What's New in SuperPro Designer v13

1. General

2. New Unit Procedures

3. New Operations

4. Improvements in Operations

5. Bug Fixes

6. New Examples

7. Features Added Since Original Release

a. General

a01. Expanded Contents of the Procedure Activity Overview Table.

SuperPro Designer displays two tables over a procedure icon:
- The Equipment Contents, and
- The Procedure Activity
The first is focusing on what is IN the contents of the hosting vessel and how those contents are changing after each operation by material entering/leaving/or being transformed from the action of each operation.
The Activity table, focuses on the traffic of material in and out of the procedure as well as (to some extent but not in as much detail) on what the contents are after every operation in that procedure. A typical Procedure Activity Table looks like this:

To show the table right-click over a procedure (must be hosted by equipment with holding capacity) and then select Procedure Activity Table etc. from that (the context) menu.

There used to be 3 sections (Charge/Discharge, Contents and Times); now we've added one more: Rates (highlighted in yellow above). This section shows the rates of streams coming in (or out) to the operation shown at the very left column. The rate is the amount divided by either the operation's process time (Actual Rate) or divided by the entire cycle time (Average Rate). 
More than that, we have made a few more properties of the contents (and the streams coming and out) to be displayed should the user decides they are of his/her interest (like COD, BOD, etc.). The dialog that displays all possible options for content in this table is shown below:

a02. User-Defined Cost Models Employed in a Process Model File Can Now Be Viewed and Edited Centrally.

User-Defined Cost Models are cost estimation models that the user can introduce to better predict the cost of a given type of equipment (e.g. "Blending Tanks") when the "size" of that equipment is known (e.g. "Volume"). Once SuperPro Designer's simulation engine estimates the required capacity for each equipment to perform the actions dictated by the process model, it will estimate the purchase cost (PC cost) for each equipment using our own (proprietary) correlations. However, since equipment features and specifications for each industry can vary quite a lot, it is possible that our built-in model may be inadequate. For such cases, SuperPro provides for users to declare their own power-based model and even keep it in their databank so that it can be used in multiple projects. All you had to do is visit the Purchase Cost tab of the Equipment dialog (see below how to assign a UDCM from the databank for a seed bioreactor)

After assigning such UDCMs to several equipment in your model it may be hard to track down where there used and worse than that, if you wanted to modify one or more parameters of that UDMC model as employed to his .spf model, you'd have to visit all places where it engaged to do so. Starting with this release, UDCM receive the same treatment as any other resource that is engaged similarly (e.g. "Heat Transfer Agents"). There's a central registry for all the UDCM models used in a process model where they can be accessed,modified and all the changes will automatically be propagated to where the model is engaged (without having to change the original copy in the databank). This central registry of UDCMs can be viewed by selecting Tasks/ Other Resources / User-Defined Cost Models... etc. from the main menu.  

From this interface you can edit each UDCM and/or commit it back to your databank or create a new record with a different name that keeps it with the modified values. Finally, if you so choose, you can re-align the values of the UDCM as used here in this model (after it's been modified) back to the values as they exist in your databank. Finally from this interface you can see where each UDCM model is used. 
It should be noted that UDCMs can be defined for main equipment types as well as for auxiliary equipment types (e.g. "CIP Skids", "Transfer Panels", etc.).

a03. Resource Demand Charts Can Now Switch Section-Focus from the Chart Interface.

When displaying a resource consumption chart (e.g. "Labor" or "Heat Transfer Agent") for one or multiple batches in a model that has multiple sections sometimes users may want to focus on the consumption in one (or some) sections alone (not the entire process). Even though you can choose the section when you request the chart to be created (see below)

One may want to change it while the chart is shown and without having to exit and re-create the chart. This is now possible by using the top-right dropdown section-selection control shown on all such charts (see below).


 

a04. Oxidation State (Valency) Has Been Added as a Property to All Components in the Databank.

Some of our latest unit operations (and possibly others that we may add in the future) can benefit by being aware of the valency (positive or negative) and value of a component registered in a process model. For that reason, a new field has been added to the description of all components kept by our SuperPro database:



Please be aware that not all values have been updated yet in our current list of almost 1,200 entries but will be soon.

a05. Searching by Keyword(s) to Locate a Record Becomes Easier.

One of the most common ways to try to locate from your process library a past record is by trying to match a keyword associated with that record. In previous releases you 'd have to scroll through the list of all keywords (and there can be a great number of them) to locate and select the one(s) you wish to search for.

This can be time consuming. Starting with this release we have equipped the selection of keywords with search buttons similar to what has been part of the component and/or mixture databank. For example, if you are trying to identify keywords related to 'refinery' you can type 'refinery' and see if there are any matches exact or partial in the entire list of keywords. When the search matches the one(s) you like, check it so that it will be part of the keyword search to identify the record(s) associated with those keywords.

a06. Round-off of Estimated Purchase Costs Is Now Optional.

When SuperPro Designer's economics calculator estimates the purchase cost (PC) of equipment, it rounds it up (or down) to the nearest thousand. So, $13,450 will show as $13,000 and $25,875 will show as $26,000. For users representing equipment in small pieces of equipment. For that reason, we have made the rounding off optional (see below the dialog from Reports / Options... Economic Evaluation tab). 

scale this may end up rounding out to $0.0 several

a07. New Bitmap Indicator for Unit Procedures that Are Continuous in Batch Process.

When a unit procedure is set to operate in a batch mode within a process that is continuous a 'clock-like' bitmap appears to remind the user that the specific procedure works with a clock (time) and not continuously. Similarly, if a unit procedure in a batch process is set to be running with its own clock (in other words cycles independently of the rest of unit procedures that start a new cycle with a time span equal to the recipe's cycle time) also we show a 'clock-like' symbol to remind the user the 'special' clock this unit procedure is engaging. 

When the reverse happens, i.e. we have a continuous procedure operating in an otherwise batch process, we didn't have an indicator. Starting with this release a new 'clock-like-but-xed' bitmap will be shown at the bottom left of such unit procedures. Of course showing all the status bitmaps is optional and can be turned on/off by visiting the Visual Style dialog for a specific unit procedure (or the default for all unit procedures). 

a08. Intelligen Re-Allocation of Input/Output Streams around a Procedure when a new Icon Configuration Is Selected.

The feature of having multiple i/o configurations for some unit procedures has been introduced now for a while in SuperPro. For example, a Diafiltration procedure could have any of the following three i/o configurations:


A simple right-click over the icon can transform one configuration to the other keeping all operations intact and all streams and their connections. Sometimes such transformations aren't possible if a stream is connected to a port that does not exist in the next configuration requested. For example, one may think that transforming the 9x9 above to the 5x5 the last output stream connected on out port #7 has no place to go (there are only 5 out ports in the 5x5 configuration). A new logic has now been applied to automatically shift a stream from one port to another provided it is available and it is allowed to receive the stream. So the transformation shown below is now allowed:


The 2nd criterion is a little tricky to implement. For instance, only the last output port is available as a possible re-allocation of the "LiqWaste 6" stream above. It would have been incorrect (logically) to move it anywhere else (say in the 6th spot if the 7x7 configuration was chosen to transform to).  

a09. Spent Agent Losses Are Now Better Accounted for as a Penalty on the Operating Cost of a Process.

When a heat transfer agent is defined, a cost is provided to be used as a multiplier to the amount of agent (in kg/batch) that has been calculated as the demand for a given process. However, this cost assumes that the agent is supplied at the set conditions (e.g. 242° C and vapor - saturated vapor) and it expected to be returned at 242° C as saturated liquid and in its entirety (i.e. the same amount checked out from the utility plant is supposed to be returned). In reality, a portion of the agent gets lost in the delivery and/or returned network and never finds its way back to utility plant. For this "lost" spent agent a process must incur an extra charge at a rate of the "spent agent" which now a new parameter that accompanies the definition of a new HX Agent in the databank (see highlighted area below).

Once this agent is registered in a process model, the same dialog viewed for the agent that has been engaged in a process (i.e. from the interface that shows when the user selects Tasks / Other Resources / Heat Transfer Agents ... ) it shows up with an extra variable: Agent Loss Amount (as a percentage %) (see below):

With these two new numbers we can penalize a process in a more accurate way for being 'sloppy' and not returning the entire agent properly. Of course all this extra detail is totally optional as the percentage wasted for all model is set to 0%. 

a10. Stream Descriptions Are Now Displayed on the Stream Summary Table (SST).

SuperPro Designer's provides for two identification strings for each stream:
(a) The stream's name (that is automatically composed by the program every time a new stream is created) and
(b) The stream's description (that is empty by default).
By default only the stream name is displayed on the stream's tag on the flowsheet but users can change that by modifying the stream's display style. The Stream Summary Table (SST) displays an aggregate table of information for a user-selectable set of stream attributes for a user-chosen set of streams. The SST is displayed on a separate toolbar but can also be exported to an Excel worksheet using the Link-to-Excel feature of SST. Starting with this release, users can optionally display the stream's description string (right under the stream's name). This would also allow the stream's description be part of the Excel table should such a link-to-excel be created by the user.

a11. Several Additions to the COM Engine Functionality: Unit Procedure Properties.

We have added the following new varID (at the unit procedure level) as part of Get/SetProcedureVarVal():

a12. Several Additions to the COM Engine Functionality: Stream Properties.

When accessing properties of a stream (Get/SetStreamVarVal()) the following new additions have been made:

a13. Several Additions to the COM Engine Functionality: Operation Properties.

For several operation types, new set of VIDs have been added to facilitate accessing of their properties (Get/SetOperVarVal())
More specifically in this release we have added the following new VIDs:

a14. Several Additions to the COM Engine Functionality: New Iterators.

Iterator API calls allow the script writer (or C# code) to inquire in an .spf about the list of entities with a specific designation. For example, since the start of the COM functionality we had COM iterators for all the Pure Components registered in a process model; or for all the unit procedures, etc. 

In this release we have added the following iterators:

To iterate over all streams that connect two sections (section-A-name & section-B-name):
StartEnumeration2 <pos, stream_LID, mainBranchSection_CID, section-A-name, section-B-name>
GetNextItemName2 <pos, streamName, stream_LID, mainBranchSection_CID, section-A-name, section-B-name> 

Iterate over all input/output streams entering/exiting a given section in a branch:
StartEnumeration2 <pos, in/outStream_LID, section_CID, branchName, sectionName>
GetNextItemName2 <pos, streamName, in/outStream_LID, section_CID, branchName, sectionName>

a15. New Example Has Been Added: Electrolyzer.

A new, simple one unit procedure example has been added to the Misc subfolder (under the "Examples" folder). It simply demonstrates how to use the Electrowinning unit procedure to simulate the production of hydrogen from electrolyzing water.

The process model's file is named "Electrolyzer_v13.spf" and there are several explanatory comments built into the file. 

b. New Unit Procedures

b01. Electrodialysis.

An Electrodialysis Procedure can be created by selecting the following menu option:
Unit Procedures > Filtration > Electrodialysis.

Electrodialysis refers to an electrolytic process for separating an aqueous, electrolyte feed into a concentrate and a diluate stream by using an electric field and ion-selective membranes. These membranes allow the selective migration of ions while retaining water molecules.

This the icon that represents an Electrodialysis procedure.

b02. Rotary Kiln.

The new procedure has been added under:
Unit Procedures > Continuous Reactions > Stoichiometric > in a Rotary Kiln

This unit procedure can be used to simulate a rotary cement kiln where a mixture of ground solids consisting primarily of limestone and clay is converted into cement clinker by heating the material to a very high temperature with hot gases flowing counter-currently. The hot gases are generated at the lower end of the kiln by burning fuel and air.

The icon of a rotary kiln procedure is shown above.
A new Rotary Kiln equipment type has been added to host the above procedure. This equipment type can be used to simulate a rotary cement kiln that produces cement clinker. The rotary kiln is a slightly inclined cylindrical vessel that rotates slowly about its longitudinal axis. As the kiln rotates, the process feedstock moves slowly from the upper end of the kiln towards the lower end. As it moves, it is heated by hot gases flowing counter-currently to a very high temperature, which causes the formation of cement clinker

c. New Unit Operations

c01. Electrodialysis.

An new operation has been created as the main operation in an electrodialysis procedure. Electrodialysis refers to an electrolytic process for separating an aqueous, electrolyte feed into a concentrate and a diluate stream by using an electric field and ion-selective membranes. These membranes allow the selective migration of ions while retaining water molecules.

The main (Oper.Cond's) tab of this operation is shown above.

c02. Continuous Stoichiometric Reaction in a Rotary Kiln.

A new Rotary Kiln operation has been added to simulate a rotary kiln where the process feedstock is heated by hot gases to a very high temperature which causes the material to decompose. For example, it can be used to simulate the conversion of ground inorganic solids mixture of limestone and clay into cement clinker in a rotary cement kiln. In the rotary cement kiln, a mixture consisting primarily of limestone and clay is fed into the upper end of the kiln. As the kiln rotates, the material moves towards the lower end and it is raised to a very high temperature by hot gases flowing counter-currently. These are generated at the lower end by burning fuel and air.  The material finally is sintered into clinker.

