Monday, March 08, 2010

The CEO's Corner

I am a big Bogart fan and have pretty much every movie he starred in. A few weeks ago I had
a chance to spend a few hours with my daughter watching my absolute favourite a little
known picture called "Passage to Marseille" and it dawned on me that we were surrounded
by new things while enjoying something produced more than 60 years ago. Moreover, we
were enjoying that moment from the past because of modern technology DVD, surround
sound and the proverbial big screen TV. This newsletter embodies some of this sense of awe
that arises from the intersection of great things from the past and great things from the future.

VMGs future is exciting and the last few months have seen the conclusion of many
developments we know will be useful for you. VMGSim 6.0 beta will start its QA rounds
soon. In it you will find many new developments such as a new gasification package, new
reactor models and an interface to SPT Groups OLGAS two and three phase pressure drop
correlation which will be available in our pipe unit operation. We are happy to start a working
collaboration with a new technical partner and provide our clients with best in class services.

The new features and products pipeline has never been so strong. We just released
VMGPipeTM,a powerful industrial piping simulation program developed jointly with JGC
Japan and Thermo ExplorerTM, an interactive thermodynamic equilibrium regression system
that provides unparalleled access to NISTs vast physical property data resources.
VMGThermoTM 6.0 is also released with new property packages and support for
thermodynamic equilibrium data regression. Last but not least VMG joined the OPC
foundation and VMGSim now supports an OPC server interface. Each of these new
products will be featured in the following newsletters.

In addition, I am thrilled to announce the release of Alph A Little Process Helper

produced by RedTree Development. Alph is a revolutionary new application which combines
the state of the art interface provided by Apples iPhone with VMGThermos industrial
strength thermodynamic engine. Alph can perform complex phase equilibrium and process
calculations directly on your iPhone. Its simple interface is easy to use and you will never
have to wait again to find out the dew point of a stream or the hydrate formation temperature
of certain mixture. Alph fits in your pocket but it has the horsepower of many equivalent
desktop applications.

This newsletter also has a couple of articles which reflect our heritage. 30 years ago, in a
galaxy far, far away a bright young man called Craig Morris came up with many innovations
in rapid sequence, but perhaps two of the most enduring were his ideas about bidirectional
information propagation and on-line degrees of freedom monitoring. These simple but
profound concepts allowed for the development of revolutionary simulation engines
VMGSim being its most advanced representative. After you have done things the Gibbs way
you will never go back.

Sit back, relax and try some of these ideas again or for the first time - using VMGSim. I bet
you will feel some of the same excitement I got from watching Bogey again.

Marco

New Releases
VMGPipe, Thermo Explorer and VMGThermo
Marco Satyro - VMG Calgary

We are proud to announce the release of two new products: VMGPipeTM, a powerful
industrial piping simulation program developed jointly with JGC Japan and Thermo
ExplorerTM, an interactive thermodynamic equilibrium regression system.

We have also released VMGThermoTM 6.0, our state-of-the-art thermodynamic engine with
new property packages and support for thermodynamic equilibrium regression.

VMGPipe
Virtual Materials Group is pleased to announce the release of VMGPipe 2.0. VMGPipe is
a joint development between Virtual Materials Group, Calgary and JGC Corporation of
Japan. VMGPipe is useful for the design of industrial piping systems and its technology is
being used for years by JGC for the design of industrial facilities around the world. You can
develop hydraulic flow diagrams using a VMGSim like interface, calculate pressure drops
and quickly develop complete datasheets. Please contact your VMG sales representative for
more information and a test drive.

Thermo Explorer
Virtual Materials Group is pleased to announce the release of ThermoExplorer 1.0 build
91001. Thermo Explorer combines the large thermodynamic equilibrium datasets from NIST
and the thermodynamic calculation engine of VMGThermo to provide you with a rigorous
package for the calculation of thermodynamic model parameters. With Thermo Explorer you
can rapidly develop proprietary thermodynamic models finely tailored to your process
conditions and incorporate optimal interaction parameters in VMGSim simulations. Please
contact your VMG sales representative for more information and a test drive.

