General

1.Compare HF and H2SO4 alkylation process.

HF Alkylation:

 HF is less viscous, Isobutane is much more soluble in HF than in H2SO4,

hence less agitation required for mixing.
 Feed is injected at the bottom of tubular reactor through nozzles into
continuous HF phase. No mechanical stirring
 Reaction temperature is around ~30 degC, hence water used as coolant.
 HF alkylation is less sensitive to temperature fluctuations than
H2SO4 alkylation
 HF can be more easily regenerated than H2SO4 in the alkylation process
 HF Alkylation is more flexible but has greater safety concerns. HF forms
vapour cloud & is very hazardous. It can penetrate & damage human
tissue & bone.

H2SO4 Alkylation:

 High isobutane/olefin ratios, low reaction temperature ~5 degC.

 Refrigerant required, higher residence time ~40 min, mechanical stirring
for mixing.
 Reactor effluent treated prior to fractionation (post fractionation
treatment with HF).
 Neutralization of spent acid required

2.Compare the different reformer configurations available in HYSYS

Catalyst Regeneration:
Continuous
Semi-Regenerative

Beds: 3 to 6

With or without recontactor

3.What are the key inbounds and outbounds for the Planning, Scheduling and
Simulation verticals in the entire application landscape?

Inbounds:
 Crude/Raw Material quality, quantity, price, availabilty.
 Product requirement, product price, constraints on unit capacities &
product quality
 Unit Models, B+D vectors

Outbounds:
 Optimum profit, unit capacities & operating parameters, product quality,
raw material required
 
SCM
1.What is the best way to obtain the delta coefficient values while generating the
LP Models?

Calibrate unit model with plant data, select best representative case as base case.
Run model with small perturbations (+/-5%) in variables which are being used in
LP around their base case values. LP utility tool available in simulator (Hysys,
Petrosim) can be used to generate delta coefficient.

2.What is the purpose of Stream Data Assistant, Solution tracker and Matrix
Analyzer in Aspen PIMS?

Stream Data Assistant: For tracing stream source & destination, identify tables in
which streams are present. Stream texts can be updated to maintain consistent
descriptions in all the tables.

Solution tracker: Used to analyze distributed recursion runs, search for areas of
model that did not converge.

Matrix Analyzer: Examine constraint structure, material balance equation,

Search for row, column names

3.How can one enter manual assay data in Spiral Plan?

Use assay editor, setup assay streams (cuts) in streams page or directly enter it in
Measurements page. All assay data are entered in Measurements page. Data from
excel can be directly pasted. Columns represent streams and rows represent
properties. After entering data, click generate button.

4.What is the difference in Process models, modes and multi-bases in Spiral Plan?
Can the multibases be extrapolated beyond the parameter values?

Don’t know
 

Simulation
1.What are the methods to define the petroleum assay in aspen HYSYS? How are
these methods different? When to use which method?

Three different methods are available to define petroleum assay in Aspen hysys

Import from Library: When we want to use assay available in Aspen Hysys library

Import from file: When we have assay data file available with us in format as
specified & allowed in Aspen Hysys.

Manually Enter: We can manually enter the assay data in three different forms
-Multi-cut properties: When we have data for different cuts
 -Single stream properties: When we have data for single stream only
-BackBlending: When we have data of different products, we can generate the
feed by back blending all product streams data

2.How do you get the azeotropic mixtures composition and number of azeotropes
from a set of components?

Azeotropic search utility is available in aspen plus under Analysis-Ternary

diagram; it provides the details regarding number of azeotropes and mixture
composition at which azeotrope is formed at any given pressure.

3.What are the steps to design a column using ConSep Unit Operation in Aspen
Plus? Take one example and explain.

Specify components, property method, put ConSep module on flowsheet, attach

feed & product streams, define feed stream, define ConSep Input parameters
Input:
Outlet (Distillate & Bottom stream) Composition or recovery
Reflux or boilup ratio
Operating Pressure

Example: Seperation of benzene, toluene, p-xylene

99% benzene & 1% toluene recovery in distillate

P-Xylene recovery in bottoms

Components Feed Distillate Bottom

Wt% Mass Recovery % Mass Recovery %
Benzene 33 99
Toluene 33 1
P-Xylene 34 99.999

Reflux Ratio: 2
Operating Pressure: 1 bar

4.What are the default convergence methods for tear stream and design spec?
what is the reason for them being the default one?

Tear Steam: Wegstein Method, extrapolation of direct substitution iteration,

quick and reliable for tear convergence.

Design Spec: Secant Method, secant linear approximation method with higher
order enhancement, used when function is discontinuous, non monotonic or flat
over a region.
5.What is the difference between the sensitivity analysis, calculator block and the
design spec in Aspen Plus? State one use of calculator parameters in design
spec by example.
Sensitivity: Captures variation in dependent process variable with respect to
variation in independent variable

Calculator block: Allows user calculation to be inserted & used in flowsheet

Design Spec: To get a desired value of any dependent variable in flowsheet by

varying an independent variable

Example: If we want to maintain H2/HC ratio to Hydrotreater at certain value by

varying makeup H2, we can use calculator block & design spec

H2/HC ratio can be calculated using Calculator block, design spec can be used to
maintain it at desired value by varying makeup H2.

6.How can AI/ML resolve process optimization problems? Give some use cases.
- AI/ML can be used for correlating output variable of the units with input
variables & operating parameters using available historical plant data.
These then can be used for optimization of unit.
- AI/ML can also be used for finding out the best operating zones of the unit.
- For some components binary interaction parameters are not known or not
available in simulators, in such cases one can make use of available plant
data and develop some kind of hybrid models using AI/ML which will
combine the capabilities of first principle thermodynamic model with
correlations developed using plant data.
- AI/ML can be used for calculation of properties (eg. cetane number) for
which first principle thermodynamic methods are not available.

7.What is the purpose of HYPlan Model Utility? What are the predefined templates
available? How is this different from Aspen PIMS Model Analysis Utility in
HYSYS? 

- Have not used Model Analysis Utility (HYPLAN, PIMS Support [not available
in V9 & higher])