GRanulator

Jump Start: Modeling Granulators in Aspen Plus ® V8.0 A Brief Tutorial Tutorial (and supplement supplement to training training and online documentation) documentation) Julie Levine, Product Product Marketing, Marketing, Aspen Technology, Technology, Inc. Inc. Claus Reimers, Software Development, Aspen Technology, Inc. Matthias Pogodda, Software Development, Aspen Technology, Inc. David Tremblay, Product Management, Aspen Technology, Inc.

© 2013 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech ®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo, and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology Technology,, Inc. All rights reserved. 11-2638-01 11-2638-0113 13

Jump Start: Modeling Granulators in Aspen Plus ® V8.0

Table of Con tents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Set Up Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Specify Solid Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Specify Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Specify Stream Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Create a Particle Size Distribution Mesh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Build the Flow Sheet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Select Moisture Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Select the Granulator Unit Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Define Streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Define the Granulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Generate a PSD Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Additional Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

© 2013 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech ®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo, and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 11-2638-0113

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Introduction Solids process modeling with Aspen Plus provides an integrated solution for simulating processes involving solid particles. With the tools provided, it is easy to characterize and model solids handling equipment. In this guide, we will talk about getting started with modeling granulators. Granulation is the deposition of solid material on primary particles (seeds) to form additional layers. The deposited material can be either the same material as the seed or a different material, and it can be sprayed onto the seed particles via suspension, solution, or melt. By modeling granulation using Aspen Plus V8.0, users can effectively manage product coating and purity, as well as increase throughput. This is not meant to be used as a stand-alone reference document. We recommend that a range of other resources be called upon to give the new user a comprehensive view of how to use solids modeling in Aspen Plus. These may include: • AspenTech support website (support.aspentech.com) • AspenTech courseware available in on-line and in-person versions • AspenTech business consultants • Additional Jump Start Guides This document covers granulator modeling in Aspen Plus. It assumes that the user has Aspen Plus V8.0 or higher installed on her or his computer and some experience building process models.

Set Up Properties All Aspen Plus simulations start in the properties environment, where you must select your components, units of measure, and property sets. This guide will only discuss select steps that are relevant to this process. If you required a more detailed tutorial, see Jump Start: Solids Modeling in Aspen Plus V8.0 (additional resources).

Specify Solid Components When you specify a component, its default type is Conventional. However, in order to model solid components you must change this to Solid (Figure 1).


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Figure 1: Specify component as a solid

Specify Properties It may be necessary to manually manage the properties of your solid components if they are different than those for conventional processes. In the Navigation Pane, open the Methods form and select the base method. Under the “Methods” folder, go to the “Parameters” folder and open the Pure Components form. Click “New…” (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Generate new property specification

Next, select what type of component parameters you want to specify: scalar, temperature-dependent, or nonconventional. We will consider adding scalar components (Figure 3).


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Figure 3: Build a scalar pure component parameter

Finally, fill in the resulting matrix of parameters as desired. Hover over the items in the dropdown list to see what the variables stand for (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Specify properties for desired compounds


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Specify Stream Class Once all of the property specifications are complete, you can move on to flow sheet specifications in the Simulation Environment. In the “Setup” folder, open the Specifications form. Here, you must select an appropriate stream class. To determine which is best, hover over the different choices on the dropdown menu to see suggestions (Figure 5). MIXCIPSD is a good choice when conventional solids are present with a particle size distribution.

Figure 5: Specify stream class

Create a Particle Size Distribution Mesh In Aspen Plus, you can characterize solid streams using particle size distributions (PSD). PSD’s can be defined as either a list of values or a mathematical function. To perform PSD analysis, you must first create a mesh to characterize each particular PSD. On the PSD Mesh tab of the Solids form, either open the default PSD or select “New...” to generate additional meshes (Figure 6). You can generate as many meshes as necessary to describe your different solid streams.


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Figure 6: Edit a PSD mesh

There are four PSD mesh types (equidistant, geometric, logarithmic, and user) which use different methods to specify the particle size intervals (Figure 7). Later, you will have to define the actual PSD for each solid stream by filling in the weight fractions of particles in each interval (either manually or by distribution function). Once you select a mesh type, fill in the required inputs and click “Create PSD Mesh.”

Figure 7: Select PSD mesh type


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Build the Flow Sheet Now that you have set up all of the necessary properties, it is time to build the flow sheet.

Select Moisture Components Moisture components are conventional components which can appear in solid substreams and are protected from flash calculations (moisture components in a CI Solid stream will not evaporate even if the solid temperature is above the liquid’s boiling point). They are only affected by dryer unit operations. Additionally, moisture in a CI Solid substream effects the solid’s density and heat capacity. In order to model a granulator, it is necessary to specify the moisture components of the simulation, unless you are spraying a melt. In the “Setup” folder, open the Solids form. Navigate to the “Moisture Components” region on the Solid Characterization tab. Use the arrows to select from available components (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Select moisture components

Select the Granulator Unit Operation The Granulator unit operation is located on the Solids tab of the Model Palette. There are several icons to choose from (Figure 9).