VMGThermo
Virtual Materials Group is pleased to announce the release of VMGThermo 6.0 build
100201. VMGThermo continues its development and we are proud to announce the following
new features:

New Property Packages

1. Added new NH3FlueGasTreating property package for ammonia + water + carbon

dioxide systems.

2. Added the new Gasification property package

3. Added the new APRCO2 property package for the simulation of formation and
dissolution of solid CO2.

4. Added the new BK10 property package for vacuum refinery processing simulations

General Property Package and Flash

1. Added filter for reference temperature and pressure to basis methods.

2. Added partial pressure to available physical properties.

3. Added parameters for tetra ethylene glycol dimethyl ether (TTEGDME) +

hydrocarbon and light gases to the PhysicalSolvent property package

4. Added Critical Point and Mechanical Critical Point to special property calculation.

5. Added CO2 and H2S solubility in water in the Steam95 property package.

6. Added approximate estimation of enthalpies of combustion based on MW for

hypotheticals

7. Added COASTALAGR, PEGDME-280SM, iso,sec and tert butylcyclohexane, 1-

bromo-2-chloroethane components for use in Physical Solvent property package.

8. Added alternate Heat of Reactions for Amines model from Kohl and Nielsen, Gas
Purification, Fifth Edition (1997).
 9. Added heats of reaction for CO2 capture to new NH3FlueGasTreating property
package.

10. Added mechanism to initiate stability test using an extensive set of initial guesses.

11. Added TRAPP parameters for Glycerol viscosity calculations in the APR for Natural
Gas property package.

12. Added ideal gas Gibbs free energies for the following components: NO, NO2, N2O,
NH3, ethylene, propylene, cis-2-butene, trans-2-butene, isobutene, 1-pentene, cis-2-
pentene, trans-2-pentene, 2-methyl-1-butene, 2-methyl-2-butene, 3-methyl1butene.

13. Added support for Mass Transfer Coefficient Multipliers as a function of pressure for
Amines package.

14. Added hydrate structure and phase identities at equilibrium.

15. Added Glycerol dehydration capability to APR for Natural Gas property package.

16. Added pressure contribution to enthalpy calculation in amine package

17. Added ability to control pH in sour package using HCl and NaOH

18. Added ionic species reporting ability for Sour Water and Amines packages

19. Added curves for surface tension and ideal gas heat capacity in oil characterization
package

Licensing System

1. Added support for the VMG internet-based license system.

Regression

1. Implemented a non-linear regression routine for interaction parameter calculation.

2. Added interface to VMGs data regression and management program Thermo

Explorer.

Extension Property Package and Properties

This mechanism allows users to create their own property packages and/or transport property
models under the framework of VMGThermo.

VB6 Interface

A new interface has been added allowing direct call to the VMGThermo dll from VB6 and
VBA.
A Little Process Helper
Alph
Craig Morris - RedTree Development Inc.

I Am In Love With My Phone!

Specifically my iPhone and yes, I am one of those annoying geeks who can drone on about
how there really is "An App for Everything". You dont want to find yourself sitting beside
me at some social function that you only thought was already the epitome of boredom.

Not only am I a geek, but I am a long retired one, who was once a chemical engineer and who
has good friends at VMG who will let me fiddle with their code on occasion. I guess it was
inevitable that I would have to see if my little darling could do real work as well as play
games (and yes I am still talking about my phone here, not my kid).

So it came to pass that I ported a significant subset of VMGThermo and a small database of
compounds to the iPhone and discovered the little beast was far more capable than I had
imagined. This encouraged me to continue beyond the simple flash program, which was the
best I had hoped for, to create a process calculator that I call Alph - A Little Process Helper.

So What can this little helper do?

Flashes of course, two and three phase, normal and retrograde, with all the
combinations of independent variables T, P, H, S and vapour fraction the VMGThermo
supports.
Phase envelopes that are interactive. Drag it around to see the conditions under the
cross hair and use the iPhone pinch gestures to zoom in and out.
Hydrate calculations, with or without free water and with or without inhibitors.
Distillation towers. Yes, full rigorous two phase towers can be calculated in seconds
on a phone!

