While flowsheet simulation tools are well established in Chemical Engineering for processes dealing with fluids, the use of such tools is not very common yet for processes involving solids.
In the year 2013 the DFG Priority Programm SPP 1679 “Dynamic Simulation of Interconnected Solids Processes (Dynamische Simulation verntetzter Feststoffprozesse”) has been started. This Program is headed by Prof. Heinrich and consists of 29 research projects, which are distributed among several German universities and are thematically divided into four main groups.

An important part of the SPP 1679 plays the dynamic simulation system Dyssol. This system has been developed in our Institute and has been designed to integrate models, algorithms and methods developed within the SPP program. The Dyssol system is able to handle process with complex structures, considering solid, liquid and vapour phases and their mixtures.

The Dyssol system is based on the sequential-modular approach, where each model is calculated separately. This makes it possible to use multiple, specialized solvers for the calculation of a flowsheet simultaneously, leading to high flexibility in the development of models. Distinctive features of the new system are: dynamic calculation of complex process structures; advanced handling of multidimensional dependent distributed properties; providing standardized interfaces for the implementation of new models.

The framework and process models are presented in the book Dynamic Flowsheet Simulation of Solids Processes which was published in 2020.

Dyssol Framework

DYSSOL can be found on GitHub.

References

[1] Skorych V., Dosta M., Heinrich S. (2020). Dyssol - an open-source flowsheet simulation framework for particulate materials. SoftwareX 12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.softx.2020.100572

[2] Dosta M., Litster J., Heinrich S. (2020). Flowsheet simulation of solids processes: Current status and future trends. Adv. Powd. Techn. 31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apt.2019.12.015