Guofu completed ProMax Gas Processing Simulation Training

Guofu completed ProMax Level 2 Gas Processing Training on 18 September 2014. ProMax is a chemical process simulation software widely used in the Mid-Stream natural Gas Processing and Gas Treatment industry.

Simulate Cryogenic Air Separation Unit in HYSYS

Air was considered not liquefiable a century ago. But nowadays, with the advanced technologies, not only air is liquefied, but it is also separated into nitrogen and oxygen under a cryogenic temperature of -320 F. In this video, you will be able to learn the process to separate oxygen and nitrogen from air with cryogenic method.

One Minute Process Engineering: Generate Control Valves Data Sheets from Promax

From my previous one minute process engineering series, you've learned within one minute, process engineers can get a lot of work done! In this article, you will learn just in one minute, you can generate all the control valves data sheets from Promax, a chemical process simulator for process troubleshooting and design, developed and sold by Bryan Research and Engineering, Inc.

Model Liquefied Nitrogen Gas in HYSYS

You probably heard LNG, Liquefied Natural Gas. Did you ever hear Liquefied Nitrogen Gas? Methane can be liquefied at a temperature of -259 F, while to liquefy nitrogen, the temperature is even lower down to -320 F. In this video, a simulation is modeled in HYSYS to demonstrate how nitrogen gas is turned into nitrogen liquid.

Guofu completed "How to Start and Run a Profitable Small Business" classes

Guofu has successfully completed business classes sponsored by University of Houston at Clear Lake, titled "How to Start a Profitable Small Business" and "How to Run a Profitable Small Business".

One Minute Process Engineering: Generate Expander Datasheets from HYSYS

It is so much fun for being a process engineer to do all kinds of magic calculation in AspenTech HYSYS. But when it comes to generate process data sheet specification, it is so so frustrating. If you have the same experience as I do, you are in the right place.

One Minute Process Engineering: Generate TEMA data sheets from HYSYS

As a process engineer, you've finished the most challenging process calculation in Aspen HYSYS, and now it's time to generate process data sheet specification. Are you excited about copying data one by one from HYSYS to Excel? If not, then you are in the right place.

One Minute Process Engineering: Design, Check or Simulate Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers

Welcome to One Minute Series of shell and tube heat exchangers.

Is it possible to design, check or simulate shell and tube heat exchangers in one minute? Surely it is. 

Aspen Exchanger Design and Rating (EDR) program is widely used to design, check or simulate shell and tube heat exchangers in the oil and gas industry. It is extremely powerful. However, being powerful also means being complicated.

One Minute Process Engineering: Size an Air Cooled Heat Exchanger

Are you tired of designing Air Cooled Heat Exchangers for your application? Air Cooled Heat Exchangers are a highly standard product. Can you please simply give me how many number of bays I need for my application in one hour, instead of spending several days with various designs and plots?

Geothermal Power Plants Modeling 201: Fast Rating and Optimization

Thanks for continuing reading Geothermal Power Plants Modeling 201: fast rating and optimization. In 101, a very rigorous approach is introduced to give users great confidence to guarantee output with real geometries of heat exchangers and so on. However, the disadvantage is the slow calculation speed. With slow calculation speed, it is almost impossible to optimize the whole plants. In this blog 201, a simplified yet accurate approach is used to optimize the whole power plants by finding the optimum process parameters.

Geothermal Power Plants Modeling 301: Dynamics Simulation

Welcome to Geothermal Power Plants Modeling 301: Dynamics Simulation. If you read my blog 101 which is about rigorous modeling and my blog 201 which is about fast rating and optimization, you notice both 101 and 201 are about steady state simulation. In 301, we are going to explore the dynamics simulation which can simulate the power plant performance real time with variable changes, such as dry bulb. In this blog, you will be able to see the dry bulb changes versus time and the power plant output versus time.

Guofu is on youtube!

Guofu published his first youtube video.