In fact Alph is probably more capable than the early PC versions of Hysim and certainly
much faster and more accurate. It doesnt come close to having the capabilities of modern
enterprise class simulators like VMGSim, but sometimes when the nail is small, a sledge
hammer isnt necessarily the only tool to use.

Alph is not a simulator

While Alph can certainly do process design tasks, it isnt structured like a simulator, but
rather more as a calculator. An Alph case contains three possible types of entities:

Fluids, which would be analogous to streams in a simulator

Variables, which are sort of like named memory in a calculator

 Tools, which are special purpose calculations like phase envelopes and distillation
towers

The connections between these entities are done by means of formulas, which define
the variables of an entity and can reference other entities. For example in a simple gas
plant, the input for the low temperature separator feed fluid might look like the screen
to the right.

The temperature is defined as a constant, but the pressure is taken as the inlet separator
feed pressure minus two times a variable, which holds a pressure drop that is assumed
to be the same in both the gas-gas exchanger and the chiller (hence two times). The @
character designates the name refers to a fluid, while the $ designates a variable.
Although not shown here, a # would designate a tool variable.

Both the flow and composition are set to be equivalent to the vapour phase of the feed
fluid.

This formula system allows tremendous flexibility in setting up a calculation. In the tower,
formulas can be used for specifications and can even reference external objects. This allows
for something like a tower specification being based on the boiling point temperature of a
fluid which is in turn calculated using products of the column. Theoretically a tower
specification could even be based on some sort of economic calculation, which was in turn
based on the column products.

Who is Alphs audience?

I must confess I dont know the answer to that as I wrote Alph more because it seemed cool,
than any conviction that there was a huge market for it. Certainly I dont see Alph having
much appeal for main line simulator users, unless they need a highly portable means of doing
quick calculations in the field.

Alph with the natural gas compound package and the tower option would be just $200, so its
low cost might appeal to some independents or small shops whose simulation complexity and
volumes cant justify a process simulator.

It may well be that Alphs main role will be to demonstrate the feasibility of doing serious
calculations on mobile devices. There may be many niche problems that could benefit from a
custom application powered by a high quality property package on a mobile device. The
advent of the iPad, which should run Alph even faster, may open even more opportunities.

In any event, I think it likely that the future of mobile devices with touch interfaces will be
bright and unlikely they wont find a place in serious engineering.

The gory details

The Alph web site is at http://www.redtree.com/alph

Alph is available on the Apple App store - search for Alph. Note that the version of Alph with
the distillation tower is undergoing testing as I write this and may or may not have been
released by the time this article is published.

A free Alph Jr version, which will let you try Alph on a limited set of compounds, is also
available in the App Store.

Properties Alph can Calculate

Vf Molar vapour fraction (phase fraction when viewing phases)

T Temperature
P Pressure
F Molar flow rate
H Specific molar enthalpy
S Specific molar entropy
Q Energy flow
Mw Molecular weight
ZFactor Compressibility factor
Volume Specific molar volume
MassDensity Mass density
StdLiqDensity Standard liquid density
Viscosity Viscosity
KinematicViscosity Kinematic viscosity
ThermalConductivity Thermal conductivity
SurfaceTension Surface tension
Cp Constant pressure specific molar heat capacity
Cv Constant volume specific molar heat capacity
Exergy Exergy
GibbsFreeEnergy Gibbs free energy
LowHeatingValue Lower heating value
HighHeatingValue Higher heating value
MassF Mass flowrate
MassH Specific mass enthalpy
MassS Specific mass entropy
MassCp Constant pressure specific mass heat capacity
MassCv Constant volume specific mass heat capacity
RxnBasis Correction to enthalpy to calculate heats of reaction
X Composition in mole fractions
MassFraction Composition in mass fractions
MwtArray Compound molecular weights