The (Oper.Cond's) tab of this operation is shown above.

Here are the next three important tabs that describe this operation:

The Fuel tab:

The Component Identification tab:

and 

The Reactions tab:

Through the operation’s data dialog, the user may specify the composition and lower heating value of one or more fuel components as well as the registered pure components that are associated with combustion reaction participants such as oxygen, water and carbon dioxide. Also, the user may specify either the percent excess oxygen or the air/fuel ratio. Based on these, the program will calculate the flow of inlet air and the flow, composition and temperature of the hot gases produced by combustion of the fuel and air streams. 
In addition, the user may specify the reactions of that may occur in kiln, the solids entrainment into the exhaust gas, the temperature of the final product and the overall heat losses. Based on these, the program will calculate the flow and composition of the product stream and the flow, composition and temperature of the exhaust gases.
Also, in design mode, the user may specify the specific volumetric loading, which will be used to size the equipment and calculate the required number of units for the operation considered.

d. Improvements in Operations

d01. Pull-in Operation: Amount Pulled in Could Be Set as a Multiple of Initial Contents or the Amount on Any Other Input Stream.

A new option has been added to use as reference when requested an amount to be "pulled-in": the amount of material on another input stream to the procedure (see below).


 

d02. Spray Drying, Fluid Bed Drying Operations: Several Enhancements.

These operations now have a checkbox as to whether you want to use only one action (main) where you dry-heat or dry-cool the main feed or whether you want to first heat and dry then cool down the product. If heating is on, you may choose to check the option to preheat the inlet gas using a heating agent (so the heating agent is no longer used to heat the solution and the inlet gas), and you may also choose to perform liquid phase reactions adiabatically on the dried solution. If cooling is on, the user must add a Cooling Gas In stream and a Cooling Gas Out stream. If only one action (either cooling or drying) is set, then the "Primary Gas in" and "Primary Gas out" ports must be hooked onto streams. If 

In addition, these operations now offer two options to do sizing: you may now do sizing either based on total evaporation rate (default) or based on feed mass flow rate. If the latter option is chosen the specified total evaporation can be zero. This can be useful if you want to simulate cooling in a dryer without specifying any evaporation because the evaporation that occurs is not significant. Also, when cooling is performed after heating, then again it is possible to specify zero evaporation for cooling. 
Here's the "Oper.Conds" tab of the new Spray Drying Operation:

You can now also specify a solids entrainment fraction which is defined as the fraction of the dried solution that is entrained into the gas stream. Here's the tab for the main drying:

... and here's the tab or the secondary drying (cool down always):

If you open a file that was saved in v12 or earlier and that file contains a Rotary Drying operation or a Spray Drying operation or a Fluid Bed Drying operation, a "Model has changed in this version…" warning message is now displayed if the heating option is checked because the meaning of the heating option has changed in this release (the heating agent is now used only to preheat the gas; it is not used to heat the gas and the solids). In this case, you must re-initialize that operation (i.e., you must visit the operation’s data dialog, check the input data, and click OK). To make the transition from older versions to v13 as smooth as possible, SuperPro will try to determine whether this operation is expected to do heating or cooling or both, and it will try to initialize the input data automatically in the most meaningful manner, so that this op is ready to be solved with as little effort as possible from the user. 

In most cases, all you have to do to re-initialize such an operation is simply open and close the operation’s data dialog. If a a few cases where the data indicates that cooling takes place after heating, you will also have to manually add i/o streams for the cooling gas and initialize them. In any case, the warning message displayed includes all the information you need to complete the re-initialization.

d03. Gas Cycloning and Baghouse Filtration Operations: Several Improvements.

In the Gas Cycloning operation and in the Baghouse Filtration operation, a pure component’s particle removal % is now defined as the percentage of the liquid/solid flow (and not of the total flow) of that pure component that is removed.
In the Gas Cycloning operation and in the Baghouse Filtration operation, the component vapor fractions of the two outlet streams are no longer calculated based on the procedure’s Default PS Toolbox. The component vapor fractions of the top outlet stream are calculated by changing the component vapor fractions of the inlet stream in order to account for the removal of liquid/solid pure components to the bottom outlet stream. The bottom outlet stream is automatically set to be all liquid/solid.

Finally, in these two operations the component vapor fractions of the two outlet streams are no longer calculated based on the procedure’s Default PS Toolbox. The component vapor fractions of the top outlet stream are calculated by changing the component vapor fractions of the inlet stream in order to account for the removal of liquid/solid pure components to the bottom outlet stream. 

d04. Physical Units Options for the Whole Process (Defaults) Interface Has Been Revamped.

From this interface you can choose the default units chosen for several quantities that appear everywhere in a process model (time, mass flows, volume etc.). It appears when you select from the document's right-click (context) menu the Physical Units Options... choice. The following dialog appears:

Units have been organized into 6 distinct groups (Common, Operations/Equipment, Streams, Agents, Time, Numerical).
Two more settings have been exposed to the user to adjust (if necessary):
a) The "zero mass" and "zero flow" threshold 
b) The "min heat exchange temperature approach"

d05. Column Elution Operation Improved.

 Users now the option to define the total volume as well as how much volume goes to the collection stream in absolute terms (see below).

d06. Diafiltration and Batch Concentration Operation: Concentrate Removal Options as well as Filter Contents vs Draw-and-Filter Option.

When specifying the Diafiltration operation (or the Batch Concentration) the user can choose between:
a) first charge or transfer in the material to be filtered (in a timely manner) and then filter or
b) Draw-and-filter simultaneously; in that mode the entire material does NOT have to fit in the holding tank. 

Also, the user can choose between having the retentate automatically removed or just kept in so that maybe another concentration step can be applied or removed later at an appropriate time. 

d07. More Accurate Interpretation of the Flag "Assume No Phase Change" in Kinetic Reactions and Fermentations.

Users now have the option to do energy balance assuming that no phase change takes in all kinetic reaction and fermentation models regardless if the reaction happens in the liquid or the vapor phase (previously only available in a limited scope). 

Essentially, this flag will give the solver permission to use Cp*(Tout-Tin) for enthalpy changes instead of using enthalpy values, making the solution a lot easier (and faster). Note that this option will ONLY APPEAR if we are searching for the temperature so the thermal mode is NOT isothermal. 

d08. Distillation Column Purchase Cost Estimation Improved.

 the correlation used to estimate the cost of equipment behind a shortcut or a rigorous (continuous) distillation column has been improved to include better estimates for the column itself, the reboiler and the condenser.

d09. Decanter and Mixer-Settler Extractor Equipment Cost Estimation Improved.

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

d10. CSTR & Blending Tank Costs Improved.

The cost of CSTR can vary a lot; the same can be told for blending tanks. The previous estimation for the purcahse cost of such equipment was constantly under-estimating the actual cost. A better correlation is now used that does miss as much or as often.

d11. Improved Energy Balances in Several Operations Where a Reaction Operation Is Included.

Several operations such as Shredding, Absorption, Stripping, allow you to simulate (in an integrated manner) a reaction operation along with the main operation. In those cases previously the heat of the reaction was not taken properly into account. This is now done properly.

d12. Neutralization and Wet-Air Oxidation: Several Improvements.

In these operations that involve reactions, a reactant or product cannot be present in the neutralizing agent or air streams (respectively) that have their flowrates adjusted by the program.
Removed the option Agent Excess Set by User. Now the user should always specify an agent and an excess percentage.
Improved the calculations for the amount of agent required.

d13. CIP and SIP Operations Will Inject Air if they Inherit sub-Atmospheric Pressure.

CIP and SIP operations will now bring air in the vessel if the pressure of the contents is lower than atmospheric; they will also generate a warning if it is higher than atmospheric (and set it equal to atmospheric).

d14. Diafiltration Procedure Now Allows for Multiple Diafiltration and/or Concentration Operations using the Same or Different Diluant Streams.

Diafiltration procedure supports multiple i/o configurations. Besides the default 5x5 configuration, it also allows for 7x7 and 9x9 configurations. Given the added flexibility of charging/transfering in material from several sources, the procedure now supports even the presence of more than one 'Diafiltration' operations. Notice that in the higher i/o configurations multiple diluant inputs are available so you can select a different line for the diluant for each of the diafiltration steps.

Of course, you can also use the multi-diafiltration step option even with the default i/o configuration and simply use the same line for diluant in both diafiltration steps. This added flexibility along with the new, intelligent stream re-allocation feature (see a08. Intelligent Re-Allocation of Input/Output Streams around a Procedure when a New Icon Configuration Is Selected) make the diafiltration procedure a very flexible and powerful step in one's arsenal to create a process model.

d15. Heat Sterilization and Pasteurization Assume 'No Phase Change'.

Previously when users requested to have the pasteurization of a stream at temperatures above 100° C, SuperPro's simulation engine using the default Physical State Toolbox (PSTBX) would have to assume that those components ('Water' or 'Milk' etc) were in vapor phase since the temperature is above the Normal Boiling Point. However in most cases, the heating is done under pressure that keeps all such substances in the liquid phase. The solution was to alter the PSTBX for that procedure to use a pressure-sensitive criterion for when a component is in vapor phase (Antoine). Since for most users this resolution would have been challenging, we have now added a new check-box on the operation's i/o simulation dialog that gives SPD's engine permission to make that assumption for them (see below).  

Essentially this flag when checked allows the estimation of the heating duty to be done using the heat capacity of the mixture (at the inlet conditions) times the temperature change from input condition (or the exit of the regenerator if there's one assumed) to the pasteurization temperature. This would lead to more realistic duties than before (where the products were assumed in vapor state). Note that when this option is checked (default) the option to modify the unit procedure's PSTBX is not shown (not relevant). 

d16. Rigorous & Shortcut Distillation Operations Now Size the Reboiler and the Condenser.

The rigorous and shortcut distillation have now been equipped with two extra parameters that allow the operations to size the reboiler and condenser necessary to carry out the required (calculated) load correspondinly:
- Heat Transfer Coefficient (in Watt/m2-K or something equivalent) for the condenser, and
- Heat Transfer Coefficient (in Watt/m2-K or something equivalent) for the reboiler.

Using these variables and the calculated values for the loads in the condenser and the reboiler the program can estimate the required areas for these two key pieces of equipment that supplement the main column and therefore better estimates can be arrived for the equipment cost (which has three components: cost of the column itself plus the cost of the reboiler and the cost of the condenser). The calcuated areas are reported on the equipment dialog (see below).

e. Bug Fixes

e01. Attempting to View the Composition of a Stock Mixture Directly in Pure Components May Crash the Program.

When attempting to click on the button next to the "Mole % vs Mass %" options that is supposed to bring up a new table to display the composition of the stock mixture directly in pure components the program crashes. This was a glitch introduced accidentally in a previous v13 release and has been fixed now with this release.

e02. When Attempting to Exit the Dialog of Environmental Reactions a Bogus Message Would Prevent from Exiting.

If we visit the Vent/Emissions tab of any of the environmental reaction operations' dialog, and simply attempt to click on another tab or attempt to exit the dialog, an error message reporting that the selected emission stream is inappropriate would prevent us from doing so. The error message clearly is inappropriate since the vent is off (by default). This bug was created with a previous release of v13 and has now been fixed.

e03. Some Formatting Options of the Stream Summary Table Did not Work.

contents of the stream summary table are highly customizable both in terms of contents (which stream attributes to include in the rows of the grid) as well as in appearance (text color, number precision, background color, etc.) for the values in the grid. Some options didn't work as expected. This has now been fixed.

e04. Mass Balance Calculations for Centrifugal Extraction May Be Incorrect (if Bottom Output Is Specified).

When users opted to set the split percentages for the bottom stream (as opposed to K-values) in a continuous or centrifugal extraction operation, the program inadvertently would interpret those split percentages for the top stream and therefore the mass balances would be incorrect. This has now been fixed.

e05. Exporting the Stream Summary Table to Excel Could Leave Some Content Behind.

When two successive exports of the stream summary table to an excel file were carried out, if the second export included fewer columns (or rows) the previous content was not erased. This has now been fixed.

e06. Centrifugation Operation May Lead to a Crash When Reporting an Error Message.

When the simulation run included a centrifugation operation and the running conditions lead to the reporting of an error message, due to glitch in the composition of the error string, a crash may result. This has now been fixed.

e07. Advertising/Selling Expenses and Running Royalty Expenses May not Be Properly Used (when defined on a per MP basis).

When specifying running royalties for a process (or the advertising sales) a per main product reference rate (on the dialog shown below)



if the main product rate was set to be at a mass unit other than kg, any change in the units of the rate reference rate would not be reflected properly in the values for the ad or royalty expenses. This has now been fixed.

e08. Specifying the Purchase Price of a Stock Mixture (from the Process Explorer) Does not Get Properly Converted.

