanged.
6 DIAS, SILVA, AND DE ASSIS

Table 5 Parametric Optimization of SPLITTER: Variables Considered

a Base case
b Feed tray no. 2
c Feed tray no. 12
d Feed tray no. 6
e Bottom product of SPLITTER to heat S7 using a heat exchanger (approach temperature of 108F)
f Top product of SPLITTER to heat S7 using a heat exchanger (approach temperature of 108F)
g S7 heated first by top product of SPLITTER and then heated by bottom product of SPLITTER
(approach temperature of 108F)
h, R 0.1 S7 is split into two streams that are fed in trays 4 and 10. The stream fed in tray 10 was heated by the bottom
product of SPLITTER (approach temperature of 108F). 10% of S7 was fed in tray 4
h, R 0.2 As in case h, but 20% of S7 was fed in tray 4
h, R 0.3 As in case h, but 30% of S7 was fed in tray 4
h, R 0.4 As in case h, but 40% of S7 was fed in tray 4
h, R 0.5 As in case h, but 50% of S7 was fed in tray 4
h, R 0.6 As in case h, but 60% of S7 was fed in tray 4
h, R 0.7 As in case h, but 70% of S7 was fed in tray 4
h, R 0.8 As in case h, but 80% of S7 was fed in tray 4
h, R 0.9 As in case h, but 90% of S7 was fed in tray 4

1. Feed tray of column. CASE STUDY B: STEAM
METHANE

2. Feed stream (S7) heating with top stream,
bottom stream, and both.
3. Split of feed stream (S7) and heating of stream
fed next to the column base varying the rate
between the split streams from 10% up to 90%.
Table 5 presents the several cases considered, and
Figure 5 presents the objective function (sum of
reboiler and condenser heat). The results show that the
hot utility (HU) increased in the majority of cases and
in all of them the cold utility (CU) has increased. In
the cases e, f, and g the HU decreased but the CU
increased. The minimum total duty was achieved in
configuration g, which was 2% less than the base case
a and uses 33.88% less HU.
REFORMING
Steam
methane reforming is the dominant method
for hydrogen production. As hydrogen production
grows, a better understanding of the capabilities and
requirements of the modern hydrogen plant becomes
even more useful to the industry. In steam
methane
reforming, light hydrocarbons such as methane are
reacted with steam to form hydrogen:
CH4 H2 O $ 3H2 CO; DH  206:16 kJ=mol
1
where DH8 is the heat of reaction. The reaction is
typically carried out at 8158C over a Ni catalyst
packed into the tubes of a reforming furnace. After
reforming, the CO in the gas is reacted with steam to
form additional hydrogen, in the water
gas shift
reaction:
CO H2 O $ H2 CO2 ; DH 
42 kJ=mol
2

This leaves a mixture consisting primarily of

hydrogen and CO2. The reaction is typically carried
out at 200
3508C over a Cu/Zn catalyst. After CO2
removal, many plants use methanationthe reverse of
reformingto remove the remaining traces of carbon
oxides:(3)
CO 3H2 $ CH4 H2 O
Figure 5 Optimization of distillation column,
CO2 4H2 $ CH4 2H2 O 4
SPLITTER, regarded to total duty load. [Color figure
can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at Figure 6 shows the flow sheet for the steam re-
www.interscience.wiley.com.] forming process considered in this work. Purification of
 PLANT WIDE SIMULATION USING SIM42 7