Natural Gas Package Compounds

METHANE OXYGEN
ETHANE WATER
PROPANE HYDROGEN
ISOBUTANE HELIUM-4
n-BUTANE METHANOL
ISOPENTANE ETHANOL
n-PENTANE ETHYLENE GLYCOL
n-HEXANE DIETHYLENE GLYCOL
n-HEPTANE TRIETHYLENE GLYCOL
n-OCTANE METHYL MERCAPTAN
n-NONANE ETHYL MERCAPTAN
n-DECANE CARBONYL SULFIDE
CARBON DIOXIDE CARBON DISULFIDE
HYDROGEN SULFIDE DIMETHYL SULFIDE
NITROGEN DIMETHYL DISULFIDE

Custom compounds can also be added to represent things like heavier fractions.

Non-Sequential Modular Solver

A Practical Point of View
Andrew Vieler - Consultant

After giving a number of basic and more advanced hands-on process simulation courses over
the past two years, it appears that some basic engineering principles behind the modern
process simulation programs such as VMGSim have either been forgotten or were never
clearly explained to program users. So here is a brief history followed by some examples to
demonstrate use of VMGSim.

In the late 1970s one of the partners in VMG, Craig Morris, initiated a new approach to
process simulation by applying the engineering principles of material and energy balances in
a development towards creation of a process engineering calculator. Craig wanted to move
away from then-current and rather tedious practise of having to prepare a set of input data
defining the process to be modelled, submitting this to a large computer (and program) and
then having to work through a mass of output to determine whether the modelling exercise
had been successful. At that time this mode of working with a simulator was dictated by all
the commercially available process simulation programs employing the method of sequential
modular calculations. Even worse was the fact that the process simulators were only
available for batch use on mainframe computers and, very often, such technical usage was
only allowed after normal working hours when the accounts departments went home and
stopped using the computers.

What does this term "sequential modular" mean? It means solving the streams and unit
operation modules in sequence as they have been created by the user input. This method is
fine for a process which is once through (no recycles, no exchange of energy from product to
feed etc). However, if a target has to be met in the simulation, it invariably involves the user
developing initial estimates for the feeds and operating conditions and/or unit operation
specifications then using one or more feedback control devices to adjust the estimates and
specifications until the target is met. The sequential modular approach also has significant
difficulties in simulating processes where the products may be known (from say plant
sampling analyses) but the feed is not known.

So the question, "Why not work in a non-sequential manner and solve where and when we
can?" was raised by Craig. He then added, "Why not use what we know and make use of the
engineering principles of mass and energy balances", then "Surely we should work
interactively so the user can get immediate results and develop flowsheets using the
information?". Craig initially worked using a question/answer approach and created the first
versions of HYSIM. Once the IBM PC emerged and could be adapted for scientific
calculations using the somewhat and hard to get mysterious maths coprocessor, interactive
process flowsheet simulation on stand-alone, relatively inexpensive computers was born.

Let us move into a few examples to illustrate the approach which was termed "non-
sequential modular".

The first example involves a simple compression step in which the feed stream is known and
the final conditions (discharge temperature and pressure) are defined. The stream below is to
be compressed to 65 bar and delivered at 30C.

Conditions 30C
500 kPa
Flow rate 100 kmol/h
NITROGEN 2%
CARBON DIOXIDE 3%
METHANE 73%
ETHANE 9%
PROPANE 5%
ISOBUTANE 2%
n-BUTANE 3%
ISOPENTANE 1%
n-PENTANE 2%

Add the feed stream to a VMGSim model; add a KO drum, a compressor and an aftercooler
as shown below.

It is clear that the flowsheet is not fully calculated. This

is shown by the streams S3 and S4 having a yellow
colour. This is reasonable because no information about
the compressor or cooler performance has been given.

Examining stream S4 reveals that the flowrate and

composition are already determined by the simulator.
Why is this?

In a steady-state model there

is no accumulation of
material in unit operations.

In a compressor there is no
change of composition or
material flowrate.