If you double-click on a Stock Mixture (SM) entry as shown in the process explorer toolbar, then visited the "Economics" tab and attempted to set the price of that material in $ per something other than kg, after exiting the dialog the price would not be saved in the proper units, so when displayed it would be of incorrect value. Note that this issue does not appear if the price is edited starting from the stock mixture registration dialog. This has now been fixed.

e09. Grinding and Shredding Operation: Throughput Values Did not Convert Properly (for Some Unit Selection).

When selecting throughput units other than kg/h on the shredding or grinding operation, the value of throughput was not appropriately converted. This has now been fixed.

e10. Process Library's Search Matches Sometimes Appeared Multiple Times.

The Process Library allows the user to search to locate process files that meet a given set of criteria then, expand the list of results, with the set of process models that meet another set of criteria. For example, in the screen shown below a search on process models with the keyword 'Energy Integration' was performed. Now we want to expand the search to include any further process models with the keyword 'Energy Recovery'. After the new criteria are selected, we can click on "Expand Search". This will add to the list any process model files that include the keyword 'Energy Recovery'.



Due to a glitch, if a process model was found that had the new criterion (in this case keyword 'Energy Recovery' but was already listed in the result set, the process file as re-introduced a second time. This has now been fixed.

e11. Energy Recovery's Interface: Left-over load after a List of Matches Is Established Was Sometimes Inaccurate.

The Energy Recovery interface allows users to match streams that are currently being cooled down by utilities to be used instead as 'heat donors' to other locations of the process were heat is needed and currently the heating is being accomplished by steam (or other similar heating agents). Since a single heat donor could have a load that can be matched with several recipients (provided the temperatures are favorable) SuperPro Designer's interface would calculate the leftover load and new supply temperature from such heat donors after one or more matches. In some rare circumstances, the leftover load was incorrectly calculated. This has now been fixed.

e12. Copy-and-Paste a PBA Chromatography Column Procedure with a Flow-Through Operation Could Lead to a Crash during Solve M&E Balances.

When copying a unit procedure of type "PBA Chromatography Column" that contains a "PBA Column Flow-Through" operation and then pasting into the same (or a different) model, the clone operation would not be properly initialized and as a result when solving the new model it would lead to a crash. This has now been fixed.

e13. Equipment Contents Set to Initialize with Final Contents from Previous Run Did not Work Properly.

Users can request the initial contents of a vessel, instead of being initialized with the default agent ("Air"), to have either some user-specified contents, or the contents of another equipment in this or another model file or simply the final contents of that equipment form the previous run. If the user had copied-and-pasted an equipment with such a non-default content initialization, and due to a glitch in the code, the initial contents of the equipment weren't properly set. This has now been fixed and when an equipment (or input stream) set to initialize its contents in a special way is copied the auto-initialization strategy is reset to default.

e14. Feasibility Check of User-Provided Temperatures for the Top and Bottom Outlet Temperatures in Absorption and Stripping.

Users have the option to provide an outlet temperature for one of the two outlet streams in a stripping/absorption operation. If the provided temperature was unachievable the calculations were lead to infeasible solutions. When this is detected, a warning is generated.

e15. Batch Heating Operations: Power Efficiency Is now Separate from Heating Efficiency.

Previously (by accident) the two efficiencies were combined into one variable (used for both) which - of course - was a mistake; it has been now fixed.

e16. Vent/Emissions Interface Glitch.

When a rigorous model was selected for the main modeling of an operation with emissions, and then the user switched back to shortcut, all components that participated in the VLE calculations were checked as emitted; it has been now fixed.

e17. Transfer In / Out Operations: Emissions Tab: Condenser Options Would Not Show.

Previously (by accident) the condenser controls would not show; it has been now fixed.

e18. Pasteurization Operation: Operating Pressure Incorrect.

The user-set operating pressure was not considered in the energy balances (instead always atmospheric was used); this has been now fixed.

e19. Volumetric Flows of Streams at STP Was Incorrect.

When requesting to see the volumetric flowrate of a stream at STP conditions the value displayed was incorrect; it has been now 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. Pharmaceuticals Group: Blood Plasma Fractionation.

Plasma is defined as the liquid fraction of blood, that is, blood without red cells, white cells, and platelets. It makes up approximately 55% of blood volume and contains numerous proteins that exert important physiological functions such as albumin, clotting factors, globulins, and hormones [1]. Many of these proteins can be separated, purified, and utilized as therapeutic agents to treat a variety of health conditions. The process of separating and purifying blood plasma components is referred to as plasma fractionation.
Two SuperPro Designer files are included in this example:
•    Plasma_Albumin.spf
•    Plasma_IgG.spf
For more details about the two processes, and to locate the .spf files for the two models please consult the Blood Plasma Fractionation folder in the Pharmaceuticals subfolder of the Examples folder.

f02. Bio-Materials Group: Micro-Algal Biorefinery.

Microalgae are a promising feedstock as a source of biofuels, proteins and bioactive compounds that can help address the problem of the growing demand for renewable sources in response to the increasing world population and the need for sustainable energy and food sources. There is an economic need to convert microalgal facilities into multiproduct A conceptual micro-algal biorefinery process was modeled and economically evaluated using SuperPro Designer to estimate the expected material requirements, process equipment, utilities consumption and ultimately production costs.
The process model file and a detailed description about the process model can be found in the Bio-Materials subfolder of the Examples folder.

f03. Inorganic Chemicals Group: Cement Manufacturing.

Cement is an inorganic, non-metallic binding material that, upon contact with water, sets, hardens and binds together other surrounding materials [1]. It is therefore the most used building material worldwide, with a current production of about 10 billion metric tons (MT) per year [2]. Although the exact composition of cement defines the specific material, the typical components in cement are limestone, clay and sand.
This example simulates a cement manufacturing process plant in which cement clinker is first produced by mixing clay and limestone, and then clinker is mixed with gypsum to produce cement.
The plant operates continuously for 330 days per year and it processes 260 MT/h of limestone, 65 MT/h of clay and 12.5 MT/h of gypsum to produce 218 MT/h (corresponding to 1.73 million MT/year) of cement.
The process model file and a detailed description about the process model can be found in the Inorganic Chemicals subfolder of the Examples folder.

f04. Metallurgy Group: PCB Recycling.

To-be-done.

The process model file and a detailed description about the process model can be found in the Pharmaceuticals subfolder of the Examples folder.

f05. Inorganic Materials Group: Boric Acid Production.

This example presents the production of Boric Acid from Colemanite concentrate. This model is based on the original work of prof. Mehmet Gunen and his collaborators at Suleiman Demirel University (2021).
Boric acid is a fundamental boronic compound produced from various boron-based minerals (e.g., colemanite, tincal and ulexite) or naturally occurring boron brines. It is a white, odorless powder that exhibits a monoclinic crystalline structure and has good solubility in water and other polar solvents. It is generally used as a starting material for the production of many boron-based chemicals such as borate esters, synthetic organic borate salts, boron carbine, boron trihalides and fluoroborates, which are used in high-tech applications such as heat and scratch-resistant glasses for smartphones, computers and TVs.
The process runs in continuous mode with a processing capacity of 15 metric tons (MT) of colemanite concentrate per hour, corresponding to 123,000 MT/year. This results in 10.76 MT/h (88,192  MT/year) of boric acid (H3BO3), which is the only product generated in the process.
The process model file and a detailed description about the process model can be found in the Inorganic Materials subfolder of the Examples folder.

f06. Bio-Materials Group: Bio-Polymer Production.

This example analyzes the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), which are biodegradable bioplastics that have the potential to replace traditional plastics in various packaging applications, disposable goods, electronic accessories, etc. The bioconversion process utilizes bacteria Cupriavidus necator in 300 m3 fermentors, operating in fed-batch mode, using soybean oil as the main carbon source. After fermentation, the intracellular PHA granules are released by cell disruption and purified with a surfactant / enzyme treatment. The plant analyzed in this example produces 8,300 metric tons of PHAs per year.
For more details, please review the complete documentation on this example as well as the SuperPro model capturing the entire production in the files that can be found in the "BioPolymer" subfloder of the "Examples\Bio-Materials" group.

f07. Bio-Materials Group: Lactic Acid Production.

This example analyzes a lactic acid production process from corn stover. Lactic acid is the simplest organic acid that has an asymmetric carbon atom and as such it is present in two optically active forms; the L(+) and the D(-) lactic acid. Only the L(+) isomer is found in the metabolism of humans and other mammals, although both enantiomers are found in the metabolism of different bacterial strains.
Lactic acid is produced on industrial scale. Its main applications are in the food, chemical, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Lactic acid is the main feedstock to produce PLA, a biodegradable plastic. The production of PLA is the largest lactic acid application, with a share of 28%. Lactic acid as a food ingredient has multiple use such as enhancing flavor, increasing shelf life, and controlling the development of pathogenic microorganisms. It is a significant ingredient in canned vegetables, yogurt, and butter. It is a preservative and acidulant in pickled vegetables and olives. Moreover, it is a natural solvent used for metal cleaning and other mechanical cleaning applications. In the pharmaceutical industry it has increasing application in drug manufacturing and as an electrolyte in intravenous solutions. Finally, in the personal care category it is used in skin care products and moisturizers.
The model for the production of lactic acid can be found under the "Lactic Acid" subfolder in the "Examples\Bio-Materials" group.

f08. Pharmaceuticals Group: Streptomycin Production.

Penicillin's success in fighting bacterial infections motivated many scientists and researchers to look for additional antibiotics. One such endeavor in the fall of 1943 by a scientist named Albert Schatz under the supervision of Dr. Selman A Waksman of Rutgers University led to the discovery and isolation of streptomycin. Waksman and his students have also been credited with discovering numerous other antibiotics such as actinomycin, neomycin, clavacin, etc.
Streptomycin produced by Streptomyces griseus (S. griseus) is a broad-spectrum antibiotic that is highly effective against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive organisms. Streptomycin has been found to be very useful in treating infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which are particularly resistant to penicillin. It is also useful in combating plant diseases caused by bacteria because it acts systemically in plants. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), streptomycin is the safest drug used to treat tuberculosis. Streptomycin has been added to the WHO's list of essential medicines for public healthcare.
The worldwide streptomycin market is projected to reach $600 million by 2025 and grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 0.7% in the forecast period between 2020 and 2025.
The process model depicting the production of streptomycin (along with more detailed documentation) can be found in the "Streptomycin" subfloder of the "Examples\Pharmaceuticals" group.

f09. Pharmaceuticals Group: Viral Vaccine Production.

Vaccines are considered the most effective way to prevent infectious diseases [1], saving millions of lives every year [2]. In the case of viral diseases, vaccines are even more crucial given that many of them cannot be cured by antiviral drugs. Examples of viral vaccines include those that immunize against influenza, hepatitis A & B, poliomyelitis, measles, rubella, chickenpox, mumps, and, more recently, COVID-19.
The manufacturing processes of the various types of whole virus vaccines (here including live attenuated, inactivated whole virus, and viral vector vaccines) have many similarities among each other given that they all involve the inoculation, replication, recovery, and purification of entire viral particles (VPs). VPs are usually produced in one of three manners: (1) hen eggs; (2) adherent cell culture; or (3) suspension cell culture. Virus production in hen eggs is a traditional process dating back to 1931 still widely employed today, especially for influenza vaccines. However, it has several drawbacks (mainly it is labor-intensive and time-consuming); also, manufacturing in eggs is vulnerable to avian disease outbreaks, which could wipe out the supply of eggs and thus jeopardize vaccine production. In addition, the supply of eggs might be insufficient for vaccine production in the case of a pandemic. For all these reasons, vaccine manufacturing has been moving away from eggs to cell culture-based processes..
Two such models are included in the the "Viral Vaccine" subfolder in the "Examples\Pharmaceuticals" group. One somewhat simplified and another in more detail. A comprehensive "ReadMe" file is also included in the same folder.

f10. Pharmaceuticals Group: mRNA Vaccine Production.

The production of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines such as those developed against COVID-19 by Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech. mRNA is synthesized in a cell-free (enzymatic) reaction (in vitro transcription), which is carried out in a rocking bioreactor. The product is purified by ultrafiltration / diafiltration, affinity (oligo-dT) chromatography, and hydrophobic interaction chromatography. The purified mRNA is encapsulated within lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) using microfluidic mixers and formulated with an adequate buffer. This example is recommended to users interested in biopharmaceutical and enzymatic (cell-free) processes.
There are two variations of the production model: one simplified and one detailed. Both models (.spf files) and extended documentations can be found in the "mRNA Vaccines" folder under the "Examples\Pharmaceuticals" group.

f11. Pharmaceuticals Group: pDNA Production.

