Differences between Hysys, Aspen Plus, and PRO/II

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1 Overview Currently, the main chemical process simulation software available in China includes PRO/II from the American company SimSci-Esscor, Aspen Plus and Hysys from AspenTech in the United States, gPROMS from the British company PSE, ChemCAD from Chemstations in the United States, Design II from WinSim Inc., and VMGSim from Virtual Materials Group in Canada. A brief introduction to these software options is summarized below for reference and learning purposes. 2 Comparison of CHEMCAD, PROII, and ASPEN: A brief summary of the following seven points: 2.1 It is generally believed that PROII is more accurate for use in the petroleum refining industry, as its database contains a large amount of empirical data ； ASPEN performs better in the chemical engineering field; compared to Aspen Plus, it has advantages that no other software can match, and it essentially encompasses all the advantages of the software mentioned above. Some people compare PROII to the empiricist school and ASPEN to the academic school. 2.2 Required for learning Aspen Plus: Principles of Chemical Engineering ； Unit operations in chemical processes b: thermodynamic approach ； Explaining physical property calculation methods ； c Chemical Systems Engineering ； It explains how to model chemical engineering systems, analyze them, and solve problems. For a basic understanding, knowing a and b is sufficient; if one wants to go deeper, then c is also necessary. Additionally, it is important to have the guidance of an experienced teacher. 2.3 HYSYS is mainly used in oil refining. Dynamic simulation is its strength. SPEN is intelligent and used for process simulation in the chemical industry, for large or complex processes; it also features a comprehensive database that is open-access. It is now one entity with HYSYS. PRO/II can be used for equipment accounting with a short process, or for distillation accounting. Due to its limited physical properties, ChemCAD is inconvenient to use and of relatively poor quality; it can be downloaded from various websites, is not widely used by design firms, but does have a certain market in universities. 2.4 I think Aspen Plus offers the most accurate calculations, and its database is also the most well-developed. However, I’m not very comfortable using it; since it takes many factors into account, it feels quite difficult to learn. The interface operations in ChemCAD seem very simple, making it easy to use. But the database isn’t that large; I’m using version 5.0, which contains property data for only 2,000 commonly used substances. PRO/II is in the middle in both aspects. 2.5 In terms of ease of convergence, chemcad > hysys > proii. 2.6 From an industrial perspective, all four software packages—PRO/II, HYSYS, and ChemCAD—are engineering simulation programs. Among them, Aspen, PRO/II, and HYSYS are used by the vast majority of design institutes in China. It seems that Aspen has the widest range of applications; its modules for electrolytes, solids, combustion, etc., are unmatched by other software ； PRO/II is widely used in the petrochemical industry, where extensive experience has been accumulated ； HYSYS boasts extremely high precision and accuracy in the field of oil and gas engineering. 　　Qingdao University of Science and Technology (formerly Qingdao Institute of Chemical Technology) developed an ECSS, which can only be described as a domestic product; the university itself does not use it. 2.7. Introduction: The useful versions of Aspen are 10.2 and 11.1. Version 10.2 has some minor issues when used on WinXP, but it can still be used through workarounds. Version 11.1 has a small issue that is easy to resolve. As for the other versions, they currently cannot be used normally. 　　The usable versions of Pro/II are 5.6, 6.0, and 7.1. There’s nothing to say about the first two versions. Those who like to use the latest versions might prefer 7.1; however, this version may fail to install on systems running Windows XP or later. 　　The useful versions of Hysys are 2.4, 3.0, and 3.2; among them, version 3.0 must be installed from a CD, while version 3.2 has some issues – it sometimes shuts down without any reason after being used for half an hour. 3 Introduction to Various Software 3.1 AspenOne AspenOne was introduced by the American company AspenTech at the end of 2004, and it features significant improvements in terms of EO (system of equations). Official website: http://www.AspenTech.com. Among its products, HYSYS, HTFS, and Aspen Plus are the main ones. 3.1.1 HYSYS: Originally, HYSYS was a product developed by Hyprotech, a Canadian company founded in 1976. Hyprotech was one of the world’s first multinational companies to develop industrial simulation and modeling technologies for the petroleum and chemical industries. Its technology is widely applied in fields such as oil extraction, storage and transportation, natural gas processing, petrochemicals, fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and refining. It holds a dominant position worldwide in the field of petrochemical modeling and simulation technology. Hyprotech has over 17,000 users in more than 80 countries, and its number of registered users exceeds that of any other process simulation software company in the world. Currently, major petrochemical companies around the world are using Hyprotech’s products. This includes the top 15 oil and gas companies in the world, 14 out of the top 15 oil refining companies, and 13 out of the top 15 chemical companies. In 2002, the American company AspenTech acquired Hyprotech, and Hysys thus became a product of AspenTech. In 2004, the American company Honeywell purchased the rights to the Hysys software from AspenTech. Hysys2004 is part of AspenOne; it is the first version released after Aspen acquired Hysys. The Aspen One directory contains information on the development background of Aspen Hysys. Thanks to the rapid development of microcomputers and the introduction of Microsoft Windows software, the limitations imposed by DOS on microcomputer resources and single-tasking were overcome, making it possible to run dynamic simulation systems on microcomputers. Canadian company HYPROTECH lived up to expectations and, leveraging its strong technical capabilities, was the first in the world to develop a microcomputer-based dynamic simulation system, HYSYS 