In a cooler there is no
change of composition or
material flowrate.

These unit operation models are

therefore able to pass flowrate and
composition data through to stream
S4.

This is known as "Partial Data

Flow".

Specify the stream S4 pressure to 65 bar and the temperature to 30C. Stream S4 is then fully
calculated. The compressor and cooler are not yet calculated.

Then open the cooler and set the DP to 50 kPa. Notice that the inlet pressure to the cooler is
then calculated. This pressure is of course the outlet pressure from the compressor. Double
click on the compressor and set the Adiabatic Efficiency to 73%.

The flowsheet will now be fully calculated. The calculation order was NOT done in the order
in which the models were added. This manner of calculation is termed "Non-sequential
Modular".

Perhaps even more importantly, it is not necessary to calculate the compressor and cooler at
this stage and the flowsheet may be extended from stream S4. The user can return at any time
to complete intermediate calculations.

Using View Spec/Estimate in the PFD, one can view the user specifications in the
calculated model.

Re-introducing the classic refrigeration example as shown below with specifications

given for:

the refrigerant composition,

the vapour fraction at the condenser and evaporator outlet,

 the cooling water temperature, pressure and composition

the compressor efficiency.

Viewing the flowsheet temperatures or pressures, on the PFD, it can be seen that these are all
calculated using the user specifications.

The intensive properties of all streams are now known and the only remaining specification
required is the duty for the evaporator unit. The flowrate of refrigerant and then the cooling
water flowrate and compressor power will be calculated.

No recycles or controllers are required in such model.

Finally, another example which makes use of the thermodynamics of phases in equilibrium
with each other is shown.

Add a separator with a stream at its dew point connected to the vapour outlet port. In
this case the stream vapour fraction, pressure and composition are specified.

Open the separator view and also look at the Equilibrium Results tab.

Notice that the composition of the liquid phase which would be in equilibrium with the
vapour stream has been calculated by the property package.

Add a liquid product stream to the separator with the flowrate specified. Then add the
separator feed stream.

What happened?

Here partial data flow together with knowledge about the equilibrium in a separator
vessel may be used to "reconstruct" the feed stream from product flows and the vapour
analysis.

This is an extremely simply but common example of vessels and drums found in many
process plants where the composition of the vapour is known, the operating conditions in the
vessel are known and the flowrate of the liquid leaving the vessel is measured.

In the case of a distillation column this "trick" may be used to re-create the vapour
stream leaving the tower section and feeding the condenser so one can then run
engineering calculations on the condenser without having the simulate the entire tower,
which is sometimes difficult because full information about the feed to the tower is not
available.

Degrees of Freedom
Leaping Forward while Calculating Backwards - I
Marco A. Satyro - VMG Calgary

One of the key features of VMGSim is its backwards calculation ability. This concept was
originally conceived by Craig Morris and it is a powerful tool for the calculation of flow
sheets without iteration. It takes a bit of time and effort to understand degrees of freedom, but
you will see this time repaid in spades when you face some apparently difficult problems that
at first glance would require guesses, iterations and controllers.

Material Stream

A material stream is the basic building block for simulations and represents some material
flowing in a hypothetical pipe at a certain pressure, temperature and composition, and used to
connect different unit operations. Although we can have rigorous models of pipes in
VMGSim which include pressure drop and heat exchange we will concentrate on an
idealization of industrial piping connecting unit operations and in this idealization the
material stream no heat exchange or pressure drop will happen.

If you look at a material stream from a variable point of view:

Variable Name Symbol Number of Variables in a Stream

Temperature T 1
Pressure P 1
Molar Flow F 1
Composition z NC
Total NC + 3

Now look at the number of equations that we can write for a material stream:

For one material stream we can write one equation, an obvious one the mole fractions have
to add to one otherwise we are losing or generating matter not recommended!

The number of degrees of freedom we have is just the number of variables less the number of
equations:
Therefore, in order to completely specify a material stream we need C + 2 specifications.
Common specifications are the composition of the stream, the pressure and temperature
although many more alternatives are available.