The subject of this pair of process models is the production of pharmaceutical grade plasmid DNA (pDNA). Plasmids are circular DNA molecules that find applications in gene therapy, vaccines, and molecular biology research. In this example, pDNA is produced in bacteria Escherichia coli by fed-batch fermentation. The cells are disrupted by alkaline lysis to release the pDNA. Most contaminants are subsequently removed by selective precipitation. Finally, pDNA is purified by ultrafiltration / diafiltration, anion-exchange chromatography and hydrophobic interaction chromatography. This example is recommended to users interested in the production of biopharmaceuticals and highly viscous biomolecules.
There are two variations of the production model: one simplified and one detailed. Both models (.spf files) and extended documentations can be found in the "pDNA" folder under the "Examples\Pharmaceuticals" collection of example processes.

f12. Pharmaceuticals Group: Omega-3 Oils.

This example presents an industrial unit for the production of Omega-3 oils. Omega-3 oils are polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) that have been shown to support improved brain health and reduced risk for heart disease.  The manufacturing plant analyzed in this example utilizes microalgae fermentation and produces around 380 kg/h of purified omega-3 oils. Case A (this model) utilizes hexane for product extraction. Case B utilizes supercritical CO2 for production extraction.
The process model file and a detailed description about the process model can be found in the Pharmaceuticals subfolder of the Examples folder.

f13. Bio-Materials Group: Bio-Aromatics.

This example presents the production of Bio-Aromatics via fermentation. More specifically, it is a case study on the production of p-Hydroxybenzoic Acid (pHBA) using a strain of Corynebacterium Glutamicum. The plant engages production fermentors operating in staggered mode, each having a working volume of 257 m3 (approx. 68,000 gal). It generates 23 metric tons (MT)of pHBA per batch, resulting in an annual throughput of 30,000 MT.
The process model file and a detailed description about the process model can be found in the Bio-Materials subfolder of the Examples folder.

f14. Bio-Materials Group: Probiotics.

This example presents an industrial unit for the production of probiotics. Probiotics are live bacteria that have been reported to confer multiple health benefits on the recipients thus being of high interest to the food and biopharmaceutical industry. Probiotic seed cultures are prepared to a dedicated seed bioreactior train and the main product is cultivated in large-scale fermentors.  The bacteria are harvested via centrifugation and are blended with a carbohydrate protectant mixture prior to freeze-drying. There's a "ReadMe" file that explains several fundamental modeling concepts and functionalities of SuperPro, including equipment sharing and staggered mode operation of equipment resources.
The process model file and a detailed description about the process model can be found in the Pharmaceuticals subfolder of the Examples folder.

f15. Mettalurgy Group: Aluminum Production.

The process model of this example presents a flowsheet for the production of primary aluminum from bauxite ore based on the Bayer and Hall-Heroult processes. The Feed Preparation section of the flowsheet performs the comminution and desilication of the ore by grinding and alkaline leaching. In the Leaching And Precipitation section, aluminum is leached out of the ore and dissolved in the alkaline pregnant solution as aluminate. Within the same section, the dissolved aluminum is hydrolyzed and precipitated as aluminum hydroxide. Finally, in the Electro-reduction section, the precipitated hydroxide is first washed to remove the retained aluminate solution and then calcined to anhydrous alumina, melted and reduced to aluminum metal via electro-reduction on carbon anodes.
The process model file and a detailed description about the process model can be found in the Metallurgy subfolder of the Examples folder.

f16. Pharmaceuticals Group: Hyaluronic Acid.

This example describes the microbial production of Hyaluronic Acid. Hyaluronic Acid is a highly viscous and hygroscopic polysaccharide that has numerous medical and cosmetic applications. In this example, Hyaluronic Acid is produced by fed-batch fermentation, recovered by centrifugation, and purified by ultrafiltration, activated carbon treatment and isopropanol precipitation. The 'Readme' file for that example, explains how to model fermentation processes in fed-batch mode. This example is recommended to users interested in the production of medium-to-high value bioproducts, such as cosmetic ingredients.
The process model file and a detailed description about the process model can be found in the Pharmaceuticals subfolder of the Examples folder.

f17. Food Processing Group: Ice Cream Production.

This example analyzes an ice cream production process. Ice cream is a frozen mixture of milk and milk ingredients, sugar and other sweeteners, stabilizers, emulsifiers and flavorings. This mixture is homogenized, pasteurized and then frozen rapidly while agitating, in order to mix air, another ingredient of ice cream, which increases the mixture volume. This simple frozen dessert, is the favorite treat of a large percentage of the population and is consumed globally in large quantities. There are endless recipes and combinations of ingredients, as well as a lot of science and manufacturing techniques.
The process model file and a detailed description about the process model can be found in the Food Processing subfolder of the Examples folder.

g. Notes Since Original Release of v13

B03, SBN 2005 (doc no 13.0303), Release Date (12/20/2023)

1. B03, SBN 2005: New Example Added: Xylitol Manufacturing (Improvement)
   This example analyzes the production of xylitol, using as feedstock a cellulosic biomass, specifically Brewer's Spent Grain (BSG) in this case. The process begins with the pretreatment of the lignocellulosic biomass. The pretreatment consists of an initial thermal treatment that primarily hydrolyzes the hemicelluloses, followed by a hydrolysis step with sulfuric acid. The resulting solution, which contains mainly the pentoses xylose and arabinose, is purified using activated carbon and then concentrated for use as a medium in the subsequent fermentation process. The fermentation process employs yeast (Debaryomyces hansenii), which converts xylose to xylitol under aerobic conditions. The yeast also converts arabinose to arabitol. After fermentation, the yeast cells in the broth are separated and washed. The cell-free broth is then purified using activated carbon and ion-exchange columns. Subsequently, it is concentrated in a multi-effect evaporator before undergoing further purification in a simulated moving-bed chromatography column, which separates arabitol from xylitol. The xylitol-rich extract is concentrated and then crystallized in two continuous crystallizers. The crystals are separated and washed using basket centrifuges and then dried in a rotary drum dryer. In total, 14,200 metric tons of crystalline xylitol are produced annually.

2. B03, SBN 2005: Gasification: Several Minor Bug Fixes Have Been Applied  (Bug Fix)
   a) If the option to include a moderator stream is not checked, running the M&E balances will give a crash. This has been fixed.
   b) The Stream/Carbon Ratio was editable even when the option to "Include?" (a moderator stream) was unchecked. This has now been fixed.
   c) Heat transfer agent efficiency was editable even when the adiabatic thermal mode was selected. This has now been fixed. 

3. B03, SBN 2005: All Reactions: Setting Thermal Mode to 'Set Duty' May Lead in Interface Glitch  (Bug Fix)
   If the thermal mode for any reaction (stoichiometric or kinetic, chemical or fermentation) was set to 'Set Duty' (and a non-zero value was supplied for the duty value) and user exited the dialog with OK, the next time the dialog would open, the 'Set Duty' option would be properly selected (as it should) but the field for editing the duty would show as grayed out and disabled. This has now been fixed. 

4. B03, SBN 2005: Switching Process Operating Mode to Continuous with Independently Cycling Procedures Present would Lead to Their Procedure Data Dialog Appearing Improperly  (Bug Fix)
   If process is in batch mode, users can designate certain procedures to become independently cycling; in other words, their cycle time may not coinside with the cycle time of the recipe. When such procedures are present, and later the operating mode of the entire process is changed from batch to continuous the concept of independently cycling no longer applies. Procedures can still be in 'batch/semi-continuous mode' but by definition each one has its own cycle time. In that case, some of the procedures that were set to be independently cycling would show their procedure data dialog incorrectly (some controls would appear when they shouldn't). This has now been fixed.

B03, SBN 2000 (doc no 13.0303), Release Date (11/30/2023)

1. B03, SBN 2000: New Example Added: Mycoprotein Manufacturing (Improvement)
   This example models the industrial production of meat-like fungi protein (mycoprotein). The process is based on the submerged culture of a filamentous fungus in a 200-m3 airlift fermentor. The fermentation operates in a semi-continuous manner: it runs continuously for 6 weeks, after which it is stopped and restarted with fresh inoculum. During fermentation, the airlift fermentor is continuously fed with 24 MT/h of a defined medium and supplied with sterile air and ammonia gas. Simultaneously, 24 MT/h of broth containing 15 g/L of biomass (dry cell weight) is drawn from the vessel. The broth is subsequently heated with live steam for inactivation of the microorganism and reduction of the RNA content. After that, the biomass is separated by rotary vacuum filtration, mixed with egg albumen, and texturized through a series of mechanical and thermal steps. A total of 8,000 MT of chicken-like mycoprotein pieces is produced per year.
   For more details please review the .spf file and more thorough documentation for this process model that can be found under the Mycoprotein folder in the Food Processing subfolder of the Examples folder.

2. B03, SBN 2000: New Example Added: Succinic Acid Production (Improvement)
   This model analyzes the production of succinic acid via bacterial fermentation using glucose syrup 95.5% as carbon source. Batch and feed media are prepared using recycled water. A train of three seed fermenters inoculate the main production fermenters. The fermentation broth is harvested by centrifugation and passed through ultrafiltration for polishing. The product is purified using ion exchange and activated carbon columns. The product is then concentrated and crystallized. The crystalline succinic acid is centrifuged and dried. Part of the mother liquor is recycled back to the evaporator. Part of the water demand of the plant is covered via a water recycle loop. The analyzed plant utilizes 8 production fermenters each having a vessel volume of 355 m3 and generates 18,000 metric tons of crystalline succinic acid per year. 
   For more details about the above process model, please locate the .spf file in the SuccinicAcid folder in the Bio-Materials subfolder of the Examples folder.

3. B03, SBN 2000: Switching to a UP Family Member that is 'Batch by Nature' Automatically Switches the Procedure's Mode of Operation to 'Batch/Semi-Continuous'   (Improvement)
   SuperPro Designer allows you to convert an already populated and initialized unit procedure from its current type to anothe type in the same 'family'. For example, after an ultrafiltration (batch) unit procedure has been created and several operations have been added and initialized in it, users can switch it to a 'Diafiltration' procedure. In prior releases, it was possible to switch from a continuous unit procedure (e.g. "Rotarty Vacuum Filtration") currently in continuous mode, to a batch-by-nature procedure such as Plate & Frame Filtration (that is not allowed to be in 'continuous' mode of operation) and the software would NOT automatically switch the mode to batch / semi-continuous. This has now been fixed.

4. B03, SBN 2000: Vacuum Pump's Outlet Stream Pressure Is now Set at Atmospheric Pressure (Improvement)
   When the pressure setting in an operation is sub-atmospheric, and the operation supports the presence of a vacuum pump (e.g. see the interface over any Vent/Emissions tab below), then the outlet gases will be set to have atmospheric pressure (provided a non-zero power is either calculated or set-by-user):   
   
   
   In previous releases, the gas outlet's pressure was set to the vacuum pressure setting of the operation. This was inaccurate and has been corrected.

5. B03, SBN 2000: Local Settings of VLE Calculation Options (PS Toolbox) Can Be Customized without the Need to Apply 'Override' Option. (Improvement)
   When SuperPro Designer needs to make a determination of what portion of a stream (or equipment contents) is liquid/solid and what portion is vapor it utilizes a set of criteria and assumptions. At the core of those criteria is the V/L model to employ (Shortcut based on NBP, Raoult's Law, Fugacity-Based model, etc.). Besides that, there's another set of parameters that can also affect the behavior of the flash algorithm when applied locally (only for non-ideal VLE models): e.g. what happens when the algorithm fails to converge (what's the 'fall-back strategy') or what does the algorithm assume as initial 'guess' for temperature (if temperature is an unknown), etc. This entire group of assumptions is what constitutes the "Physical State Toolbox" (or PS Toolbox) utilized to do the VLE calculations. The PS Toolbox can be set at the flowsheet level, the unit procedure level or the operation or stream level. There's also a chain of established inheritance of the PS toolbox so that when it is defined in a single place (e.g. the flowsheet), it is employed everywhere with the same assumptions. If that's the case then in a local spot (e.g. in an operation), the PS Toolbox values are shown but are greyed out as they are tied to the 'parent' assumptions. Of course, users can click on "Override" and modify the assumptions locally. For example, even if the global (flowsheet-level) setting for non-ideal model is set to be Raoult's Law, in a specific condensation operation users can override this assumption and choose to use an Equation of State (EOS) model.  However, there are some parts of the PS Toolbox that only make sense locally (ie. at the operation or stream level) and cannot (and are not) inherited from flowsheet or the procedure. In fact these settings are not even available for editing at the flowsheet or unit procedure level. These assumptions have to do with:
   a) The initial-guesses for total V/L fraction
   b) The initial-guess for temperature (if it's an unknown)
   c) The fall back strategy in case the algorithm fails. 
   In prior releases, those assumptions where STILL LOCKED if the PS toolbox was set to inherit the settings from the parent (default). This was incorrect and now it has been fixed. As you can see from the screens below, eventhough the "Overwrite" flag is NOT checked, user can click on "Solver Options" and set a proper (better) initial estimate for vapor fractior or temperature.
   
   
   Also, when moving to the "Numerical" tab, the user can also provide values for the fall back strategy (while still the "Override" is NOT checked). 
   