H2 content by water
gas shift reaction. Equilibrium

Figure 6 PFD for the steam reforming of natural gas
(base case).
feed was not considered. The feed (stream 1 in Table 7)
is compressed (C-101), heated (E-101), and then mixed
with pre-heated (E-102) steam, and next pre-reformed
in R-101, which is used to breakdown higher hydro-
carbons to methane, though some methane reforming
will occur in the pre-reformer, an adiabatic Gibbs
reactor. Since the reaction is endothermic, and the
reactor adiabatic, there is a decrease in exit temperature,
in this work calculated as 828C, against 808C reported
by Molburg and Doctor [13]. This result can be
considered a good agreement.
After that, the mixture is sent to the primary
reformer (R-102), a Gibbs reactor, which accomplishes
most of the methane reforming to produce synthesis gas
(mixture rich in H2 and CO) at high temperature and
heat should be supplied by a furnace. The reaction is
thermodynamically limited and Table 6 shows the
equilibrium composition calculated using Sim42 and
Chemkin (ideal mixture), as well as that reported by
Molburg and Doctor [13] that used the commercial
simulator ASPEN and a Gibbs reactor with SRK cubic
equation of state. Sim42 was not able to predict correctly
the equilibrium conversion (99.98%) that is too high for
this process (Molburg and Doctor [13], reported
70.76%), and it is believed that this is because it uses
information about occurring reactions (Eqs. (1) and (2))
rather than total Gibbs energy minimization method.
Then, the synthesis gas is cooled and sent to high-
temperature shift converter (R-103), which increases
for this reaction favors the products at low reaction
temperatures, but high temperature is required to
achieve a practical reaction rate. This dilemma is
normally addressed through the use of a two-stage
shift system. In the first stage, a high temperature is
required, typically 3508C reactor inlet temperature.
The temperature will increase in the reactor due to the
exothermic nature of the shift reaction. In the second
stage of shift (R-104), a lower temperature is used
(190
2108C) to increase the equilibrium concentra-
tion of H2. It was adopted a fixed conversion of 90%
for CO in both reactors.
The shifted synthesis gas has a high concentration
of H2, but it also includes a high concentration of CO2
and H2O, as well as residual methane and small
amounts of carbon monoxide and nitrogen. To
produce a high-quality hydrogen product as required
for fuel cell applications, the gas is purified by the
removal of other contaminants in a pressure swing
adsorption (PSA) unit. These processes are complex,
requiring a complicated model of their own for
complete representation. As a simplification, the
separation process will be represented as simple
separation process, including cooling (E-105) and a
flash vessel (S-101). The liquid stream (over 99%
H2O) that leaves the flash is sent to a degasification
and then recycled.
The gas effluent of S-101, which is rich in H2
(73.9%), has the CO2 absorbed using monoethanol-
amine (MEA) in C-101 column at low temperature
(388C) with a 99% CO2 removal (that was represented
by a splitter as a simplification, since absorption with
MEA is not straightaway simulated using conven-
tional property packages available in process simu-
lators). The remaining CO and CO2 in the hydrogen
stream (90.88%) are converted to CH4 and hydrogen
in the methanation reactor (R-105), with inlet temper-
ature of 3168C as recommended by Synetix [14]. An
increase of 228C in temperature on the methanation
reactor was achieved which is in a good agreement
with Synetix [14] that reports 258C. The effluent is

Table 6 Equilibrium Composition in the Reformer

Equilibrium composition (%mol) T 8168C and P 2,527.638 kPa
Component Feed composition (% mol) Chemkin1 Molburg and Doctor [13] Sim42

CH4 2.2201  10
1 5.0791  10
2 4.9394  10
2 2.4854  10
4

CO2 1.8195  10
2 5.9324  10
2 5.9198  10
2 5.5179  10
2
H2O 6.8451  10
1 3.5817  10
1 3.5597  10
1 2.7812  10
1
H2 7.1268  10
2 4.5553  10
1 4.5820  10
1 5.5267  10
1
CO 2.2509  10
4 7.3301  10
2 7.4359  10
2 1.1116  10
1
N2 3.7831  10
3 2.8859  10
3 2.6211  10
3 2.8790  10
3
C2H6 3.4757  10
6 2.0580  10
6 1.9800  10
6
 8

Table 7 Flow Summary Table for the Steam Reforming of Methane (Base Case) Simulated in Sim42
Component/stream no. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
CH4 458.961 458.961 458.961 458.961 428.749 428.749
CO2 1.83569 1.83569 1.83569 1.83569 31.9552 31.9552
H2O 2.65352 660.83411 2.65352 1,376.8871 2.65352 1,376.8871 1,379.54 1,319.18 1,319.18
H2 3.88593 3.88593 3.88593 3.88593 124.685 124.685
CO 0.207292 0.207292 0.207292 0.207292 0.313746 0.313746
Mole flow (kgmol/h) 467.54358 660.83411 467.54358 1,376.8871 467.54358 1,376.8871 1,844.4307 1,904.886 1,904.886
Mass flow (kg/h) 7,505.0975 11,905.112 7,505.0975 24,805.006 7,505.0975 24,805.006 32,310.104 32,310.104 32,310.104
DIAS, SILVA, AND DE ASSIS

Temperature (8C) 21 38 55.124332 38 510 510 507.38581 425.07 649

Pressure (kPa) 2,000 101.325 3,000 101.325 2,850 3,000 2,850 2,677.6 2,700
Component 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

