What's New in SuperPro Designer v14

1. General

2. New Unit Procedures

3. New Operations

4. Improvements in Operations

5. Bug Fixes

6. New Examples

a. General

a01. Excel Links Can Now Be Defined for Every Consumption/Inventory Chart and Be Activated Interactively, Automatically after M&E Balances or by COM Calls.

SuperPro Designer generates a variety of charts:
- Gantt Charts (for Operations and Equipment)
- Equipment Occupancy Chart
- Resource Consumption for each Resource Engaged in the Process (Heat Transfer Agents, Material in/out, Power, Labor, Auxiliary Equipment such as CIP Skids, Transfer Panels)
Besides viewing the charts interactively, SuperPro Designer has provided options to automatically export the chart(s) into the Custom Excel Report (if so desired).
Starting with this release, the data associated with all the charts above (with the exception of Gantt charts) can now be exported to an Excel file via the Excel Link mechanism of SuperPro Designer.
More specifically, a user can define an Excel Link for, say, a Material Inventory chart (see below):

Once the Excel Link definition has been saved, the program can either automatically update the values in the destination area defined in the Excel Link Info object (after the M&E balances conclude), or, trigger the exporting by a call through the COM engine API provided. The calling function is:

ExportChartDataToXLS(GraphType graphType, LPCSTR resourceName, long noBatches, double discrInterval, long timeUnits)

where GraphType is one of

                                  equipOcc_GT

                                  materialIn_GT,

                                  materialInInv_GT,

                                  materialOut_GT,

                                  materialOutInv_GT,

                                  labor_GT,

                                  hxAgent_GT,

                                  hxAgentInv_GT,

                                  powerIn_GT,

                                  powerOut_GT,

                                  suSupply_GT,

                                  suSupplyInv_GT,

                                  suReceive_GT,

                                  suReceiveInv_GT,

                                  auxEquip_GT,

and
- resourceName references the name of the resource charted
- noBatches is the number of batches (>=1), d
- iscrInterval the discretization interval and
- timeUnits is one of

                 s_PQU

                 min_PQU,

                 h_PQU,

                 day_PQU,

                 wk_PQU,

                 mo_PQU,

                yr_PQU

The corresponding Excel link needs to have been created from above the previous interface in a SuperPro in order for the COM function to work.

For more details on how to use the COM engine API of SuperPro Designer please consult either the online help or the e-book. 
Please note that when it comes to consumption/inventory charts, one option provided is to discretize the data in a user-set interval (e.g. 1 hour). This will help combining the data from different source files (modeled processes) if so desired (e.g. if the both processes take place at the same site and therefore share resources). This is not possible to do interactively with SuperPro Designer.

a02. A New Report Has Been Added: Energy Report (ENR).

Starting with this release a new report has been added to (already long) list of options for the user: Energy Report. The report can be generated by selecting Reports / Energy from the main menu.

The report focuses on the consumption of energy (as heating or cooling or power) by various consumers in a process. It will help identifying certain area(s) where energy is used up. 
Another tab has been added in the Reports / Options... interface (see below).  

The report contains the following sections reporting utilities duty:
1. Total Consumption per Utility Type
2. Total Consumption per Section and per Utility Type
3. Breakdown per Section and per Utility Type
4. Detailed Breakdown (all the way to source) per Utility Type
5. Utilities Duty and Energy Balance per Operation
This report helps pinpoint where the energy is being consumed (regardless of the means - ie. heat transfer agent or power supplying the energy). 

a03. Operations Can Now Be Grouped and Shown in Group-Color on Equipment Occupancy Charts.

When displaying a resource consumption chart (e.g. "Labor" or "Heat Transfer Agent") for one or When presenting the Equipment Occupancy Chart (EOC), all operations regardless of their nature (Material Transfer, Reaction, Filtration, etc.) are shown as bars with the same color. If showing multiple batches, then each batch is given its own color. Starting with this release, users can now have the option of designating operation groups and assign their choice of specific operation types in each group, and designate a color for that group.



Then, they can opt to see on the EOC all operation instances that belong to a group with the group color instead of the batch number color.  