    

6. B03, SBN 2000: Rotary Drying: Corrections Applied when the Evaporation Option for the Post-Drying cooling Was Set to 'Calculated'  (Bug Fix)
   If this operation is used to simulate drying followed by post-drying cooling, then a “Post-Drying Cooling” tab is shown. Through that tab, the user opt to calculate the evaporation percentages of those pure components that are identified as being volatile components. In that case, the LOD after the evaporation must be specified but that value was grayed out in previous releases. Also, the program now complains if no pure components have been set as volatile.

7. B03, SBN 2000: Reaction Stoichiometry Dialog: After Visiting the Component Registration Interface the Molecular Weights are NOT updated on the stoichiometry Calculations  (Bug Fix)
   When viewing/editing the stoichiometry of a reaction (see below) the user has the option to visit the component registration interface and access the properties of the current components as well as add a new component (if needed for the reaction and currently missing). In previous releases, if the user changed the molecular weight of an existing component, and exited the component registration dialog with "OK", the stoichiometric interface dialog did not reflect the latest values of the components molecular weights. This has now been fixed. 
   
   

8. B03, SBN 2000: Purge: Program Was Complaining about Certain Pressure Settings Unnecessarily   (Bug Fix)
   When user attempted to specify the high/low/final pressure in a purge operation, sometimes the program would complain unnecessarily. This has now been fixed.

9. B03, SBN 2000: Evacuate : Program Would Complain about Final Pressure Setting Unnecessarily  (Bug Fix)
   When user attempted to specify the final pressure in an evacuate operation, sometimes the program would complain unnecessarily. This has now been fixed.

10. B03, SBN 2000: Equipment Initial Contents May Fail to Recognize to Fill Empty Space with Filling Agent  (Bug Fix)
    Normally equipment with holding volume initialize their contents with air (or any other user-supplied agent) so that their pressure reaches atmospheric. However, users have the option to specify their own strategy for content initialization. They can either completely specify the composition and amount of the contents themselves, or simply specify the contents and let the program scale it up or down to match the specified pressure; finally they could just specify the composition and amount that needs to be there and then let the program fill in as much agent as needed to reach the set pressure. When the latter is requested and if the user-provided composition did NOT have any gaseous components the program failed to recognize that and consequently failed to calculate the required amount of filling agent. This has now been fixed.

11. B03, SBN 2000: Rotary Drying Operation: Assigning a Vacuum Pump Did not Work (Bug Fix)
    When the operating pressure of the drying operation was set by the user to sub-atmospheric, a set of controls appears that allow the user to assign a vacuum pump to this operation. Due to a glitch in the code, this assignment would be lost after the dialog is closed with "OK". This has now been fixed.

12. B03, SBN 2000: Cloth Filtration Operations (P&F / Rotary Vacuum): LOD Was Allowed to be Set to 100% (Bug Fix)
    In order to specify how the solvent distributes between the cake the pass-through solution, the plate & filtration as well as the rotary vacuum filtration ask the user to provide one of three specifications: a) the cake's LOD, b) the cake's porosity or c) the Solvent distribution. For cases (a) or (b) it is impossible to achieve a 100% on either of those specifications (LOD or cake porosity) yet the interface neglected to prevent users from setting those values. If such a value was set, the program may hang during the mass and energy balance calculations. This has now been fixed. 

13. B03, SBN 2000: Cloth Filtration Operations (P&F / Rotary Vacuum): When Users Set an Unrealizable LOD or Cake Porosity, or When the Cake Thickness Exceeds Maximum, the Warning Messages Have Been Improved (Improvement)
    During M&E balances, when simulating the results of a cloth filtration operation it is possible that the cake thickness calculated exceeds the maximum allowed. Starting with this release the program complains and displays the calculated thickness. Also, when the case of an over-concentrated feed is detected, once again the program now displays the maximum achievable cake porosite or LOD specification.

14. B03, SBN 2000: Rotary-Vacuum Filtration: The Required Wash Stream Was not Checked for Proper Initialization (Bug Fix)
    Rotary vacuum filtration requires the assignment of a wash stream (see below): 
    
    The stream's composition is supposed to be provided by the user and the solver will determine the amount (based on user-provided specifications). In prior releases, if the user neglected to provide a proper initialization this model would not complain. This has now been fixed. 

15. B03, SBN 2000: ME-Evaporation: Steam Consumption Was Calculated Incorrectly when TVR Was Chosen  (Bug Fix)
    Due to a glitch in the code, the amount of steam required to perform the specified evaporation task in a multi-effect evaporator was calculated incorrectly when the user had chosen to implement thermal vapor re-compression (TVR). This has now been fixed.

16. B03, SBN 2000: Custom Mixing: Outlet Pressure in a Custom Mixing Operation Must Be within the Range Imposed by the Two Input Streams  (Bug Fix)
    In a custom mixing step, users can provide their own specification for the outlet pressure. However, it cannot be below or above the range imposed by the two input streams. This requirement was previously not enforced.

17. B03, SBN 2000: Rotary Drying: Slight Error in the Calculated Output Temperature when Post-Drying Cooling Was Applied  (Bug Fix)
    Due to a mistake in the calculations, when a post-drying cooling was applied in a rotary drying operation, the enthalpy of the outlet stream was incorrectly calculated and thus the output temperature was not properly calculated. This has now been fixed.

18. B03, SBN 2000: Rotary Drying: Vacuum Pump Power Calculation Corrected (Bug Fix)
    Users can only specify the requirements of a vacuum pump in the main (primary) section. If a vacuum pump is needed in the secondary section, its power consumption was ignored. This has now been fixed and that power is added to the (total) vacuum pump power.

19. B03, SBN 2000: Crystallization, Anoxic Reaction: Vacuum Pump Specifications now Available  (Bug Fix)
    Whenever the user has the option of setting the outlet pressure, if the setting is below ambient, a new set of controls should appear on the interface that capture the vacuum pump requirements. Previously the application failed to display such controls in the i/o simulation interface for continuous crystallization and anoxic reaction. This has now been fixed. 

20. B03, SBN 2000: PBA Column Loading, Membrane Adsorption Loading, Gel Filtration Column Loading: Process Time Can now Be Set by COM Interface (Bug Fix)
    In prior releases the application did not allow the process time to be specified (through the interface) for the column loading operations in PBA Chromatography, Gel Filtration and Membrane Absorption. At some point this was relaxed and allowed, however, the COM interface calls still prevented the setting from happening. This has now been corrected and process time for those operations is allowed.

21. B03, SBN 2000: Freeze-Drying Operation: Sizing Was (Incorrectly) based on Volume of Dry Cake (instead of Wet Cake) (Bug Fix)
    The program was using the volume of the dry cake instead of the volume of the wet cake in sizing/rating calculations. So, in design mode, it was calculating the tray area by dividing the volume of the dry cake (not the volume of the wet cake) by the wet cake depth. Similarly, in rating mode, it was calculating the wet cake depth by dividing volume of the dry cake (not the volume of the wet cake) by the tray area. This issue has now been fixed.

B03, SBN 1050 (doc no 13.0302), Release Date (09/30/2023)

1. B03, SBN 1050:  Hold Operation: No HX Agent Should be Kept unless Necessary (Bug Fix)
   When a "Hold" operation is included in a unit procedure queue, and if the unit procedure is hosted by an equipment resource that is capable of tracking its contents, the right-hand-side option of "Consider Ambient Heat Loss/Gain" is available. When checked, then another option below appears ("Makeup for Ambient Effect"); when that is also checked then an appropriate HX agent must be selected that will be engaged to make up for the losses (or gains) of heat from the surroundings.  
   
   
   
   However, for situations where the "Hold" operation is found as part of a unit procedure hosted by an equipment resource without contents (e.g. a pump) the RHS options are not even shown to the user and they are assumed do not apply (see below).  
   
   
   
   When a "Hold" operation does not have a need for a HX agent, "(none)" should be applied as the value of that HX Agent. In previous releases this was not applied and when a user attempted to enter the Heat Recovery Dialog a crash would occur. This has now been fixed. 

2. B03, SBN 1050:  The Cost Estimation for Mixer-Settlers Was Slightly Incorrect  (Bug Fix)
   When estimating the cost of a mixer-settler, the volume used in the built-in correlation was slightly wrong yielding incorrect values. This has now been fixed. 
    

B03, SBN 1000 (doc no 13.0301), Release Date (08/30/2023)

1. B03, SBN 1000:  New Unit Operation: Rigorous Batch Distillation  (Improvement)
   This new unit operation simulates a batch distillation using a rigorous approach that employees a user-selected model for representing the vapor-liquid equilibria between the species in the pot. Any model can be chosen (Wilson, NRTL, etc.) based on availability of binary data. The model solves a set of dynamic (differential in time) equations performing plate-by-plate calculations whereby the vapor phase (rising in the column) at each plate is assumed to be in equilibrium with the liquid phase (dropping in the column). A new Dynamic Algebraic Equation solver has been put together to solve the system of equations. The interface for the new operations is shown below: 
   
   
   
   The user typically specifies: 
   - The number of periods and therefore the number of draws (cuts) taken during distillation and it designates a stream to be the receiver of each draw.
   - For each draw: the duration, reflux ratio, pressure, reboiler duty (assumed constant throughout the period). 
   The number of assumed plates for the column is always provided on the equipment dialog (in both design and rating mode).  
   
   
   
   The solver, when successful, will record data for each draw (compositions, temperature) and users can see the results in either an ASCII formatted file or an Excel file. You can specify which data and how many (how often) to be kept from the "Profiles" tab:
   
   
   Saving the data in an Excel format allows you to quickly turn the data into time charts. It is also possible, to choose a specific Excel file and a designated area in that file where the results will be deposited after every solution so that dynamic charts can be linked and viewed (updated) automatically.

2. B03, SBN 1000:  New Unit Operation: Stoichiometric Reaction in a PEM Electrolyzer  (Improvement)
   This operation can be used to simulate an electrolysis reaction, such as the electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen, that takes place in a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer and is described by stoichiometry. A PEM electrolyzer is an electrochemical device that consists of several interconnected PEM electrolysis cell stacks and other peripheral systems (compressors, pumps, rectifiers, gas-liquid separators, and demisters). The “heart” of a PEM electrolyzer unit is the PEM electrolytic cell, which basically consists of two electrodes – a cathode and an anode – connected by wires to a source of direct current, and a proton conducting membrane that separates the cathode chamber from the anode chamber, and also serves as the electrolyte. This type of membrane allows cations (but not anions or electrons) to pass from the anode to the cathode. The operation is hosted by a dedicated procedure that is hosted by a new equipment resource type named "PEM Electrolyzer". 
   Through the “Reactions” tab, the user may specify the overall reaction stoichiometry of an electrolysis reaction, such as water electrolysis, including the specification of a reaction progress metric (either conversion or target concentration) and the specification of the heat of reaction. Additional reactions can be specified if needed.

3. B03, SBN 1000:  Fed-Batch Options Offer for More Choices  (Improvement)
   The 'Fed-Batch' option can be activated for stoichiometric or kinetic reactions. It allows for a stream to be continuously fed into the reaction mixture. In previous releases the rate of the incoming stream was assumed constant. Starting with this release we allow for rates that can be linear (in time) or exponential (see below). 
   
   

4. B03, SBN 1000:  Operations Can be Grouped and Shown in Group-Color on Occupancy Charts  (Improvement)
   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").

5. B03, SBN 1000:  PH Flash Calculations Accept Initial T-Guess from User  (Improvement)
   When executing a flash calculation where the enthalpy and pressure is given and the solver needs to find the temperature where the two phases are at equilibrium, when non-ideal behavior is engaged and the V/L data are challenging, it can be difficult for a solution (for temperature) to be found. Ofentimes, the convergence depends on the initial value assumed. The solver has its own logic for generating initial values for temperature, and in most cases a solution can be found. If no solution can be found, starting with this release we provide for the user to supply his/her own initial guess that may help the solver converge in that particular instance (see below). 
   
   

6. B03, SBN 1000:  All Vessel Operations with Venting Option Are Now Created (by default) with Venting ON  (Improvement)
   Up until now, all vessel operations that carry the option of "Venting" (and most of the do) were created with the venting option OFF in order to avoid to force the user to create an emissions stream (attached to the procedure's vent/emissions port). However, if users failed to turn the option to "ON" then after a transfer IN, the pressure inside a vessel would be raised significantly, and any stream leaving the vessel would carry that high pressure designation. Similarly, after a transfer OUT, the pressure in the vessel would drop to sub-atmospheric levels and again, streams leaving the vessel would carry that vacuum designation (most likely inadvertently). Starting with this release, all such operations will be created with the venting ON to avoid such confusion. 

7. B03, SBN 1000:  Auto-Removal Uses the Same V/L Split as Last Operation -  (Improvement)
   When an auto-removal is activated in a vessel where the last operation used some 'special' toolbox to determine the vapor and liquid phase (or perhaps the L/V split was part of a user's specification), the auto-removal did not respect the last operation's V/L split and re-flashed the contents with the procedure's default toolbox with results that can be quite different leading to a liquid phase transferred out that is unexpected. This has now been fixed.