6
CH4 127.894 127.894 127.894 127.894 127.894 127.894 127.894 4.9946  10
CO2 149.131 149.131 314.729 314.729 331.289 331.289 330.446 0.843335 327.140
H2O 901.139 901.139 735.541 735.541 718.981 718.981 8.02327 710.958 7.93766
H2 1,144.47 1,144.47 1,310.07 1,310.07 1,326.63 1,326.63 1,326.62 0.0049498
CO 183.998 183.998 18.3998 18.3998 1.83998 1.83998 1.83998 2.2538  10
6
Mole flow (kgmol/h) 2,506.6314 2,506.6314 2,506.6314 2,506.6314 2,506.6314 2,506.6314 1,794.8251 711.80623 335.0779
Mass flow (kg/h) 32,310.106 32,310.106 32,310.106 32,310.106 32,310.106 32,310.106 19,464.875 12,845.231 1,4540.305
Temperature (8C) 816 350 421.29874 204.4 211.80877 38 38 38 38
Pressure (kPa) 2,527.6311 1,900 1,796.5786 1,800 1,696.5786 1,612.1179 1,612.1179 1,612.1179 1,612.1179
Component 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
CH4 127.894 127.894 133.013 133.013 133.013 1.7486  10
8 5.0121  10
6 5.0121  10
6
CO2 3.30446 3.30446 0.0165223 0.0165223 0.0165219 4.3538  10
7 0.843336 0.843336
H2O 0.0866514 0.0866514 8.4933 8.4933 3.39829 5.09501 716.053 716.053
H2 1,326.62 1,326.62 1,307.98 1,307.98 1,307.98 2.2677  10
5 0.0049724 0.0049724
CO 1.83998 1.83998 0.00919989 0.00919989 0.00919989 5.2436  10
11 2.2539  10
6 2.2539  10
6
Mole flow (kgmol/h) 1,459.7472 1,459.7472 1,449.5098 1,449.5098 1,444.4148 5.0950365 716.90127 716.053 0.8483072
Mass flow (kg/h) 4,924.57 4,924.57 4,924.57 4,924.57 4,832.7819 91.788158 12,937.019 12,899.895 37.124804
Temperature (8C) 38 316 337.63329 25 25 25 37.955371 38 38
Pressure (kPa) 1,612.1179 1,500 1,396.5786 1,396.5786 1,396.5786 1,396.5786 1,396.5786 101.325 101.325
 PLANT WIDE SIMULATION USING SIM42 9

Table 8 Heat Duty Requirements in PFD Shown in

Figure 6
Heat exchangers Q (W)

E-101 2,947,437.9
E-102 23,030,253
E-103 5,304,877
E-108 3,443,468.4
E-107 11,200,000
Furnace reformer 22,137,420.4
E-104
11,942,653
E-105
5,291,946.3
E-106
12,558,968
E-109
3,917,806.6

then cooled from 337 to 258C and flashed (S-102) to

remove the remaining H2O, which is then recycled.
The hydrogen stream (90.6%) has methane (9.2%)
and small amount of other components (see Table 7).
Table 8 shows the heat duty needed in the 10 heat
exchangers in the base case. Based on the First Law of
Thermodynamics, the total energy requirement for the
process is 68,063,457 W of HU and 33,711,374 W of
CU. As in the steam reforming process, there are large
amounts of hot and CU needed, it should be thought
that a heat integration procedure could reduce the
external energy requirements. Using the Second Law
of Thermodynamics, as stated by the Pinch technol-
ogy, it is possible to calculate the exact amount of
saving duty requirements, which is shown in Table 9.
The heat-integrated PFD simulated in Sim42 is shown
in Figure 7. It should be noticed that a considerable
amount of HU saving is achievable as well as the
number of heat exchangers needed is less than the
base case (from 10 to 8, including the furnace
reformer).