As a result, the EOC generated would look like this:  



This feature can be quite useful when users want to focus on a specific category of operations (e.g. "Transfers").

a04. Intermediate and Output Streams 'Remember' User's Choice for Contents at First View.

Intermediate and output streams have a 3-way choice for what contents to display in the table below: 
- Total
- Liquid/Solid only
- Vapor only

Until now, the stream's dialog would always open with the "total" choice selected by default. Starting with this release, if the choice is changed next time the stream is visited, the same choice is applied upon initial view.


 

a05. New Properties Have Been Added as Options to View in the Activity Overview and Stream Summary Table Interfaces: Enthalpy and Specific Enthalpy.

As part of a conscious effort to focus on energy with this release, we have added the options to view the specific enthalpy and enthalpy for various streams and states (equipment contents) as part of the interfaces that display the "Procedure Activity Overview" and the "Stream Summary Table" - see below - 

a06. Cost Estimates for Facility-dependent Items Are Now Included in the EER Report.

The facility-dependent contribution to the Annual Operating Cost was not included in the EER. Starting with this release there's a new section dedicated to reporting all the components under the Facility Dependent Cost (Depreciation, Maintenance, etc.). 

a07. COM Enhancement: Auxiliary Equipment Can Now Be Renamed using the COM API.

Just like main equipment, now auxiliary equipment can be renamed by COM calls. User has to enumerate first over all auxiliary equipment types then for each equipment type, enumerate over all existing auxiliary equipment if they wish to do a collective renaming. If one wishes to target a specific auxiliary equipment, that can also be done with one call. 

a08. COM Enhancement: Labor Needs Can Now Be Retrieved for a Specific Purpose or All Purposes.

When retrieving the laborNeed_VID, you can use the following function:

GeOperVarVal2  procedureName, operationName,  laborNeed_VID,  var,  laborName.

or

GetSectionVarVal2  branchName,  sectionName,  laborNeed_VID,  var,  laborName

The above call will return the labor need (in hr per operating hour) of the labor type identified by 'laborName' for ALL labor service types in the designated operation or section.
If you need the labor need of the labor type identified by 'laborName' for only a specific labor service (purpose) then you should use the following calls:

GeOperVarVal3  procedureName, operationName,  laborNeed_VID,  var,  laborName,  laborService.

or

GetSectionVarVal3  branchName,  sectionName,  laborNeed_VID,  var,  laborName,  laborService

b. New Unit Procedures

b01. Continuous Cooling Crystallization.

The new procedure has been added under:
Unit Procedures > Phase Change > Cont. Cooling Crystallization

This unit procedure replaces the previous "Cont. Crystallization" procedure.  We no longer support a combination of evaporation and cooling in one unit procedure. Instead users can opt to either use a "Cooling" crystallization that achieves the generation of crystals through cooling or an "Evaporative" crystallization that achieves the generation of crystals through evaporation (see next). The icon for this procedure remains the same as before. 

b02. Continuous Evaporative Crystallization.

The new procedure has been added under:
Unit Procedures > Phase Change > Cont. Evaporative Crystallization

This procedure is new and it allows the generation of crystals from a solution through evaporation. It complements the previous procedure ("Cont. Cooling Crystallization"). The icon for this procedure is :

Users can switch from one Crystallization procedure to the other (even after it has been created) by selecting "Switch Procedure" from the command menu of the either one procedure.

b03. Continuous Solar Evaporation.

The new procedure has been added under:
Unit Procedures > Phase Change > Solar Evaporation

This procedure ican be used to represent the continuous solar evaporation that takes place in an evaporation pond exposed to sunlight.

There has been a new "equipment" created for this procedure. Simply a pond with a "size" variable being the surface area exposed to sunlight.

c. New Unit Operations

c01. Continuous Cooling Crystallization

This operation is the evolution of the older Cont. Crystallization operation. It no longer supports "Evaporation Prior to Crystallization" but instead it is exclusively dedicated to model formation of crystals from a solution through cooling. It offers much more flexibility in modeling the crystallization effect as it relates the operating temperature with the saturation concentration of the key (design) component as well as the presence of other solutes (as inerts).