8. B03, SBN 1000:  Custom XL Report May Crash when SST was Included (Bug Fix)
   Under some rare circumstances, when generating the custom Excel report that included the Stream Summary Table (SST) the program may end up crashing. This has now been fixed. 

9. B03, SBN 1000:  INX Load Operation: Can Size the Column Based on Ion Exchange Capacity -  (Improvement)
   Ion exchange column sizing can now be done based on the specification of the column’s ion exchange capacity. In order to size a column based on ion exchange capacity, the user must do the following:
   a. Add components to represent ions (e.g., Na+, Ca++, CL-, SO4--) and specify the oxidation state of those components (ions) through the Pure Component Properties dialog (e.g., 1 for Na+, 2 for Ca++, -1 for Cl-, -2 for SO4--).  The oxidation state of an ion (atom) is the number of electrons gained or lost in order to form a chemical bond with another ion (atom).  A positive oxidation state indicates a cation, a negative oxidation state indicates an anion, and zero oxidation state indicates a non-ionic component (a molecule).  
   b. Add a GBX reaction/separation procedure before the INX procedure to simulate the dissociation reactions of salts (e.g., “NaCl” --> “Na+” + “Cl-“).
   c.    Select the “Ion Exchange Capacity” option and specify the resin’s ion exchange capacity in equivalents per unit volume (by default, eq/L). Equivalents are a measure of the ion exchange sites taken up by the loaded ions. For each adsorbed ion, they can be calculated by multiplying the moles of ion adsorbed by the ion’s valence. For example, if the ion exchange capacity of a cation resin is 1.8 eq/L, and the resin’s volume is 1 L, then it can take 1.8 eq of cations. If the loaded syrup contains only Ca++ ions, the column can take 0.9 mol or 40 gr of Ca++ ions.
   
   
   d. Select the resin type (cation or anion). A cation resin can adsorb cations, whereas an anion resin can adsorb acids. The ion exchange capacity of a cation resin is expressed in equivalents per unit volume of cations, whereas the ion exchange capacity of an anion resin is expressed in equivalents per unit volume of anions. If a cation resin is selected, the title of the third column of the pure components table will be “Cation Valence” and it will display only the valence of those components that represent cations. If an anion resin is selected, the title of that column will be “Anion Valence” and it will display only the valence of those components that represent anions. A component’s valence corresponds to the absolute oxidation state value.
   In design mode, the program will calculate the total equivalents per cycle of adsorbed ions, and it will divide that number by the specified ion exchange capacity to determine the total bed volume requirement.
   Another improvement made in this release is that now the user may set the service volume instead of the resin’s capacity not only when the breakthrough time is calculated but also when it is set by the user. 

10. B03, SBN 1000:  Some UP Were Excluded from Batch Sheet Generation (Bug Fix)
    Under some some unit procedures were excluded from the list that is included in the Batch Sheet report. This has now been fixed.

11. B03, SBN 1000:  Neutralization Operation: Missed to Detect the Specification of an Agent that does NOT Participate in any Reaction (Bug Fix)
    In prior releases, users could choose as a "Neutralizing Agent" a component that did NOT participating in any of the reactions of a neutralization operation. This, of course, should not be allowed. This has been fixed.

12. B03, SBN 1000:  Single-Use Bag Data Have Been Updated  (Improvement)
    When a consumable such as a single-use bag is employed as part of an operation (e.g. "Storage in a Disposable Bag") its cost-related data are automatically imported form the User DB. The default data for all single-use bags have been updated with this release. Of course, users can overwrite that data or create new entries under the category of single-use bags with their own cost and replacement data.

B02, SBN 2010 (doc no 13.0201), Release Date (05/15/2023)

1. B02, SBN 2010:  New Example Added - Polysaccharite Vaccine -  (Improvement)
   This example analyzes the production of bacterial polysaccharide vaccines such as those used to protect against pneumonia and meningitis. The bacterial polysaccharide is produced by fermentation in batch mode using a complex culture medium. Subsequently, the polysaccharide is released from the cells by treatment with sodium hydroxide, which also inactivates the bacteria. The product is then purified by ethanol precipitation, crossflow filtration, and depth filtration steps. A total of 31.6 kg of polysaccharide is produced per year, corresponding to 50 million doses of a 23-valent polysaccharide vaccine.
   The process model for this example as well as detailed documentation about the process model can be found under the Food Processing subfolder in the Examples folder of SuperPro Designer.

2. B02, SBN 2010:  Rotary Drying / Post-Drying Cooling Section Allowed LOD Editing Inappropriately  (Bug Fix)
   In previous releases, when working on the specs of a post-drying cooling section of a rotary drying operation, the program would not allow user to enter an LOD value (always grayed out). This has now been fixed. 

3. B02, SBN 2010:  Procedures Were Excluded from Batch Sheet Generation  (Bug Fix)
   In previous releases it was possible that some unit procedures were excluded from the list of procedures included in the Batch Sheet even though the user did NOT explicitly requested for them to be excluded (omitted). This has now been fixed.
    

B02, SBN 2000 (doc no 13.0201), Release Date (04/21/2023)

1. B02, SBN 2000:  The ',' as a Decimal Separator on Info Tags of Streams Didn't Show Properly  (Bug Fix)
   For users in locales where the comma (',') is the designated decimal separator character, values with decimal portions for properties appearing on stream info tags didn't show properly. This has now been fixed. 

2. B02, SBN 2000:  The Custom Excel Report (CXL) Didn't Show Resource Demand Breakdowns in Continuous Processes (Bug Fix)
   For process models where the overall mode of operation was set to 'Continuous', attempting to include the resource demand breakdown for a resource (labor, heat transfer agent, etc.) the values were not properly included. This has now been fixed. 

3. B02, SBN 2000:  The DS Fraction Wasn't Correctly Shown for All Choices of Composition Units (Bug Fix)
   The Dissolved Solids (DS) % shows on streams when the user has enabled the dry mass option from the component registration dialog. Users also have choices for displaying each component's composition on a stream as mass (or mole) fraction, mass (or mole %), parts-per-million (ppm) or parts-per-billion (ppb). When one of the latter two choices was selected, the DS % should also follow and be displayed in the same units. This didn't happen in releases prior to this one. 
   
   

4. B02, SBN 2000:  Material Cost Tables in the ICR Didn't Shown Entries Properly (Bug Fix)
   Some entries in the reporting of material cost as part of the ICR didn't show properly as they were too long and exceeded the width of their column in the table. This has now been fixed. 

5. B02, SBN 2000:  When Accounting for Material Consumed as Part of a Wash Operation, Rates Were Included Twice (Bug Fix)
   As a result, the overall material balance (as it appears in the Materials and Streams Report) didn't show a zero balance for some components (not participating in reactions) and of course, the overall material balance was not showing 0.0. This has now been fixed.

6. B02, SBN 2000:  When a Pure Component Was Indirectly Registered as Part of the Introduction of a New Heat Transfer Agent, Its Default VL Split Criterion Wasn't Set Properly (Bug Fix)
   There is a choice for the "default" VLE split criterion to be used for each newly registered component in a process model; it can be any one of several choices ("Normal Boiling Point", "Antoinne", etc.). However, for some components the elected choice may not be possible; for example, if the default is "Antoinne" but that particular component does NOT have ANY known vapor properties, this criterion must be changed to "Normal Boiling Point". Even though this adjustment happes for components interactively added by the user from the Component Registration interface, it did not happen when the component was indirectly registered as part of a newly introduced heat transfer agent or CIP template that required the presence of that component. This has now been fixed.

7. B02, SBN 2000:  When Including Material consumption in SR in Annual Basis, the Conversion Factor Was Incorrect (Bug Fix)
   Users can choose the time horizon for which the consumption of materials is included in the Stream Report. If the choice as "Annual" the conversion to annual was based on the calendar year and not the year in hours as set from the Annual Operating Time. This has now been fixed. 

8. B02, SBN 2000:  When Switching the Operating Mode of a Process from Batch to Continuous Some Non-Valid Choices in Operations' Settings Still Remained (Bug Fix)
   Users can change the operating mode of a process model from batch to continuous (and vice versa); when the mode is changed to "continuous" some choices in the settings of batch and/or continuous operations no longer make sense. For instance, an operation that stayed batch cannot use as a master for its duration another operation that during the switch changed from batch to continuous; also, a batch operation cannot use as reference for its start (or end) time another operation outside its own procedure. Such resets were missed and were causing issues later when a scheduling-related chart was to be displayed. These inconsistencies have now been fixed. 
   
    

B02, SBN 1050 (doc no 13.0201), Release Date (03/20/2023)

1. B02, SBN 1050:  New Example Added - Cultured Meat -  (Improvement)
   This example analyzes the manufacturing of cultured meat. The process starts with the  proliferation of muscle stem cells over multiple culture steps, using bioreactors with microcarriers. After that, the cells are differentiated into muscle fibers by changing the culture medium. Subsequently, the cell suspension is sent to a crossflow filtration system for concentration and diafiltration, and then transferred to a screw press for dewatering. Lastly, the meat product is packaged and refrigerated. Approximately 3,000 MT of cultured meat is produced per year.
   The process model for this example as well as detailed documentation about the process model can be found under the Food Processing subfolder in the Examples folder of SuperPro Designer.

2. B02, SBN 1050:  Interface Bug in Fed-Batch Specification Property Option  (Bug Fix)
   When providing the data for a fed batch option (as part of the batch stochiometric or kinetic fermentation) there was glitch when the option to keep the concentration of a reactant constant was chosen. This has now been fixed. 

3. B02, SBN 1050:  Power Was Not Reported When the Power-to-Heat Fraction was Zero  (Bug Fix)
   When a fermentation operation had a non-zero power consumption requirement but the power-to-heat fraction was set to zero, the program neglected to report the power consumption as part of the total power consumption for the process. This has now been fixed.

4. B02, SBN 1050:  Electrowinning Cell Did not Update the Total Cathode Area  (Bug Fix)
   When an electrowinning cell was setup to operate as an electrolyzer, the program neglected to update the total active area per unit (stack). This has now been fixed. 

5. B02, SBN 1050:  PBA Absorption Load (Simplified) Didn't Properly Accept all Loading Time Calculation Options  (Bug Fix)
   When describing a PBA Absorption Load operation (Simplified version) users have the choice on how to have the loading time be calculated (besides being set by user). Some of the options didn't work properly. This has now been fixed. 

6. B02, SBN 1050:  Electrowinning Cell Did Not Show the Proper Required Consumable  (Bug Fix)
   When an electrowinning cell was set to operate as an electrolyzer, it did not properly report the required consumable; this has now been fixed. 

7. B02, SBN 1050:  Discrete Pass-through w/ Separation: Bug in Heat Balance  (Bug Fix)
   When part of the power required in a discrete pass-through operation with a separation was non-zero, the simulation engine assigned the entire heat generated ONLY to the separated bulk part resulting in unrealistically high temperatures. This has now been fixed and both outlets (the discrete and the bulk) come out at the same temperature.

8. B02, SBN 1050:  Continuous Storage Operations Neglected to Make Sure their Connectivity Was Proper  (Bug Fix)
   Prior to carrying out the M&E balances on a process model, SuperPro's engine makes sure that all operations / procedures have the required connectivity for them to function properly (e.g. a transfer in operation from a port has an intermediate stream connected to that port etc.). Due to a glitch in the code, continuous storage operations neglected to verify that at least one stream was connected to the host unit procedure leading to a crash during the actual calculations; this has now been fixed.

9. B02, SBN 1050:  Annual Rate of Replacement for Consumables Matches the Annual Operating Time (AOT) Setting -  (Improvement)
   When specifying that a consumable is to be replaced N times per operating year, this setting is now interpreted as N times over the number of days set for the Annual Operating Time and NOT the calendar year. This is important as it now converts more appropriate to the contribution to the annual operating cost or when the user changes the frequency from "oper. year" to "per month" or "per day". 

10. B02, SBN 1050:  All Coefficients for the (New) SPT-NRTL Non-Ideal Model for VLE Equilibria Are Now Set in Exponential Form -  (Improvement)
    When specifying binary coefficients based on the new non-ideal model supported recently by SuperPro Designer, the SPT-NRTL model, now the expected format is in exponential standard format with 2 decimal points to assure consistent accuracy (see below): 
    
    
     

11. B02, SBN 1050:  In Rare Occasions, the Purchase Cost Model for Horizontal Tanks would Produce Negative PCs (Bug Fix)
    The built-in costing model for horizontal tanks, when applied to out-of-range values of volume (too large) would result in negative PCs and this would go unnoticed. This has now been fixed and the purchase cost models for blending tank, horizontal tank, flat bottom tank and vertical-on-legs tanks produce valid, consistent numbers.

