SciLab CAPE-OPEN Unit Operation

The SciLab CAPE-OPEN Unit Operation is a unit operation implementation for which the calculations can be entered in SciLab.

To get started with the SciLab CAPE-OPEN unit operation, start your CAPE-OPEN capable simulation environment. Insert a SciLab CAPE-OPEN unit operation. Edit a unit operation. Define feed and product ports. Go back to the simulation environment and connect streams to the ports.

Now edit the unit operation again. On the SciLab tab you can enter the SciLab calculation script. This script can obtain feed properties using the getFeedProp function. It can then do calculations, using thermo-dynamic calculations that are based on the underlying thermodynamic system of the simulation environment the unit operation is running in. It must specify all the product streams using setProduct, that takes composition and flow as well as two other properties required to specify the thermodynamic phase equilibrium.

A very simple example script would look like:

f1=getFeedProp(1,"flow") f2=getFeedProp(2,"flow") h1=getFeedProp(1,"enthalpy") h2=getFeedProp(2,"enthalpy") p1=getFeedProp(1,"pressure") p2=getFeedProp(2,"pressure") p=min(p1,p2) f=f1+f2 h=(h1*f1+h2*f2)/f totF=sum(f) setProduct(1,totF,f/totF,"pressure",p,"enthalpy",h)

Requirements

The SciLab unit operation will function in CAPE-OPEN compliant simulation environments that support version 1.1 thermodynamics. It has been tested in the COCO simulator and ProSimPlus 3.

The 32-bit version of SciLab 5.02 (or higher) or the 64-bit version of SciLab 5.4 (or higher) must be installed and running at your system. You can obtain a copy of SciLab from http://www.SciLab.org/.

CAPE-OPEN/COCO
Compliant

More information

Online Help
Alqaheem, Y. and Alobaid, M., Development of a membrane process in CAPE-OPEN to CAPE-OPEN (COCO) simulator for carbon dioxide separation, Results in Engineering (2024), 22, 102239
Csendes, V, F, Egedy, A., Leveneur, S, Kummer, A., Application of Multi-Software Engineering: A Review and a Kinetic Parameter Identification Case Study, Processes (2023), 11, 1503
Cloete, S., del Pozo, C.A., Cloete, J.H., Álvaro, A.J., The future of fuels: Uncertainty quantification study of mid-century ammonia and methanol production costs, Energy Conversion and Management 297 (2023) 117701
del Pozo, C.A., Cloete, S., Álvaro, A.J., Techno-economic assessment of integrated NH3-power co-production with CCS and energy storage in an LNG regasification terminal, Applied Energy 356 (2024) 122381
del Pozo, C.A., Álvaro, A.J., Cloete, S., Methanol from solid fuels: A cost-effective route to reduced emissions and enhanced energy security, Energy Conversion and Management 270 (2022), 116272
del Pozo, C.A., Álvaro, A.J., Cloete, S., Techno-economic assessment of long-term methanol production from natural gas and renewables, Energy Conversion and Management 266 (2022), 115785
Cloete, S., del Pozo, C.A., Álvaro, A.J., System-friendly process design: Optimizing blue hydrogen production for future energy systems, Energy (2022) 259
del Pozo, C.A., Cloete, S., Techno-economic assessment of blue and green ammonia as energy carriers in a low-carbon future, Energy Conversion and Management 255 (2022), 115312
del Pozo, C.A., Cloete, S., Álvaro, A.J., Carbon-negative hydrogen: Exploring the techno-economic potential of biomass co-gasification with CO2 capture, Energy Conversion and Management 247 (2021) 114712
Szima, S., del Pozo, C.A., Cloete, S., Chiesa, P., Álvaro, A.J., Cormos, A.-M., Amini, S., Finding synergy between renewables and coal: Flexible power and hydrogen production from advanced IGCC plants with integrated CO2 capture, Energy Conversion and Management 231 (2021), 113866
del Pozo, C.A., Cloete, S., Chiesa, P., Álvaro, A.J., Jiménez, A., Amini, S., Integration of gas switching combustion and membrane reactors for exceeding 50% efficiency in flexible IGCC plants with near-zero CO2 emissions, Energy Conversion and Management: X, 7 (2020), 100050
van Baten, J.M., Taylor, R. and Kooijman, H., Using ChemSep, COCO and other modeling tools for versatility in custom process modeling. Extended abstract of presentation, AIChE annual meeting, Saltlake city, November 2010
van Baten, J.M., Rapid prototyping of unit operation models using generic tools and CAPE-OPEN, extended abstract, 6th US CAPE-OPEN conference, AIChE annual meeting, Nashville, November 2009.
SciLab Wiki
Tolksdorf, G., Esche, E., Wozny, G., Repke, J.-U., Customized code generation based on user specifications for simulation and optimization, Computers and Chemical Engineering 121 (2019) 670-684

Availability

The SciLab CAPE-OPEN Unit Operation installer is available from the Downloads Page.
The SciLab CAPE-OPEN Unit Operation is free of charge for personal and academic use.