Typically a user will identify the component(s) that are supposed to be considered as "solutes" (the remaining components are assumed to form the "Solvent" phase). It allows for the co-crystallization presence of some "agent" (from the solvent phase) as part of the crystal formation. 

Through the "Crystallization Data" page the user has now more flexibility in terms of how the calculations are done. 

Fist of all, users can now specify a correlation between the saturation solubility and the temperature plus presence of other inerts. 

If that information is known, then modeling the crystallization step offers much more flexibility as users now can specify a required crystallization yield and the program will compute the temperature (and cooling load) required to achieve it. 

c02. Continuous Evaporative Crystallization

This is a new operation created to support the new procedure introduced in this major release: Continuous Evaporative Crystallization.

The Oper. Cond's tab is quire similar to the Continuous Cooling Crystallization (described above) but notice that now a heating agent can be selected (and not a cooling agent). Also, if the saturation solubility correlation is known, the program can compute the amount of solvent that needs to be evaporated (and the temperature where this can happen) if the user specifies an expected crystallization yield (see below)

The evaporated amount of solvent is computed using a rigorous VLE model that is specified on the "Rig. Toolbox" tab (just like in a Flash, or Thin-Film Evaporation operation). The next tab is fairly similar to the Continuous Cooling Crystallization and of course, the interface for specifying the Saturation Solubility dependency on temperature and presence of inerts is identical in both operations. 

c03. Continuous Solar Evaporation

This is a new operation created to support the new procedure introduced in this major release: Continuous Solar Evaporation.

The solution to be concentrated is fed continuously to the hosting equipment through the ‘Feed’
input port. During this operation, solar energy is used to evaporate a fraction of the solvent
contained in the feed stream thus producing vapor and a concentrated solution (“product”) at
the outlet.

The evaporated amount of solvent is computed using a rigorous VLE model that is specified on the "Rig. Toolbox" tab (just like in a Flash, or Thin-Film Evaporation operation). The next tab is fairly similar to the Continuous Cooling Crystallization and of course, the interface for specifying the Saturation Solubility dependency on temperature and presence of inerts is identical in both operations

d. Improvements in Operations

d01. Perfusion Stoichiometric Fermentation: New Option Added "Set Component Retention".

A new option has been added to the Perfusion Stoichiometric Fermentation (see below).

Users now can activate this option and specify which components are retained after the perfusion draw and returned to the fermentor (without the need to explicitly insert an external filtration procedure). 
 

d02. Reaction Duty (at the Reaction Conditions) Is now Displayed for All Reactions .

Several of our users had requested to be able to see how much the reaction's enthalpy contributes to the enthalpy balances in order to make a better understanding on how the calculated heating or cooling duty is spent. SuperPro Designer now reports on each reaction's display the amount of duty (negative for exothermic reactions - i.e., heating - and positive for endothermic reactions i.e. cooling) that the reaction contributes to the overall heat balance:

d03. Batch Heating, Cooling, Thawing and Freezing: New Process Time Calculation Option Added.

A new option to calculate their process time, based on specified electric power (and the target temperature) has been added to the batch heating, cooling, thawing and freezing operations (see below the added controls for batch cooling).
 

d04. The Solver Options on the Rigorous VLE Toolbox Tab Are now Hidden in Cases where They don't Apply (e.g. Batch Distillation).

In some cases (e.g. Flash Operation) the interface that displays the Rig. Toolbox options makes a button available ("Solver Options") that when clicked presents options to be set (or modified) for the Flash Solver (in cases the default settings may fail to converge) - see below - 


This is fine when there's only one Flash problem to be solved. However, in cases where multiple flash problems are solved we can't use a single setting for all. Therefore the above option is hidden - see below the same tab for batch distillation operation - 

Clearly when solving the batch distillation model, a set of such flash problems must be solved (one for each stage and one for the reboiler), so the above option is now hidden.

d05. Dead End Filtration, Cone Drying, Clarification and Oil Separation: Interface Enhancements.

 When the "Removed?" flag is checked, the removal percentage is automatically set to zero. In previous releases, even though the value was not taken into account, displaying a non-zero was confusing to the user. This has now been fixed.

d06. The Aeration Port Is not Allowed to be the Same as the Fed-Batch Port in Fermentation Operations.