12. B02, SBN 1050:  The Continuous Crystallization i/o Dialog would Show the Cooling Load as Editable  (Bug Fix)
    The cooling load required to achieve crystallization is always computed as an output of the M&E balances; however, due to a glitch, the value seemed to be editable. This has now been fixed. 
    
    
    
     

B02, SBN 1000 (doc no 13.0201), Release Date (02/01/2023)

1. B02, SBN 1000:  Cascading Supply and Receiving Storage Units (Improvement)
   Storage units have been part of the simulation representation of SuperPro for a while now. A supply storage unit can be associated with several areas of a process recipe where material is needed: e.g. an input stream that feeds a reactor, or an CIP cleaning step, or a Purge step as part of preparing a vessel for a reaction. By aggregating several consumption spots to a single storage unit (without the introduction of streams) users can get a better understanding of where and when a specific component (or mixture) is spent during the execution of one or multiple batches. Furthermore, associating inventory information (i.e. rates of replenishment) users can visualize how often the supply of that particular component needs to be activated. However, often times, the demand for a buffer implies demand for its ingredients. Users can associate now a supply unit with one (or more) other supply units to link the consumption of one component (or mixture) to demand of other pre-requisites for that component (or mixture). The interface for the definition of Supply Storage Unit provides for exactly that:
   
   
   The definition of "NaOH (10%) Tank" storage unit indicates that for each unit of that material consumed we need 0.6 units from the "NaOH (50%) Tank" - the concentrated form of this buffer - as purchased from suppliers. Having this link established, we can now see the consumption of "NaOH (50%)" related to the consumption of "NaOH (20%)".
   
   Here's the consumption of "NaOH (20%)" as dictated by the time of the operation(s) that it is engaged and that leads to a replenish (supply) rate of 500kg/h as shown below: 
   
   
   And here's the consumption rate for the "source" (feed) to the "NaOH (20%)" buffer, the "NaOH (50%)": 
   
   Notice that the consumption rate matches in time the supply rate needed of the previous SU (for "NaOH 20%)" and the amount is scaled down as multiplied by the factor of "0.6" (so it is 0.6x500= 300 kg/h).

2. B02, SBN 1000:  SPT-NRTL Liquid Non-Model Available to Model V/L Equilibrium in Non-Ideal Mixtures (Improvement)
   SuperPro Designer can be used to model non-ideal vapor-liquid (V/L) equilibrium by employing a variety of options to capture non-ideality in the liquid and/or vapor phase.  
   
   As it can be seen from the list of options above one users have several options:
   1. Raoult's Law
   2. Modified Raoult's Law (Gaseous phase ideal and liquid phase uses Activity Coefficients)
   3. Equations of State (EOS) (for liquid and gaseous phase)
   4. Gamma-Phi Models (for liquid and gaseous phase).
   A very common approach is the 2nd above where the gaseous phase is assumed a ideal but the non-ideal liquid phase uses activity coefficients to capture non-ideality
   
   
   Up to now two approaches were the most common for capturing non-ideality: Wilson coefficients or the NRTL model. The availability of property data is one of the major bottlenecks in the development of chemical processes, often requiring time-consuming and expensive experiments or limiting the design space to a small number of known molecules. This bottleneck has been the motivation behind the continuing development of predictive property models (like UNIFAC). For the property prediction of novel molecules, group contribution methods have been groundbreaking. In recent times, machine learning has joined the more established property prediction models. A new model, SPT-NRTL, is a machine learning model to predict thermodynamically consistent activity coefficients and provide NRTL parameters for easy use in process simulations (SPT-NRTL Model Detailed Description, and ). The results show that SPT-NRTL achieves higher accuracy than UNIFAC in the prediction of activity coefficients across all functional groups and is able to predict many vapor-liquid-equilibria with near experimental accuracy. NRTL-type parameters of 100,000,000 mixtures are calculated with SPT-NRTL and provided online. Starting witht this release we are happy to announce that SuperPro Designer fully supports the use of SPT-NRTL binary coefficients to capture non-ideality in liquid phases. Even though we have not imported all the available values to SuperPro' s database, we have laid the foundation in storing the binary coefficients that may be of interest to a user for his/her specific binary combination. You can populate the user db with more data that you have to extract yourself from the published database of SPT-NRTL coefficients (SPT-NRTL Coefficients (ethz.ch)) and provide them either directly to your process model from the interface that appears when selecting from the process menu the PS Calculation Options / Default Rigorous PS Calc. Toolbox: 
   
   
   or provide them directly to the User DB to keep for later use by selecting Databanks/Binary Coefficients: 
   
   
   Since the index used to identify individual components when reporting the SPT-NRTL coefficients was the SMILES formula for the component, we have expanded the options for identifying a pure component (beyond the 'formal name' and 'CAS Number' the following:
   - IUPAC Name
   - SMILES formula
   - Synonym
   - InChl Key
    
   
   
   The IUPAC (short for International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) Name was introduced by the IUPAC in order to establish an international standard of naming compounds to facilitate communication.  The goal of the system is to give each structure a unique and unambiguous name, and to correlate each name with a unique and unambiguous structure.
   The InChl Key currently consists of three parts separated by hyphens, of 14, 10 and one character(s), respectively, like XXXXXXXXXXXXXX-YYYYYYYYFV-P . The first 14 characters result from a SHA-256 hash of the connectivity information (the main layer and /q sublayer of the charge layer) of the InChI. 
   The SMILES (or Simplified Molecular-Input Line-Entry System) notation is a specification in the form of a line notation for describing the structure of chemical species using short ASCII strings. SMILES strings can be imported by most molecule editors for conversion back into two-dimensional drawings or three-dimensional models of the molecules. 
   Finally, the Synonym field was introduced to provide aliases that are sometimes used to identify chemicals as alternatives to any of the more formal identifiers. One can view the synonym as an identifier similar to the Trade Name.
   For a complete description of this new group-contribution based model for liquid activity coefficients, please consult the Science Direct Publication.
   There is also a new, simple example (single flash step) that demonstrates the use of this new VLE model and how it compares with other models when used to simulate Vapor-Liquid equilibria in process systems (see the "SPTNRTL_v13.spf" file and its accompanying "SPTNRTL.docx" 'ReadMe' file in the Misc subfolder of the "Examples" folder (or you can search for it from the Process Library interface using the keyword "SPT_NRTL"). 

3. B02, SBN 1000:  Master-Follower Interface not Showing Properly (Improvement)
   Several unit operations allow for their process time to be specified by another operation (master); in that sense, their duration is following the duration of another. The interface element that allowed such process time dependency didn't present the user's choices properly and parts of the master operation specification were slightly cut off. This has now been fixed (in many operations).

4. B02, SBN 1000:  Continuous Extraction Operations Deal Only with the Liquid Portion of their Feed (Improvement)
   Sometimes the conditions at the feed of liquid extraction unit procedures are such that based on the PS-Toolbox of the procedure a portion of the feed is in the vapor phase. When this is detected, the condition is reported to the user and the simulation considers ONLY the liquid portion of the feed stream. If you wish to correct the situation, you can either make sure the input conditions are different (so that the entire stream is liquid) or you can change the PS-Toolbox used by the simulation engine to determine the liquid / vapor portions of the feed. The PS-Toolbox of the unit procedure can be accessed from the command menu of the procedure (select "Default PS Calc. Options...").

5. B02, SBN 1000:  Flash Drums Use an Improved (Updated) Correlations for Cost Estimation (Improvement)
   Flash drums now employ an updated model for predicting their purchase cost. 

6. B02, SBN 1000:  A New Example Has Been Added: Soybean Refinery  (Improvement)
   This SuperPro model represents a typical soybean crush plant.  This plant produces soybean oil, ground soybean meal, and lecithin. Hexane is used for oil extraction. The defatted, protein-rich solid residual (marc) is desolventized through stripping with high-pressure steam and drying and then ground into soybean meal, which can be used in animal feeds. The oil-hexane mixture (miscella) is desolventized through evaporation and stripping with live steam. The crude soybean oil is then degummed using citric acid as a degumming agent. Degummed oil undergoes neutralization using sodium hydroxide as a neutralization agent. Next, the oil is bleached using bleaching clay, a process that removes color and other impurities.  Lastly, the degummed and bleached soybean oil is deodorized through a stripping operation utilizing live steam at relatively high temperature and low pressure. The final product is called refined, bleached, deodorized (RBD) soybean oil or soybean salad oil. 
   The example (and full documentation) can be found under the Food Processing subfolder in the Examples folder of SuperPro Designer.

7. B02, SBN 1000:  A New Example Has Been Added: Skim Milk Powder  (Improvement)
   A new example process has been added that deals with the production of skim milk powder. 
   Milk powder is the product obtained by dehydration of pasteurized milk which has the appearance of a uniform, lump-free, yellowish-white powder. It contains all the natural components of normal milk, while its fat content may vary. 
   This particular design is capable of producing 3500 MT/year of cream and it requires a total CAPEX of around $53.6 million and annual operating expenditures (including depreciation) of around $29.2 million. 
   The example (and full documentation) can be found under the Food Processing subfolder in the Examples folder of SuperPro Designer.

8. B02, SBN 1000:  A New Example Process Has Been Added: Production of Levulinic Acid  (Improvement)
   This example process can be found under the 'Levulinic Acid' sub-folder of the sample Bio-Material processes ("Examples\Bio-Materials").
   This example analyzes the production of levulinic acid from lignocellulosic biomass (corn stover in this case), based on the Biofine process. Biomass hydrolysis and levulinic acid formation take place in the same reactors. Formic acid, furfural and humins are co-produced in the process. The products are separated and purified in the downstream section by a series of distillation columns operating at different pressures and temperatures. Levulinic acid is separated from the lighter water, formic acid, and furfural, in the stillage of the first column. It is then separated from less volatile components in a second column. The mixture of water, formic acid and furfural is separated, initially be removing the formic acid. The formic acid-water azeotrope has considerable differences at varying pressures. As such, a pressure swing distillation concept is used to separate the formic acid. Furfural is partially miscible in water and forms an azeotrope with water. Its separation is achieved with the combination of two distillation columns and a decanter in between that manage to break the azeotrope.

9. B02, SBN 1000:  A New Example Has Been Added: Allogeneic Cell Therapy Manufacturing (Improvement)
   This example analyzes the manufacturing of autologous cell therapy products and viral vectors. Viral vectors are used as raw materials in cell therapy manufacturing and as drugs in gene therapy. The cell therapy process starts with white blood cells collected from the patient. The material is enriched in T cells that are subsequently activated, genetically modified with a viral vector, and expanded in a perfusion bioreactor. The lentiviral vector manufacturing process starts with cell expansion followed by viral production in a perfusion bioreactor. The broth is clarified by depth filtration and the product is purified by ultrafiltration-diafiltration and chromatography. This example includes two SuperPro files, one modeling the manufacturing of cell therapy products and the other modeling the manufacturing of viral vectors. 
   The example (and full documentation) can be found under the Pharmaceuticals subfolder in the Examples folder of SuperPro Designer.

10. B02, SBN 1000:  Multiple Configurations of Icons Are Now Exported to DXF Drawing Format (Improvement)
    SuperPro Designer supports (for a while now) several i/o port configurations for certain commonly used unit procedures (Vessel, Fermentation, Diafiltration, etc.). The extra configurations provide more input and/or output ports that can be utilized in case the list of operations behind the procedure is long and require access to more material coming in or going out. Exporting icons with expanded configurations did not have proper DXF representations and therefor any DXF export with such icons failed. This has now been fixed. 

11. B02, SBN 1000:  Unfortunate Cooling/Heating Target Specifications in a Heat Exchanging Operation Are Now Identified (Improvement)
    In some very rare circumstances, the temperature target set in a heat exchanging operation was such that the process stream at that target temperature and pressure was ill specified. For example, imagine the exit temperature of just process water was set to be 100° C (at 1 bar). Unless we know the desired vapor fraction of water we can't properly simulate the required heat exchange. Since vapor fraction for the outlet is NOT (at least not yet) part of the target specifications, if such unfortunate circumstances are identified they are now reported to the user.

12. B02, SBN 1000:  Vulnerability Concerns Addressed (Improvement)
    Some of our corporate users who tested the SuperPro Designer installation script reported to us that some third party scanners (such BDBA) reported some components installed by our application featuring a potential risk. None of the components reported were actually Intelligen's code but instead code provided by third-party software that our programs are built upon. We have since acquired new releases from all such software that minimize the vulnerability concerns in order to put our clients' mind at ease. For the record, Intelligen software has been deployed on hundreds of PCs for 25+ years and there has NEVER been a report of any incidents related to security violations on any of our customer sites. This upgrade will secure that this record remains as such in the years to come. 

13. B02, SBN 1000:  Electrowinning Cell Can Now Can Function as Electrolyzer  (Improvement)
    Starting with this release the Electrowinning Cell can now function as an Electrolyzer.
    