For commercial use, a license fee must be paid. Licensing is on a per-person basis (and can be used on multiple computers). Commercial license fee for a perpetual license is € 150,- (if you are outside the European union or inside Spain, VAT of 21% is applicable).

For other forms of licenses, please contact info@amsterchem.com.
Please see the Downloads page for downloading the SciLab CAPE-OPEN Unit Operation.
Example

This membrane separator SciLab CAPE-OPEN unit operation was provided by Torbjørn Pettersen - Thermos AS - Norway:

The example is set up in COFE and is available for download:
BioGasSeparationScilab.fsd
Change log

Version 1.0.4

storing last window rectangle for the unit operation edit dialog between editing (not stored between sessions)
disable vertical scrolling to fix apparent hangup in SciLab 5.1

Version 1.0.5

fixed hitting ESC on SciLab script dialog
fixed placement of buttons on parameter tab

Version 1.0.6

fixed broken links in help file
external calls replaced by interface routines for performance of thermo calls

Version 1.0.7

ensuring proper locale when storing / loading files
fix for error getting product ports by name

Version 1.0.8

adapted DLL to load properly into SciLab 5.2 to fix version incompatibilities
adapted start-up script to load new DLL in 5.2 and previous DLL in 5.1 and earlier

Version 1.0.9

Fix to incorrect 1.0.8 distribution files

Version 1.0.10.0

corrected error message on type check long array contained in Variant
adjustments for 5.3 family

Version 1.0.10.0

changed CapeVersion from 1.1 to 1.0 (refers to unit, not thermo standard version)

Version 1.0.11.0

updated runtime libraries
support for x64 SciLab (version 5.4 or higher)
support for running in x64 simulation environments
current-user installation option (allows for installation for users without administrative rights)

Version 1.0.13.0

added logMessage function

Version 1.0.14.0

adjustments for 5.4 family (beta; alpha will not run any more with these tools due to binary compatibility changes)

Version 1.0.15.0

fixed problems with uninstallation of current user install
next installation will default to single user in case only single user version is already installed
upgraded compiler

Version 1.0.16.0

avoid use of deprecated sscanf

Version 1.0.17.0

added Consumes_Thermo_CATID, SupportsThermodynamics10_CATID and SupportsThermodynamics11_CATID

Version 1.0.18.0

Edit returns S_FALSE in case the unit remains unchanged, allowing the simulation environment not to invalidate the solution

Version 1.0.19.0

Fixed problem with button locations on parameter tab when sizing dialog

Version 1.0.20.0

Restored support for winXP

Version 1.0.21.0

Fixed problem with file lock due to error handling

Version 1.0.22.0

Fixed problem with crash on file comparison

Version 1.0.23.0

Fixed buffer overrun

Version 1.0.24.0

Compiler upgrades

Version 1.0.25.0

Correction to file comparison (file changed detection)

Version 2.0.0.0

Compiler upgrade
Help spell checked
Code spell checked
Code signed
30 day registration-free operation allowed; after that free or commercial registration is required
Inter procedural optimization

Version 2.0.0.1

Thread safety fix for locale usage
Compression library updated

Version 2.0.0.2

Compiler upgrade
Fix to string parameters

Version 2.0.0.3

Fixed problem with registration message in non-registered versions

Version 2.0.0.4

Compiler upgrade
Support for Scilab 6.0 beta

Version 2.0.0.5

Resolved issues with lingering report list at load model
Work-around for output file access issues when running concurrent instances of unit operations

Version 2.0.0.6

Fixed problems with empty arrays

Version 2.0.0.7

Allowing for more than 32k characters in script text boxes

Version 2.0.0.8

Fixed detection of x86 Scilab from x64 unit operation and vice versa

Version 2.0.0.9

Compiler upgrade
Check for sum(X)=1 to avoid composition unit of measure confusion (6.0 only)

Version 2.0.0.10

Compiled for release 6.0 (breaks compatibility with 6.0.0.0-beta)

Version 2.0.0.11

Compiler upgrade
Improved error handling for Scilab 6.0

Version 2.0.0.12

Compiler upgrade
Replaced -nwni command line option for -nogui (as the former is no longer supported by Scilab 6.0.0.1)

Version 2.0.0.13

Compiler upgrade
Dropped support for Windows XP

Version 2.0.0.14

Support for Scilab 6.1

Version 2.0.0.15

Fixed issue with parameter collection in absense of parameters

Version 2.0.0.16

Support for Scilab 6.1.1

Version 2.0.0.17

Compiler upgrade
More elaborate output on failure to open output file
Removed use of strmpi (which is no longer supported by Scilab) from the example

Version 2.0.0.18

Support for Scilab 2023.0, 2024.0

Version 2.0.0.19

Support for Scilab 2024.1 (correction for removed support of nogui command line option)