In previous releases, the program did not check properly the user's selections and allowed the user to choose the same inlet port number for both the aeration line and the fed-batch inline. This, of course, created issues during the M&E balance calculations. This is now no longer allowed to happen. 

d07. Microfiltration, Ultrafiltration, Reverse-Osmosis Filtration and Diafiltration Now Allow the Filtrate's Output Port as a Valid Choice for a Flush Operation.

Since oftentimes users combine the filtrate output of the main operation with flush was outputs that follow, the program now allows users to pick the same port as the filtrate output for a Flush operation in any of the aforementioned procedures.

d08. Decanter and Mixer-Settler Extractor Equipment Cost Estimation Improved.

New correlations have been employed for better estimation of purchase costs for some extraction units (namely the decanter and the mixer-settler).

d09. Fanning Operation Now Includes a Value for the Outlet Velocity for Better Estimation of its Power Requirement.

Since fanning operations could be moving large flows of gases (air) and the difference between the kinetic energy (velocity) of the gas at the inlet (typically zero) to the outlet (typically 8 - 12  m/s) the kinetic term may add a significant burden on the power estimation. This effect is now taken into consideration.

d10. Fed-Batch Line Can Be Shared by Multiple Reaction/Fermentation Operations in the Same Procedure.

Starting with this release, the fed-batch input stream can be shared by more than one operations (reactions or fermentations); each operation will set its own requirement and the total amount will be back-propagated and satisfied by some supply operation (e.g. a Pull-Out) - or the stream can simply be an auto-adjustable input stream.

e. Bug Fixes

e01. Component Splitting Energy Balance.

Previously, the temperature of the output streams was not calculated correctly in the case of non-isothermal operation. This has now been fixed.

e02. Purge and Evacuate: Minor Bug Fixes on i/o Dialog's Oper. Cond's Tab.

When viewing the i/o dialog of Purge and Evacuate, due to some minor glitches some controls didn't properly activate/de-activate. This has now been fixed.

e03. Rotary Vacuum Filtration Operation: Fix for when Wash Stream Happens to Have Zero Flow.

When a rotary vacuum filtration operation was set up to accept as wash amount the value specified on the wash stream's dialog, the calculations failed if that value was zero. This has now been fixed.

e04. Switching between Heating, Cooling Electric Heating, Electric Cooling and Heat Exchanging Didn't Properly Transfer Values of Efficiency.

This has now been fixed.

e05. Gasification Operation Calculations May Lead to a Crash when the Moderator Stream Option Was not Checked.

This has now been fixed.

e06. Gasification Operation: i/o Simulation Dialog Glitch Has Been Fixed.

The steam/carbon ratio was not grayed out if the option to include a moderator stream was unchecked. Also, the heat transfer agent’s efficiency was not grayed out if the thermal mode was set to adiabatic. These issues have now been fixed.

e07. Gasifier 's Built-in Cost Estimate Was Unnecessarily High.

The calculated value by the built-in equipment purchase cost model corresponded to the total capital and operating cost of the equipment for the first year. This means that the equipment purchase cost was overestimated by about 8 times. This issue has now been fixed).

e08. Multi-Effect Evaporation: Calculations Did Not Produce Correct Values when Multiple Effects and Vapor Recompression Were Chosen.

This has now been fixed.

e09. Vent Is "On" by Default in Operations that Support Venting/Emissions.

This feature was supposed to be part of previous release but it was inadvertently missed. It is now part of v14.

e10. Price Conversion for Heat Transfer Agents from per-Mass to per-Volume Was Incorrect (in Some Rare Circumstances).

In some cases where the price calculated from converting a per-mass to a per-volume price engaged a density calculation; in some circumstances and due to an error in the calculation of the density the price produced was incorrect. This has now been fixed.

e11. Component and Stock Mixtures Were inadvertently Allowed to Share Names during Component Registration.

When registering a pure component or a stock mixture the program does NOT allow for naming conflicts (neither for 'formal' nor for 'local' names). As part of a Stock Mixture registration process, when its composition involved other components and stock mixtures it was possible (under some very rare circumstances) to introduce a stock mixture and a component with the same name and that could lead to errors later. This has now been fixed.release but it was inadvertently missed. It is now part of v14.

e12. A Spray Drying Operation, when Setup to NOT Preheat the Inlet Air, Reported Wrong Duty.