Mr. Guofu Chen is a Professional Chemical Engineer. He is a Professional Mechanical engineer as well and he even scored 100 in the PE exam. Further, he is a certified computer programmer and a certified Excel expert. As a Process Engineering Expert, he spoke in various engineering conferences. He is a member of AIChE, ASME and ASHRAE. He is active in project management too. More about him can be found at www.guofuchen.com

Guofu has successfully completed "PMP Certification Preparation" courses sponsored by HCC

Guofu has successfully completed "PMP Certification Preparation" courses sponsored by HCC.

Small scale LNG: Dresser-Rand LNGo liquefaction power

Dresser-Rand seems to be the market leader for small scale LNG. The company just released their first LNG system called "LNGo". The specifications are:

Guofu Chen is now a Certified Excel Expert by Microsoft

Guofu Chen is now a Certified Excel Expert by Microsoft.

You are using Excel everyday. Why don't you show the expertise? Get it certified.

LNG Liquefaction Power Calculation

This blog shows you how you can calculate the LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) liquefaction power. To liquefy the natural gas at 50 bara and 15 C, approximately the liquefaction power is 0.25 kWh/kg or 10 kW/(ton/d). That's to say, to liquefy 1 kg LNG, about 0.25 kWh energy is to be consumed. For a 5 million metric ton per annum (mmtpa) LNG liquefaction plant, the power consumption is about 137 MW. At the end of this blog, you can download the calculation file for details provided by +Guofu Chen.

Exergy Analysis of an Cryogenic Air Separation Unit (ASU)

This blog analyzes the exergy loss and distribution in an Cryogenic Air Separation Unit (ASU). This example was extracted from Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook (7th edition, Chapter 4 Thermodynamics, Page 4-36). At the end of the blog, you can download a step-by-step excel calculation example by +Guofu Chen.

Air Separation Unit (ASU) Energy Impact of Main Vaporizer DT

Answers to some common Air Separation Unit, Oxygen and Nitrogen Liquefaction Questions

Question 1: If I change the delta T of the main vaporizer from 2.5 °C to 1.5 °C, how much energy consumption can I save?

Answer 1: Your energy saving is:

           

Energy saved (kW) = 0.0478 * Q * (2.5 – 1.5) = 0.0478 * Q

           

Where Q is the main vaporizer duty in kW

主冷凝蒸发器温差和液体膨胀机对空分功耗的影响 Oxygen Separation Liquefaction

主冷凝蒸发器温差和液体膨胀机对空分能耗的影响

摘要: 本文对空分流程工程师非常关心的主冷温差和液体膨胀机对能耗的影响进行了火用分析，并且明确指出：1）主冷凝蒸发器温差每减少1 K，空分将会节省0.0478 X Q的能耗，这里Q是主冷凝蒸发器的换热量。2）液体膨胀机的使用将会节省4.7倍于自身轴功率的能耗。

关键词:火用；有效能；火用损；空分流程；功耗；主冷；主冷凝蒸发器；温差；液体膨胀机；氧气；氮气；液氧；液氮

空分流程中几个基本热力过程的Yong再分析 Oxygen Separation Liquefaction

空分流程中几个基本热力过程的Yong再分析

摘要: 本文基于毛绍融老师在深冷技术2002年第一期第一页上发表的文章，对空分流程中几个基本热力过程进行了简易而又深刻的数值再分析，从而为流程工程师在流程的改进和优化方面提供了清晰的方向；并且在文末给出一个计算功耗的示例。本文不同于毛老师的地方在于，毛老师使用了软件来计算物性参数，而笔者只是简单地使用了几个基本热力学方程便达到了同样的目的，并且得出了明确的结论。

关键词:Yong；有效能；Yong损；空分流程；功耗；分离功；压缩功；液化功；氧气；氮气；液氧；液氮

Exergy Reanalysis of Several Basic

Thermodynamic Cycles in Air Separation Processes

空分系统的氧气和氮气压缩功、分离功和液化功

摘要: 本文对空气分离系统中最重要的能耗进行了深入的分析。空分能耗可以分成三类：压缩功、分离功和液化功。作者分别使用了经典计算方法和火用计算方法来计算上述三类功，并且得出完全相同的结果。在文末，作者指出：火用计算方法就像一把万能钥匙，不管中间发生的过程如何，比如说压缩、换热和精馏，也不管是压缩功、分离功和液化功，只要知道起始和终了状态，通过 E = h - T0 x S 分别算出起始和终了状态的火用，两者之差即为要使该过程发生的最小功。