1.0. The promotion and application of the dynamic simulation system HYSYS will undoubtedly bring about a profound revolution in the fields of petrochemical design, production, and research, serving as a landmark moment in the petrochemical industry. Chemical engineering simulation software has evolved and improved mainly in two areas. One is the development of theories and techniques related to chemical engineering simulation, which expands the scope of application for such software. The other area is the advancement of the software itself and computer-aided tools, that is, the development of better methods to enable engineers to more easily master and use this software, as well as to apply it more flexibly in research projects. In recent years, the former has developed rapidly, while the latter has seen very slow progress. Given that companies perform at a relatively high level in the former aspect, the latter aspect becomes particularly important. Combining the two and utilizing next-generation programming tools to develop next-generation simulation software will undoubtedly bring about a revolution in the chemical process simulation industry. Throughout the development of its software, Hyprotech has always adhered to one principle: \"to make the software easy and convenient to use, so that it is simple for engineers to learn and understand.\" One way to achieve this goal is to allow engineers to change variables as they see fit during use. The software can be paused at any time during operation to observe changes in the data. This is what is known as “fully interactive software”; it is Hyprotech’s first-generation product, HYSIM. It was also the world’s first fully interactive chemical engineering simulation software. The company’s success stems from two factors: first, its continuously developing technical capabilities; second, its awareness of potential new technologies arising from the development of computer technology, as well as its ability to respond quickly to such changes. From interactive simulation to interactive simulation technologies on microcomputers, the company has always led the world by providing innovative software. HYSYS is built on a solid foundation of HYSIM, which has been used in the petrochemical industry worldwide for over a decade. HYSYS includes more and more complex property calculation packages and unit operations, and it features powerful initialization and rapid iterative calculation tools to obtain results more quickly and accurately. At the same time, system optimization, reactive distillation, advanced variable calculation tables, controllers for control studies, and transfer function generators were added. Hyprotech, the company that develops and supplies Hysys, has international clients such as BP, Chevron, Dow, DuPont, Exxon Mobil, Fluor Daniel, Monsanto, Glaxo SmithKline, Rohm Hass, Bayer, Shell, PraxAir, UOP, and others. HYSYS is widely used in China, with the total number of domestic users exceeding 50. All oilfield design systems use this software for process design. Below is a list of some username accounts from domestic oil fields: Daqing Oil Field Design Institute, Liaohe Oil Field Design Institute, North China Oil Field Design Institute, Dagang Oil Field Design Institute, Sichuan Oil Field Design Institute, Changqing Oil Field Design Institute, Qinghai Oil Field Design Institute, Zhongyuan Oil Field Design Institute, Jianghan Oil Field Design Institute, Karamay Oil Field Design Institute, Karamay Oil Field Research Institute, Dushanzi Refinery, Dushanzi Petrochemical Design Institute, Langfang Pipeline Survey and Design Institute, Production Research Center of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, and Petroleum Engineering Company of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (Tianggu, Tianjin). South China Sea Branch of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, Shell China, Liaoyang Chemical Fiber Company, Liaoyang Petrochemical Design Institute, Daqing Petrochemical Design Institute, Yueyang Petrochemical Company, Jiujiang Petrochemical Company, Nanjing Petrochemical Company, Yangzi Petrochemical Company, Yangzi Petrochemical Design Institute, Fushun Petrochemical Design Institute, Fushun Petrochemical Company, Jinling Petrochemical Company, Maoming Petrochemical Design Institute, Zhenjiang Refining and Chemical Engineering Company, etc. Features of HYSYS 1: The most advanced integrated engineering environment. Thanks to the use of a new generation of object-oriented programming tools, integrated engineering simulation software has become a reality. In such an integrated system, processes and unit operations are independent of each other. A process is merely a collection of various unit operations aimed at achieving such goals; these unit operations are connected to one another through the material flow within the process. In engineering design, the same objective is used for steady-state and dynamic operations; the data related to this objective is shared, eliminating the need for data transfer. Therefore, in such an advanced and user-friendly system, users can achieve the greatest benefits; complex manufacturing processes often need to be divided into several parts for simulation. This is mainly because: ① Small-scale process analysis is convenient and fast ； ②Different thermodynamic methods are employed for various systems in order to obtain more accurate results. The approach generally used by previous software was to simulate small processes separately first, and then to transfer data from one process to another manually or through software using files. The mandatory transmission of such data inevitably leads to inconsistencies in the data within the process, resulting in the need for the process to be recalculated. An integrated engineering environment is different; it allows people to divide processes into several sub-processes within a simulated environment, with these sub-processes being of varying sizes. The uniqueness of this integrated environment is that data between sub-processes and the main process is shared mutually, without the need for transmission. Different material property calculation packages can also be used among them. Moving from one process to another is as easy as flipping through a book. 2 Powerful dynamic simulation capabilities. The method and process of dynamic simulation involve, after the steady-state simulation of the process