    
    
    W hen “Operate As Electrolyzer” is selected through the equipment data dialog, the program assumes that the equipment unit corresponds to a cell stack consisting of a number of cells as specified on the dialog. In design mode, the user specifies the number of cells and the maximum cell area, and the program calculates the number of units. In rating mode, the user specifies the number of cells and the cell area, and the program calculates the required cell area and complains if it is higher than the specified (rated) cell area.

14. B02, SBN 1000:  Decimal Point Symbol and Thousands Separator No Longer a User Option  (Bug Fix)
    Up to now SuperPro Designer allowed the user to select what symbol to use to designate the decimal point in numbers with a decimal part and the thousands separator for numbers that are over a thousand. However, this specification was in the way of settings by the Window's Locale settings and the result was a mixed bag of formatted numbers (some following the user's settings in SuperPro and some following Window's Locale). To avoid such confusion, we have removed the option of such specifications to be set by the user withing our application and the formatting strictly follows the Locale's settings. Please note that if you decide to change the locale from Windows Control Panel app, you may have to restart SuperPro Designer for the new settings to take effect.

15. B02, SBN 1000:  When Introducing a New Component Not All Identifiers Were Displayed  (Bug Fix)
    The dialog that appears when a new component is being introduced failed to present all the component identifies (IUPAC name, etc.); this has now been fixed. 

16. B02, SBN 1000:  When Editing a Component's Properties the Controls for Long Identifiers Didn't Allow for the Proper Name Length  (Bug Fix)
    After introducing a component, when attempting to view/edit the component's properties, the first tab is displaying (and allows the editing) of all identifiers that can be attached to a component (such as Formula, IUPAC name, Trade name, etc.). For some of those identifiers the editing controls didn't provide enough space to enter lengthy identifiers. This has now been fixed.

17. B02, SBN 1000:  Fixed Estimate for Electric Power Consumption in a Electrowinning Operation (Bug Fix)
    The power consumption was inaccurate due to a small error in the calculations. This has now been fixed. 

18. B02, SBN 1000:  In Some (Rare) Circumstances of Non-Ideal Mixtures in Extremely Low 2-Phase States, Flash Calculation Wouldn't Converge (Bug Fix)
    SuperPro Designer's domain applications didn't involve non-ideal mixtures at very low temperatures. Since a new process was recently required modeling of liquified hydrogen, we discovered that our flash calculations (in some conditions) failed to converge at such low temperatures. This has now been fixed.

19. B02, SBN 1000:  Heat of Vaporization Value not Updated (Bug Fix)
    When registering a new component, and visiting the T-Dependent properties tab, if the user changed the units for the value of Heat-of-Vaporization, the value didn't change to reflect the new setting. This has now been fixed.

20. B02, SBN 1000:  Heat Exchange Agent's Price Per Volume Units Incorrectly Taken (Bug Fix)
    When providing the price of a heat transfer agent on a per "gallon (STP)" or similar volume units, the price was incorrectly interpreted and used leading to incorrect agent costs. This has now been fixed. 

21. B02, SBN 1000:  Transfer Operations in GBX Did not Update Pressure (Bug Fix)
    When using transfer operations such as Charge, Transfer In, Pull in, etc. in a procedure hosted by a batch GBX (Generic Box), even though the generic box reports a holding volume, the operation calculations didn't update the box's content pressure. This has now been fixed. 

22. B02, SBN 1000:  Adjusting for New Resolution Now Properly Relocates Embedded OLE Objects (Bug Fix)
    When opening a SuperPro flowsheet with a resolution different from the one used when it was saved, SuperPro offers to adjust the location and/or size of icons/streams/visual objects so that they don't appear overly squeezed or too far apart. This adjustments was not applied to OLE embedded objects. This has now been fixed.

B01, SBN 1066  (doc no 13.0106), Release Date (11/25/2022)

1. B01, SBN 1066:  Gasification Operation i/o Dialog : Fuel Tab Didn't Show Properly (Bug Fix)
   When displaying the gasification operation's i/o dialog, the fuel tab didn't show properly its composition in a grid. This has now been fixed. 

2. B01, SBN 1065:  A New Example Has Been Added: Skim Milk Powder  (Improvement)
   A new example process has been added that deals with the production of skim milk powder. 
   Milk powder is the product obtained by dehydration of pasteurized milk which has the appearance of a uniform, lump-free, yellowish-white powder. It contains all the natural components of normal milk, while its fat content may vary. 
   This particular design is capabale of producing 3500 MT/year of cream and it requires a total CAPEX of around $53.6 million and annual operating expenditures (including depreciation) of around $29.2 million. 
   The example (and full documentation) can be found under the Food Processing subfolder in the Examples folder of SuperPro Designer.

3. B01, SBN 1066:  The HTML Format in Report Generation Failed to Produce Correct Reports (Bug Fix)
   When generating a report (Materials and Streams, Economic Evaluation, etc.) users can choose any one of several formats to be used when producing the report content (.rtf, .pdf, .html, .xls etc.). In the latest release the ".html" format failed to produce reports in that format. This has now been fixed. 

4. B01, SBN 1066:  Providing Volumetric Flows in STP units Didn't Work Properly (Bug Fix)
   When specifying the total volumetric flow of an input stream, STP-based units were employed (e.g. gallons-STP, liter-STP, etc.) the program failed to convert them properly to 'standard SI' units and vice versa. This has now been fixed.

5. B01, SBN 1066:  Changing Supply Unit from within the Chart Interface Fails (Bug Fix)
   When selecting a different Supply or Receiving unit from withing the chart interface sometimes the program would fail. This has now been fixed. 

B01, SBN 1065  (doc no 13.0106), Release Date (10/26/2022)

1. B01, SBN 1065:  When Setting the Volumetric Flow of an Input Stream in STD units Value Is not Kept Correctly (Bug Fix)
   When specifying the conditions of an input stream, the user can either specify the total mass (or volumetric) flow and the component compositions or the component flows directly. If the user opts to specify the total volumetric flow and chooses to employ units in 'standard conditions' (STD) e.g. STD-gal or STD-m3 etc. and exit the dialog, the next time the dialog is opened the value shown is different. This has now been fixed. 

2. B01, SBN 1065:  Minor Mishandling of LOD Calculations in Spray Drying, Rotary Drying and Fluid Bed Drying  (Bug Fix)
   Most of the drying operations' simulation module has been extensively revamped with an expanded scope to allow a secondary cooling section. Due to glitch in the calculations the LOD value (or evaporation percentages) in the secondary section were mishandled. This has now been fixed.

3. B01, SBN 1065:  The Adiabatic Temperature Rise of Gases after a CF Compression Was Miscalculated (Bug Fix)
   The centrifugal compression operation leads to an elevated temperature of the gases at the exit of the compressor; optionally a cooling system is applied to restrain the outlet temperature. The adiabatic temperature rise (before cooling is applied) was slightly off. This has now been fixed.

4. B01, SBN 1065:  Compression Operation's Power Efficiency Is Now an Operation Parameter (Improvement)
   In previous releases, the power efficiency was taken from the equipment description. Since the efficiency can vary significantly with the operating conditions (type of fluid, volumetric flow, pressure change etc.) the parameter has now been moved to the operation. 

B01, SBN 1060  (doc no 13.0106), Release Date (10/15/2022)

1. B01, SBN 1060:  Viewing the Dynamic Record as a Table Would (Sometimes) Fail (Bug Fix)
   SuperPro creates a temporary ASCII file where it saves the time-dependent values of selected properties that result from a model that is governed by first order differential equations (e.g. a batch reaction), then it displays the ASCII file and later deletes the file from the hard disk. In some modern computers, where the spawning of process that will run "Notepad" happens asynchronously, by the time Notepad attempts to open the file the program would have already deleted and as a result a "File Not Found" error was displayed. This has now been fixed.

2. B01, SBN 1060:  When a Filtration Operation Detects a Component with a Non-Zero RC Coeff but in Vapor Phase the Error Message Mentions Now the Name(s) of Such Component(s) (Improvement)
   When solving the mass and energy balances of a filtration operations, when any component was found in the vapor phase but with an RC coefficient non-zero, an error message would be generated. Unfortunately, the error did not mention the offending component(s). This has now been fixed. Also, when this condition was encountered the simulation code would skip entirely the M&E balances for that operation. Now, it simply moves the gaseous component right to the filtrate (along with other gaseous components) and the rest of the components are separated normally. 

3. B01, SBN 1060:  No Database Files Are Accessed During and Right-After the M&E Balances Are Executed (Improvement)
   After the M&E balances are done, SuperPro Designer wanted to update data on the Process Explorer interface. This process used to invoke and open the system and/or the user database. The update is now done without accessing the databases for efficiency.

4. B01, SBN 1060:  When No Internet Connection Is Available and the Help File ('designer.chm') Was Not Available, Invoking the Help System Would Appear to Hang (Bug Fix)
   When requesting context-sensitive help, SuperPro Designer first opts to retrieve the necessary information from a web location where the Intelligen team publishes the contents of all the help and constantly is working on improving the content. However, when a user operates in an environment where no internet connection is available, the (static) help content is supposed to be retrieved from a 'chm' file ('designer.chm') that is typically copied in the same folder as all the other application files. If - for some reason - the file is not there, the program is supposed to inform the user. This didn't used to happen but instead the program would appear to keep searching for an internet connection. This has now been fixed.

5. B01, SBN 1060:  Zero Flow and Zero Mass Tolerances Are User-Editable (Improvement)
   In several instances the program needs to decide if a component is present or not. For example, when displaying the component composition of an intermediate or output stream it only presents a line for each component found 'present'. In many cases components are present in extremely small amounts (flows) on streams. The value that the program is using to decide that is now displayed as part of the Physical Units Options... dialog (from the context help menu of the flowsheet)
   
   
   
   The amount (in kg or any other unit selected under 'Operations/Equipment') is used when deciding amounts present as equipment contents (e.g. when displaying the Equipment Contents dialog).

6. B01, SBN 1060:  Centrifugation, Homogenization, Bead Milling, Fanning Minor Error in the Energy Balance (Bug Fix)
   When performing the energy balance as part of the simulation of a centrifugation / Homogenization / Bead Milling and Fanning operations, due to a glitch in the software, the effect of added shaft work and the power dissipation on the calculation of final temperature (beyond the adiabatic rise) was not take into account properly. This has now been fixed.

7. B01, SBN 1060:  Homogenization & Bead Milling Now Ask the User if the Operation Is Meant for Cell Disruption (Bug Fix)
   When using a homogenization or bead milling operation previously the program would let you exit the i/o simulation dialog with or without the proper specification of cell breakup (simulated as a reaction). This could lead to ambiguous interpretations as for someone who truly intended to use this step as a cell disruption step omiting the description of what the cell disruption produces would be a mistake. However, when the homogenization step is intended to be used in the context of a food process, this description is not necessary.
   
   

8. B01, SBN 1060:  Cell Disruption Operations Calculate the Intra/Extra Cellular Percentage Properly and Have Stricter Constraints in the Selection of Reactants/Products  (Improvement)
   High-Pressure Homogenization and Bead Milling are two steps that allow users to simulate the breakage of live cells (biomass) to release what's been kept internally. The operations simulation this transformation as a 'reaction' where the biomass cells turn into products (typically dead-biomass and/or debris, proteins and perhaps some other chemicals. At the same time, the program will automatically convert any substances that, upon entering the cell disruption step, had a non-zero intra-cellular portion, into extra-cellular. The extend depends on the extend of cell disruption accomplished in that step and as described (or specified) by the operation's i/o simulation dialog. A common mistake could be to include in the list of products of this reaction, components that already have been described as intra-cellular. To avoid such mistake the program now warns you if this is encountered. Also, since the cell disruption step only makes sense to be applied to biomass components, the program now does not allow you to pick any registered component on the reactant side but only components designated as 'biomass'. 
   
   
   
   Also, after M&E balances are carried out, you will get a warning if any of the 'products' of cell discruption haved a non-zero intracellular portion.

9. B01, SBN 1060:  A New Example Process Has Been Added: Production of Levulinic Acid  (Improvement)
   This example process can be found under the 'Levulinic Acid' sub-folder of the sample Bio-Material processes ("Examples\Bio-Materials").
   This example analyzes the production of levulinic acid from lignocellulosic biomass (corn stover in this case), based on the Biofine process. Biomass hydrolysis and levulinic acid formation take place in the same reactors. Formic acid, furfural and humins are co-produced in the process. The products are separated and purified in the downstream section by a series of distillation columns operating at different pressures and temperatures. Levulinic acid is separated from the lighter water, formic acid, and furfural, in the stillage of the first column. It is then separated from less volatile components in a second column. The mixture of water, formic acid and furfural is separated, initially be removing the formic acid. The formic acid-water azeotrope has considerable differences at varying pressures. As such, a pressure swing distillation concept is used to separate the formic acid. Furfural is partially miscible in water and forms an azeotrope with water. Its separation is achieved with the combination of two distillation columns and a decanter in between that manage to break the azeotrope.