关键词: 火用；有效能；火用损；空分流程；功耗；分离功；压缩功；液化功；氧气；氮气；液氧；液氮

Abstract: The most important energy consumption of Air Separation Unit is analyzed comprehensively. Energy consumption of ASU can be divided into three categories: compression, separation and liquefaction. The classical and EXERGY calculation methods are used to calculate them and achieve the same results. In the end, the author concludes that: EXERGY calculation method is just like an almighty key to solve all the problems, whatever the intermediate processes are, such as compression, heat exchanger and distillation; whatever needs to be calculated, such as compression, separation and liquefaction energy; once the beginning and ending conditions are known, through E = h - T0 x S the EXERGY of beginning and ending conditions can be calculated and the EXERGY difference is the minimum energy to drive the process.

Keywords: Exergy; Available energy; Exergy loss; Air separation process; Power consumption; Energy of separation, compression and liquefaction；oxygen; nitrogen; liquid oxygen; liquid nitrogen

Program a Cooling Water Tower extension in Aspen HYSYS

This cooling tower extension for Aspentech HYSYS is able to predict the cooling water tower performance given the design conditions and the new operating conditions. Given the flow, inlet temperature to the tower and wet bulb, the HYSYS extension will predict the cooling tower outlet temperature.

Optimize Design and Operation of Renewable Energy Cycle through Aspen HYSYS Integrated with Aspen EDR Software

ABSTRACT

In this R&D note, how to utilize ASPEN HYSYS optimizer and ASPEN EDR to improve power output and to reduce the cost in the renewable engineering field is described. First, the process model in HYSYS is set up based on the best engineering practice. Second, HYSYS optimizer is utilized to maximize the power output, subject to constraints such as shell and tube exchanger pinch. Third, HYSYS and EDR are used to size the most cost effective exchangers based on cost and performance evaluation. Finally HYSYS integrated with EDR is utilized to rate the whole cycle, mimic the real plant operation and do what-if studies.

Guofu Chen filed a geothermal power plant patent application

Together with the founder of TAS Energy, Guofu Chen filed a patent application, titled "Geothermal power plant utilizing hot geothermal fluid in a cascade heat recovery apparatus"

ABSTRACT

A geothermal power system includes a steam turbine and a closed loop working fluid system having a preheater, a vaporizer, a superheater, an expander, a condenser, and a pump and a working fluid disposed to pass sequentially through the preheater, vaporizer, superheater, expander, condenser, and pump. Geothermal fluid is separated into a steam stream and a brine stream. The steam is expanded across the steam turbine to generate power, and thereafter exhaust from the steam turbine passes through the vaporizer to vaporize the working fluid. Geothermal brine is first used to heat vaporized working fluid in the superheater and is then used to preheat liquid working fluid in the preheater.

Polynomial curve fit PolyFit and PolyFits in Excel

PolyFit allows you to curve fit two sets of data into a polynomial formula and gives you the answer given the new variable. It is very flexible and it allows you specify your own polynomial power order. PolyFits allows you to fit your data into several segments of polynomial formulas.

Set HYSYS recycle tolerance with one click

This software allows you to easily switch HYSYS recycle tolerance settings by one click. It is recommended that you use "Speed" setting to run your optimization and use "Final" setting to finalize your HYSYS simulation.

Slides: Design Geothermal Power Plants with Confidence

Designing and Achieving Geothermal Power Plant Performance with Confidence

Presented by Guofu Chen in Renewable Energy World Conference in Orlando in 2013

Guofu Chen's personal website www.guofuchen.com goes public

After several days hard work, finally Guofu Chen's personal website www.guofuchen.com goes public. Thanks to +Travis Gan for his help.