This has now been fixed.

e13. The Washing Operation in an INX Column Did not Report the Amount of Material on its Output Stream.

This has now been fixed.

e14. The Power Dissipated to Heat Was Added Twice in Grinding/Shredding Operations.

This has now been fixed.

e15. The 2-Way and N-Way Component Splitting Oper.Cond's Tables Were Inappropriately Sized.

As a result, the contents of the "Set" column were partially hidden. This has now been fixed.

e16. A Power-Demand Excel Link Info Would Sometimes Produce an "Internal Application Error" when Used to Export the Tree-Data into an Excel Spreadsheet.

This has now been fixed.

e17. Adding Equipment Cost Spec Sheet Data into the User DB May Lead to a Crash.

When adding spec sheet information into the User DB, and when selecting the "Cost Data" tab, the application would (sometimes) hang. This has now been fixed.

e18. Small Corrections Were Made in the Energy Balance Calculations of Several Operations (Incineration Gasification, Internal Combustion, Centrifugation, Multi-Effect Evaporation).

Motivated by the new Energy Report, we have made a great effort in this release to make sure that every operation's enthalpy balance is as acurate as it can be. As a result, we have made few minor changes in the way the energy balance calculations were made in several operations.

e19. N-Way Distribution May not Conclude at the End of Simulation Satisfying Properly the Downstream Amount Requirements.

This has now been fixed.

f. New Examples

Please note that new examples are being added with each build release (or even minor release).

For more information and to find out the latest example processes included with the software please check the latest 'ReadMe' file of your release.

f01. Neutraceuticals Group: Inulin Production.

PThis example analyzes the production of inulin from chicory roots. The process begins with washing and grinding the chicory roots, followed by counter-current extraction with hot water. During this step, water extracts inulin along with impurities. Subsequently, the pulp undergoes pressing and drying. The raw juice undergoes an initial treatment involving liming and precipitation to eliminate most proteins, reduced sugars, and other impurities. Next, the thin juice undergoes further purification through ion exchange and activated carbon treatment to remove additional proteins and pigments. The final purification stage employs membrane filtration, separating inulin oligomers from smaller molecular weight impurities such as free sugars. The purified inulin is then concentrated and dried to achieve a moisture content of 5%.
The process model file and a detailed description about the process model can be found in the Nutraceuticals subfolder of the Examples folder.

f02. Nutraceuticals Group: Vitamin B-12 Production.

This example analyzes the production of Vitamin B12 via fermentation. Cobalamin, the product precursor formed in the cells, is intracellular. The cells are harvested by centrifugation and then lysed with the addition of sodium cyanide and heat. This treatment also converts cobalamin into Vitamin B12. Cell debris is removed by centrifugation and membrane filtration. The product solution is purified with three chromatography column steps, concentrated via evaporation, and crystallized with the addition of acetone, which acts as an antisolvent. A Nutsche filter is used to collect and dry the product crystals. The analyzed plant produces 18,840 kg of purified Vitamin B12 crystals per year.
The process model file and a detailed description about the process model can be found in the Nutraceuticals subfolder of the Examples folder.

f03. Pharmaceuticals Group: Bio-Collagen Production.

This example analyzes the industrial production of bio-collagen via the fermentation of genetically engineered yeast. Collagen, a key structural protein, forms rod-shaped structures within the connective tissues of animals. In this process, the yeast secretes collagen peptides into the extracellular medium, reaching a concentration of 17.5 g/L after five days of cultivation. Subsequently, the biomass is separated using centrifugation, and small molecule impurities are removed using crossflow filtration. The collagen solution undergoes purification through acetone precipitation followed by ion-exchange chromatography. The final product solution is concentrated using thin-film evaporation and then freeze-dried. Each batch yields 154 kg of collagen powder, amounting to an annual production of 50 metric tons.
The process model file and a detailed description about the process model can be found in the Pharmaceuticals subfolder of the Examples folder.