The COCO Simulator is a free-of-charge, non-commercial, graphical, modular and CAPE-OPEN compliant, steady-state, sequential simulation process modeling

Chemical process modeling

Chemical process modeling is a computer modeling technique used in chemical engineering process design. It typically involves using purpose-built software to define a system of interconnected components, which are then solved so that the steady-state or dynamic behavior of the system can be...

 environment. It was originally intended as a test environment for CAPE-OPEN modeling tools but now provides free chemical process

Chemical process

In a "scientific" sense, a chemical process is a method or means of somehow changing one or more chemicals or chemical compounds. Such a chemical process can occur by itself or be caused by somebody. Such a chemical process commonly involves a chemical reaction of some sort...

 simulation

Computer simulation

A computer simulation, a computer model, or a computational model is a computer program, or network of computers, that attempts to simulate an abstract model of a particular system...

 for students. It is an open flowsheet modeling environment allowing anyone to add new unit operations or thermodynamics

Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics is a physical science that studies the effects on material bodies, and on radiation in regions of space, of transfer of heat and of work done on or by the bodies or radiation...

 packages.

The COCO Simulator uses a graphical representation, the Process Flow Diagram (PFD)

Process Flow diagram

A process flow diagram is a diagram commonly used in engineering to indicate the general flow of plant processes and equipment.The PFD displays the relationship between major equipment of a plant facility and does not show minor details such as piping details and designations...

, for defining the process to be simulated. Clicking on a unit operation with the mouse allows the user to edit the unit operation parameters it defines via the CAPE-OPEN standard or to open the unit operation's own user interface, when available. This interoperability of process modeling software was enabled by the advent of the CAPE-OPEN standard. COCO thermodynamic library "TEA" and its chemical compound data bank

Thermodynamic databases for pure substances

Thermodynamic databases contain information about thermodynamic properties for substances, the most important being enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs free energy. Numerical values of these thermodynamic properties are collected as tables or are calculated from thermodynamic datafiles...

 are based on ChemSep LITE, a free equilibrium column simulator for distillation

Continuous distillation

Continuous distillation, a form of distillation, is an ongoing separation in which a mixture is continuously fed into the process and separated fractions are removed continuously as output streams. A distillation is the separation or partial separation of a liquid feed mixture into components or...

 columns and liquid-liquid extractors

Liquid-liquid extraction

Liquid–liquid extraction, also known as solvent extraction and partitioning, is a method to separate compounds based on their relative solubilities in two different immiscible liquids, usually water and an organic solvent. It is an extraction of a substance from one liquid phase into another liquid...

. COCO's thermodynamic library exports more than 100 property calculation methods with their analytical or numerical derivatives. COCO includes a LITE version of COSMOtherm, an activity coefficient model based on Ab initio quantum chemistry methods

Ab initio quantum chemistry methods

Ab initio quantum chemistry methods are computational chemistry methods based on quantum chemistry. The term ab initiowas first used in quantum chemistry by Robert Parr and coworkers, including David Craig in a semiempirical study on the excited states of benzene.The background is described by Parr...

. The simulator entails a set of unit-operations such as stream splitters/mixers, heat-exchangers

Heat exchanger

A heat exchanger is a piece of equipment built for efficient heat transfer from one medium to another. The media may be separated by a solid wall, so that they never mix, or they may be in direct contact...

, compressors

Gas compressor

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume.Compressors are similar to pumps: both increase the pressure on a fluid and both can transport the fluid through a pipe. As gases are compressible, the compressor also reduces the volume of a gas...

, pumps and reactors

Chemical reactor

In chemical engineering, chemical reactors are vessels designed to contain chemical reactions. The design of a chemical reactor deals with multiple aspects of chemical engineering. Chemical engineers design reactors to maximize net present value for the given reaction...

. COCO features a reaction

Chemical reaction

A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. Chemical reactions can be either spontaneous, requiring no input of energy, or non-spontaneous, typically following the input of some type of energy, such as heat, light or electricity...

 numerics package to power its simple conversion, equilibrium, CSTR

Continuous stirred-tank reactor model

The continuous stirred-tank reactor , also known as vat- or backmix reactor, is a common ideal reactor type in chemical engineering. A CSTR often refers to a model used to estimate the key unit operation variables when using a continuous agitated-tank reactor to reach a specified output...

, Gibbs minimization and plug flow

Plug flow

In fluid mechanics, plug flow is a simple model of the velocity profile of a fluid flowing in a pipe. In plug flow, the velocity of the fluid is assumed to be constant across any cross-section of the pipe perpendicular to the axis of the pipe...

 reactor models.

See also

• Process design (chemical engineering)
• List of Chemical Process Simulators
• Thermodynamic and thermophysical data
  Dortmund Data Bank
  The Dortmund Data Bank is a factual data bank for thermodynamic and thermophysical data. Its main usage is the data supply for process simulation where experimental data are the basis for the design, analysis, synthesis, and optimization of chemical processes...
  
  
• Standard temperature and pressure

External links

• Homepage of the COCO Simulator
• CO-LaN - the CAPE-OPEN Laboratories Network is a neutral industry and academic association promoting open interface standards in process simulation software. CO-LaN members are committed to making Computer Aided Process Engineering easier, faster and less expensive by achieving complete interoperability of compliant commercial CAPE software tools. CO-LaN supports and maintains the CAPE-OPEN interface standards.