Figure 9: Select the Granulator unit operation


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Define Streams Once you have instantiated a Granulator, you must connect the appropriate streams. A granulator takes up to five streams: two required and three optional (Figure 10).

Figure 10: Streams associated with a granulator – required streams are black and bolded

It is required to connect solid inlet and outlet streams, which represent the seed particles. Connecting these two streams provides only enough information for a shortcut model (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Connecting only one inlet and one outlet stream generates a shortcut granulator model – notice the other options are grayed out

To generate a more detailed model, you can add a liquid stream to represent the material to be deposited on the seeds (a solution, melt, etc.). Adding this stream allows you to select the rigorous methods “Particle growth by granulation” and “Particle growth by agglomeration” (see next section for more detail). In addition, you can add one inlet and one outlet gas stream to build a fluidized bed granulator model. If you have gas streams, you must also have an inlet liquid stream or you will not be able to define the granulator block.


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If there are any liquids besides moisture components in your solid inlet stream, you must define the stream using the specifications on both the Mixed and CI Solid tabs. On the CI Solid tab, do not forget to populate PSD mesh with the weight fractions for solid particles in each interval. You can do this by either manually entering values into the matrix, or using a specified distribution function (Figure 12).

Figure 12: For liquid and solid components, define the solid inlet stream on both Mixed and CI Solid tabs – Don’t forget to fill out the PSD

If you have an inlet liquid or inlet liquid and gas streams, you can define them normally (only fill out the Mixed tab) because they have no solid components.

Define the Granulator Open the form for the Granulator block. Here, you have to specify model parameters. The required inputs are the bed mass and the model selection. If you identified any moisture components in your simulation, you can specify the outlet solid moisture content in the “Model parameters” region. If you are modeling fluidized bed granulation, you must specify the elutriation parameters (Figure 13).


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Figure 13: Define the granulator – Set moisture content if you have moisture components – Set elutriation parameters if you are modeling fluidized bed granulation

Next, you must select the outlet flash parameters on the Outlet Flash tab. Set the pressure and specify one of the following: duty, temperature, or temperature change. You must also specify the valid phases (Figure 14).

Figure 14: Outlet flash specifications

Once you have finished defining the input streams, granulator, and your model inputs are complete, you can run the simulation.


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Generate a PSD Plot Once your model has run and converged, you can generate a PSD plot for the granulator streams. To do so, open the form for the granulator, navigate to the Plot group on the Home tab on the ribbon, and select the PSD button (Figure 15). Because plots are contextual, you will not have this option unless the form for the granulator is active.

Figure 15: Generate a PSD plot

Figure 16 shows a typical PSD plot for a granulator.

Figure 16: Typical particle size distribution plot for a granulator


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Additional Resources For further information on Activated Analysis please consult:

Public Website: www.aspentech.com/products/aspen-plus www.aspentech.com/products/solids

Online Training: www.aspentech.com/products/aspen-online-training

On-Demand Short Presentations Creating a Granulator Model https://www.brainshark.com/aspentech1/create-granulator Creating a Crusher Sieve Model https://www.brainshark.com/aspentech1/create-crusher-sieve Creating a Classifier Model https://www.brainshark.com/aspentech1/create-classifier

AspenTech Youtube Channel Granulator Modeling Overview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REIdxJh7-RU&list=PL0ADEB58FD49C6EBC&index=8 Dryer Modeling Overview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3sJjkvG3fc&list=PL0ADEB58FD49C6EBC&index=17 Crusher Modeling Overview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8N9c7YB-tw&list=PL0ADEB58FD49C6EBC&index=9 Classifier Modeling Overview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuwg1Q6njkM&list=PL0ADEB58FD49C6EBC&index=10

Jump Start Tutorials Series Jump Start: Solids Process Modeling in Aspen Plus V8: www.aspentech.com/SolidsJumpStart/ Jump Start: Solids Process Modeling for Experienced Aspen Plus Users: www.aspentech.com/SolidsModeling-ExperiencedUsers/ Jump Start: Modeling Convective Dryers in Aspen Plus V8.0: http://www.aspentech.com/JumpStartConvectiveDryers/


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About AspenTech AspenTech is a leading supplier of software that optimizes process manufacturing—for energy, chemicals, engineering and construction, and other industries that manufacture and produce products from a chemical process. With integrated aspenONE® solutions, process manufacturers can implement best practices for optimizing their engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain operations. As a result, AspenTech customers are better able to increase capacity, improve margins, reduce costs, and become more energy efficient. To see how the world’s leading process manufacturers rely on AspenTech to achieve their operational excellence goals, visit www.aspentech.com .

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GRanulator

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