CONCLUDING REMARKS
Figure 7 PFD for the steam reforming of natural gas
This article addressed the use of Sim42 as a costless (heat integration). [Color figure can be viewed in the
and suitable tool to teach heat integration and online issue, which is available at www.interscience.
parametric optimization in senior design courses by wiley.com.]
means of a complete plant simulation. There were
considered two case studies: (i) a natural gas plant
composed by several unit operations such as heat
Table 9 Heat Requirements Without and With Energy exchanger, compressor, flash separator, and column
Integration distillation; (ii) a steam reforming of methane to
produce hydrogen, composed by heat exchangers,
Base case
(without energy Gibbs reactor, conversion reactor, flash, mixer, and
Utility integration) With energy integration recycle. The thermodynamic package used in the
simulations was validated by using experimental data
Hot 68,063,457 W 36,185,389 W (53.16%) or detailed process information published in the
Cold 33,711,374 W 474,338 W (1.41%) literature. Only steady-state simulations were consid-
10 DIAS, SILVA, AND DE ASSIS
ered. The results were compared with the commercial
simulator HYSYS (for the first case study) as well
as with plant information and previous work (for
the second case study) and good agreement was
achieved. Sim42 proved to be a promising chemical
process simulator and due to its open source nature
it can be greatly extended to include other unit
operations not available yet.
REFERENCES
[1] FSF, Philosophy of the GNU project, Available at:
http://www.gnu.org/ Accessed 03/20/2005.
[2] A. J. Assis and L. C. Oliveira-Lopes, Free software
for chemical engineers educational needs, In:
ENPROMER 2005Proceedings of 2nd Mercosur
Congress on Chemical Engineering, 4th Mercosur
Congress on Process System Engineering, Rio de
Janeiro, Vol. 1, 2005, pp 1
10.
[3] R. Turton, R. C. Bailie, W. B. Whiting, and J. A.
Shaeiwitz, Analysis, synthesis, and design of chemical
processes, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, USA, 2003.
[4] B. R. Young, D. P. Mahoney, and W. Y. Svrcek, Real-
time computer simulation workshops for the process
control education of undergraduate chemical engi-
neers, Comput Appl Eng Educ 14 (2006), 300
312.
[5] C. Wu and D. C. Sherrill, Intelligent computer aided
design, analysis, optimization, and improvement of
thermodynamic systems, Comput Appl Eng Educ
9 (2001), 180
191.
[6] K. Kuriyan, W. Muench, and G. V. Reklaitis, Air
products hydrogen liquefaction project: Building a
Web-based simulation of an industrial process, Com-
put Appl Eng Educ 9 (2001), 57
62.
BIOGRAPHIES
Adilson Jose De Assis graduated in
Chemical Engineering from the Federal
University of Uberlandia, UFU, in 1994.
He concluded the MS (1996) and the PhD
(2001) in Chemical Engineering at the
State University of Campinas UNICAMP.
Presently he is a professor in the School of
Chemical Engineering at the Federal Uni-
versity of Uberlandia.
Leandro Cardoso Silva graduated in Chem-
ical Engineering from the Federal University
of Uberlandia, UFU, in 2005. Presently he is
taking his MS degree in Chemical Engineer-
ing at the Federal University of Uberlandia.
[7] H. Ettouney, H. El-Dessouky, H. Al-Fulaij, and A.
Al-Ansary, Computer package for design/rating of
thermal desalination processes, Comput Appl Eng
Educ 9 (2001), 180
191.
[8] F. A. N. Fernandes, Use of process simulators for the
unit operations education of undergraduate chemical
engineers, Comput Appl Eng Educ 10 (2002),
155
160.
[9] R. Cota, M. Satyro, C. Morris, B. Svrcek, and B. Young,
Development of an open source chemical process
simulator, Cache News, no. 57, Available at: http://
www.che.utexas.educache/newsletters/fall2003develop.
pdf, Accessed 05/11/2006.
[10] Sim42: Open source chemical process simulator,
Available at: www.virtualmaterials.com, Accessed
05/03/2006.
[11] W. D. Seider, J. D. Seader, and D. R. Lewin, Process
design principles: Synthesis, analysis, and evaluation,
John Wiley & Sons, USA, 1999.
[12] J. M. Douglas, Conceptual design of chemical
processes, McGraw-Hill, USA, 1988.
[13] J. C. Molburg and R. D. Doctor, Hydrogen from steam-
methane reforming with CO2 capture, 20th Annual
International Pittsburgh Coal Conference, September,
Pittsburgh, USA, 2003.
[14] Synetix, Methanation catalysts for hydrogen production,
Johnson Matthey Group, Available at: www.synetix.
com/refineries/pdfs/manuals/700W.pdf, Accessed 01/
31/2005.
[15] K. M. Gupta, G. C. Gardner, M. J. Hegarty, and A. J.
Kidnay, Liquid-vapor equilibria for the N2 CH4
C2H6 system from 260 to 280 K, J Chem Eng Data
25 (1980), 313
318.
[16] R. A. Russel, A flexible and reliable method solves
single-tower and crude-distillation-column problems,
Chem Eng 101 (1983), 53
59.
Rafael Silva Dias graduated in Chemical
Engineering from the Federal University of
Uberlandia, UFU, in 2004. Presently he is
taking his PhD in Chemical Engineering at
the State University of Campinas UNICAMP
and he also works as an engineer for Petroleo
Brasileiro S.A. Petrobras.