Lets now reflect for a moment. VMGSim treats streams as flash objects. In another words,
when you specify the composition, temperature and pressure a multiphase flash calculation is
executed and you have the final thermodynamic state of the system (which maybe have one,
two or multiple phases) determined. Thus a more interesting question is, what are the degrees
of freedom necessary to specify the state of a multiphase system?

The answer is simple, but we have to be organized. Imagine a general multiphase flash with
an arbitrary number of phases NP:

In this case I am using the symbol to denote the molar phase fraction of a certain phase. To
keep things generic we number the phases from I to NP.

Lets enumerate the number of variables we have. Recall that each stream contributes NC + 3
variables. Therefore the total number of variables in this case is:

Now lets look at the equations we have:

Equation Number of equations

NP + 1
These equations tell us that the mole fractions in a phase must add up to one.
NP
These equations come from the assumption of thermodynamic equilibrium with
respect to heat transfer.
NP
These equations come from the assumption of thermodynamic equilibrium with
respect to mechanical work.
(NP 1) * NC
These equations come from the assumption of thermodynamic equilibrium with
respect to mass transfer. Note that fij corresponds to the fugacity of component "i"
in phase "j".
NC
Overall material balances for each component.

We can now collect all the equations:

And finally the number of degrees of freedom for the system is given by the number of
variables less the number of equations:

This is the so called Duhem theorem and it tells us that, as long as we have the amount of
mass going in or out of a system defined:

Then we just have two degrees of freedom left irrespective of how many phases the system
may have.

If we do not specify the amount of material going into the system we gain NC degrees of
freedom:

This is the reason why when you define a material stream in VMGSim you just have to
specify the amount of material in the stream (such as a flow and mole fractions, or molar
flows or mass flows or standard volume flows) and two intensive variables such as pressure
and temperature to completely specify the system from a thermodynamic point of view.

Note the key is the assumption of thermodynamic equilibrium. If we do not impose this
assumption then the equations noted in red disappear and we move into the realm of fluid
mechanics and heat transfer - computational fluid mechanics - and the problem is much more
difficult to solve since we need the path - equipment size, flow patterns and heat exchange
patterns - to solve the problem.

Equation Number of equations

NP + 1
These equations tell us that the mole fractions in a phase must add up to one.
NP
These equations come from the assumption of thermodynamic equilibrium with
respect to heat transfer.
NP
These equations come from the assumption of thermodynamic equilibrium with
respect to mechanical work.
(NP 1) * NC
These equations come from the assumption of thermodynamic equilibrium with
 respect to mass transfer.
NC
Overall material balances for each component.

We can now bring everything together using a simple example. Start VMGSim and specify a
material stream like the one shown below:

Note that we have the amount of material in the stream defined by the flow and mole fraction
or:

degrees of freedom specified and P and T thus bringing the number of specifications to

And the problem is specified from a thermodynamic point of view. We have a two phase
system under these conditions with the following phase compositions:

And the problem is completely defined.

We can now add a separator to simulate a flash tank (note that the flash action has happened
the moment the degrees of freedom were completely defined. The flash tank just simulates the
mechanical separation of liquid and vapour that would happen in a well designed flash tank).

VMGSim provides you with tools to model separations that do not obey thermodynamic
equilibrium in the form entrainment. In another words you can instruct the flash tank to insert
some liquid in the vapour (to simulate imperfect separation between gas and liquid due to
excessive vapour velocity in the separator) or some vapour in the liquid (to simulate
imperfect separation between liquid and gas due to inadequate residence time in separator).
Note that these effects are kinetic in nature and can not be captured by thermodynamics.
These effects depend on the actual dimensions and flow patterns inside the separator.

VMGSim generalizes the degree of freedom idea by monitoring degrees of freedom of all
streams in the case and the corresponding equations defined by the energy and material
balances that simulate unit operations.
This can be a very powerful tool for you to use incomplete information you may have
available, and use the mathematical structure provided by thermodynamics to fill in the
blanks. Lets look at the separator example again.