has converged, first defining the dynamic data for the unit operations (such as the geometric dimensions of separators, liquid level heights, etc.), installing control instruments, and then proceeding to dynamic mode to start the dynamic simulation. During dynamic simulation, various process variables such as temperature and pressure can be adjusted at any time (this is multitasking in Windows), allowing one to observe their effects on the product and the patterns of change. It can also stop at any time and return to a static state. Since dynamics and statics share the same object, the transition between them is very easy. HYSYS provides control units such as PID controllers, transfer function generators, digitally controlled switches, and variable calculation tables for dynamic simulation. A PID controller can control any variable. ②The transfer function generator can produce any form of process transfer functions, such as first-order elements, second-order elements, differentiation and integration elements. With them, any controlled object and disturbance source can be simulated. ③During the dynamic operation of a CNC switch, it is possible to control the on or off state of another variable by checking a certain operating condition, thereby enabling control over the entire device. ○4 Each variable’s calculation table stores 26 * 50, which is 130 variables. This appears to be a control unit connected online to the actual device; it allows any variable in the process to be introduced and processed within this table (which can perform various mathematical functions and logical operations). The results of these operations are then sent back into the process and assigned to certain variables, thereby enabling the control of those variables. 3 DCS interfaces. HYSYS is connected to the DCS control system through a dynamic link library DLL. The DCS data from the unit can be imported into HYSYS, while the process parameters from HYSYS can also be sent back to the unit. Through this technology, it is possible to achieve: ① online optimization control; ② production guidance; ③ production training; ④ offline debugging of instrument design systems. 4 Process parameter optimizer. A powerful optimizer has been added to the software; it offers five algorithms for you to choose from, enabling it to solve unconstrained, constrained, equality-constrained, and inequality-constrained problems. Among them, sequential quadratic programming is a relatively advanced method that enables linear and nonlinear optimization of multiple variables. By using variable calculation tables, more complex economic modeling can be incorporated into the optimizer in order to determine the operating conditions that yield the greatest economic benefits. In addition to the features mentioned above, HYSYS also includes an event-driven property calculation package, a dry-plate startup function, built-in artificial intelligence, a data regression package, a property calculation package, a property prediction system, event-driven functionality, narrow-point analysis tools, scenario analysis tools, hydraulic calculations for various trays, calculations for arbitrary towers, and non-sequential simulation technology. Applications of HYSYS: The HYSYS software is a large-scale expert system software developed by a world-renowned engineering company specializing in oil and gas processing simulation. The software consists of two main parts: dynamic and steady-state. Its dynamic and steady-state properties are primarily used in the design of oilfield surface engineering projects as well as in the design, calculation, and analysis of petroleum and petrochemical refining projects. Its dynamic part can be used to control the operation of crude oil production and storage and transportation systems. For onshore oil field construction, this software can address the following issues: (1) Applications in onshore oil field engineering • Design, evaluation, and optimization of various transportation processes • Stationary piping networks, long-distance pipelines, and pumping stations • Temperature drop during pipeline shutdown • Prediction of pig sending/receiving and slug flow • Oil and gas separation • Separation of oil, gas, and water phases • Design calculations for oil and gas separators • Prediction of natural gas hydrates • Creation of phase diagrams for oil and gas and prediction of their inversion points • Crude oil dehydration • Design and optimization of crude oil stabilization units • Crude oil dehydration (using glycol or molecular sieves), as well as design and optimization of desulfurization units • Design and optimization of units for recovering light hydrocarbons from natural gas • Selection and calculation of pumps and compressors; (2) Applications in petroleum refining 1. Design and optimization of atmospheric and vacuum distillation systems ； 2. Design and optimization of the FCC main fractionator ； 3. Design and optimization of gas systems ； 4. Design and optimization of gasoline stabilization, naphtha separation and stripping, reactive distillation, shift and methanation reactors, acid water separators, sulfur and HF acid alkylation, isobutane removal columns, etc ； 5. In terms of gas processing: it can handle tasks such as amine desulfurization, multi-stage refrigeration, compressor units, deethanizer and demethanizer towers, expansion devices, gas dehydrogenation, hydrate formation/inhibition, multi-stage operations, refrigeration circuits, and optimization of turbine expanders. Functions of the HYSYS software • Compared to similar software, HYSYS features a very user-friendly interface that is easy to learn, and it boasts a high degree of intelligence. • The state-of-the-art integrated engineering environment makes integrated engineering simulation software a reality by utilizing next-generation programming tools oriented toward specific goals. In such an integrated system, processes and unit operations are independent of one another; a process is merely a collection of various unit operations that share a common goal, while the unit operations are connected to each other through the flow of materials within the process. In engineering design, the same objective is used for steady-state and dynamic cases, and the data for this common objective is shared without the need for data transfer. Therefore, users can reap the greatest benefits from this most advanced and user-friendly system.