Case 1 - Feed is completely specified

This is the example we just did, we just have to specify the material going into the system
and two intensive variables such as pressure and temperature, pressure and vapour fraction,
temperature and vapour fraction and so on.

Case 2 - Feed is not specified

This is the most interesting case. We can specify:

1. The composition of either material stream Vapour or material stream Liquid

2. The molar flow of Vapour and Liquid

3. The temperature or pressure of any material stream (Feed, Vapour or Liquid)

This gives us NC 1 + 2 + 1 = NC + 2 degrees of freedom, but nothing happens:

What is going on? Well, the designers of VMGSim had to tackle an issue early on how to
handle streams that are not saturated? The Duhem theorem holds as long as we have phases
at equilibrium, but what should be the behaviour if the vapour leaving the separator is
superheated or if the liquid leaving the separator is subcooled? Under these scenarios we have
infinite solutions where the vapour would have a vapour fraction of one or where the liquid
would have a vapour fraction of zero, and therefore the assumption of having a saturated
liquid or saturated vapour leaving the separator was removed. This gives us an additional
degree of freedom. You can readily verify this if you specify the vapour fraction to one:

VMGSim now performs a dew temperature calculation and the composition of the liquid
phase is defined. With the liquid and vapour mole flows the vapour fraction can be calculated
and finally an overall mass balance is performed and the total flow of the feed is calculated
together with the composition of the feed:

In the next newsletter we will see how a more complex flowsheet can be solved and how
VMGSim eliminates the need for energy recycles.
VMGSim Tips and Tricks
10 Ways to Open a Unit Operation Form
Luis Duhne - VMG Calgary

Have you ever found yourself trying to quickly open unit operation forms and having to go
back to the PFD to do so? Depending on what you are working on, sometimes is handy to
have ways of opening unit operation forms other than the simple double-click on a PFD
shape.

On the PFD

There are 4 ways to open a unit operation form from the PFD, 3 of them apply to any unit
operation and one is exclusive for the Flowsheets and Sub Flowsheets.

Double-Click on PFD shape. This is the most commonly used one, simply double- click on
the PFD shape.

Press the RETURN key while a unit operation or stream shape is selected on the PFD.

Right-click on a PFD shape and select Open Form.

Right-click on the PFD background to get the right-click menu of the Flowsheet or Sub
Flowsheet and select Open Form.

On the Simulation Tree

When working with cases that have many unit operations it might be faster to find a unit
operation or stream in the Simulation Tree.
Double-Click on the unit operation or stream name.

On Any Unit Operation or Material Stream

When you have a unit operation or stream form open, and you want to open the form of one
of the connected objects, there is no need for going back to the PFD.

Double-Click on the material port name to open the connected object (In the figure shown
In will open the form of ToReheater and Out will open the form of To_Bed).

On the Summary Sets Form

Imagine you have your nice summary of unit operations, and want you to inspect one of them
further, without adding more variables to the current summary.

Double-Click on the name of the unit operation (Header of each column).

On the Project Report Form

Ideal for cases where you forget what information is contained in each data block, or when
forgot to add one profile to any of the unit operations.

Double-click on the name of a stream or unit operation when they are in the Selected Items
section.

On the Depressuring Assistant Form

You can open the forms of the equipment that is part of your depressuring system without
having to go to the PFD.

Click on the blue font cells with the name of the unit operations for the main Depressuring
section.
Right-Click and select Open Form on the header of each column.

Now you know more than a couple ways to navigate through your forms quickly and
efficiently.

VMGSim Courses
VMGSim Overview Course
Gerald Jacobs - VMG USA

The VMGSim Overview course is a hands-on course where attendees will spend a significant
amount of time running VMGSim. You are guided through the creation of a series of typical
simulation case examples in VMGSim. Examples typically are taken from gas processing,
petrochemicals, crude oil characterization and fractionation, gas treating and sulfur recovery.

Areas of focus during the course will include:

Use of the VMGSim user interface including working with the Visio PFD

Selecting thermo, components, adding hypotheticals, characterizing and blending oil

assays

Understanding interactive flowsheeting, degrees of freedom, bidirectional data

propagation

Unit operations and flowsheeting, Handling material and energy recycles

VMGSims Excel Operation

Modeling distillation columns including complex columns

Heat exchanger, Compressor and Vessel modeling

The Dynamic Assistant Multi-unit depressuring

Introduction to Dynamic modeling - Introduction to dynamic simulation in VMGSim

 Application of Utilities including phase envelopes, water saturator, special properties,
gas properties

Additional Topics

Sensitivity analysis and case studies

Using the Excel Spreadsheet operation in simulation cases

Modeling with multiple flowsheets and multiple property methods

Dates:

March 9 - 11 in Houston, Texas

May 11 - 13 in Houston, Texas

For more information please contact Gerald Jacobs at gerald@virtualmaterials.com

VMGSim Advanced Course

James van der Lee - VMG Calgary

This two-day course is designed for those who are familiar with using VMGSim and are
interested in learning new modeling techniques and more VMGSim features that will allow
them to get more out of their simulation models. The course will cover material ranging from
specific features in individual unit operations and a review of flowsheeting techniques to
reporting features in VMGSim. Hands-on examples will be used to reinforce the concepts and
demonstrate how the individual topics can be combined to build more advanced simulation
models. Specific topics covered in the course will include:

Flowsheeting with Controllers and Recycles

Building GUIs using the Excel Unit Op

Tips on Converging Towers

Using Ports

Using selector blocks

Customizing Reporting Outputs

At the completion of the course, the attendee will have a deeper understanding of process
simulation and will feel more comfortable tackling more advance simulation problems.
The cost for this two-day course is CAN$ 800.00 (plus 5% GST) and requires that you bring
a laptop. We will provide the use of VMGSim for the duration of the course as well as some
time after the course. It is highly recommended that attendees are familiar with the use of
VMGSim.

Dates:

March 10 - 11 in Calgary, Alberta

For more information please contact us at register@virtualmaterials.com

Free Hands On Introduction to VMGSim

James van der Lee - VMG Calgary

This one-day free course provides process engineers an introduction to VMGSims features
and capabilities using a series of tutorials and demonstrations.

Introduction to VMGSim

User Interface

Integration with Excel

Visio-Based PFD Engine

Work Flow Optimization

Multiple Flow sheets

Reporting Capabilities

Dynamic Flow sheet Assistants

Attendance is limited. Early registration is recommended. Laptops are required.

Dates:

March 31 in Calgary, Alberta

June 9 in Calgary, Alberta

For more information please contact us at register@virtualmaterials.com

Coming Soon
OLGAS-VMGSim Integration
Virtual Materials Group is proud to announce the integration of SPT Groups OLGAS
pressure drop correlation in VMGSim. OLGAS provides some of the most advanced steady-
state two and three phase pressure drop correlations for reliable pipeline simulation and these
correlations will soon be available as an option in VMGSims steady state Pipe Segment unit
operation.

OLGAS is the steady state model of OLGA-both property of SPT GROUP. OLGAS is a
mechanistic point model that calculates pressure gradients, liquid hold-up and flow pattern at
a specific section of pipe/tubing.

The OLGAS-VMGSim link will be released in the next version of VMGSim, scheduled for
the second quarter of 2010.

Virtual Materials Group is committed to providing our users with the best in class tools in the
process industry combined with our state of the art thermodynamic properties and flow
sheeting calculations.

The SPT GROUP is the worldwide leader in the development of software for multiphase
flow, drilling and reservoir simulation.

VMGSim OPC Server

The next version of VMGSim will include an OPC server to allow users to communicate the
simulator with remote concurrent clients using the OPC standard interface. This new product
is called VMGSim OPC Server and is currently undergoing extensive testing.

www.virtualmaterials.com
Virtual Materials Group, Inc.
Unit #14, 3535 Research Road NW
Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2L 2K8

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