Aspen Polymers

(formerly Aspen Polymers Plus™)

Conceptual design of polymerization processes

Additional Resources

Product Brochure

Aspen Polymers is a market-leading, first-principles polymer modeling technology for accurate and reliable simulation and optimization of polymer processes. It is fully integrated with industry-standard simulators, including Aspen Plus®, Aspen Plus Dynamics®, and Aspen Custom Modeler®. Aspen Polymers is a core element of AspenTech’s aspenONE® Engineering applications.

Features

Efficient workflow for process design, equipment sizing, and preliminary cost estimation within one environment through integration with other aspenONE Engineering tools, including Aspen Process Economic Analyzer cost modeling software and Aspen HTFS+® heat exchanger design tools.
Online deployment of models as part of an open-loop operator advisory system or as a soft-senor in advanced process control applications when used with Aspen Online Deployment™ and Aspen Simulation Workbook™.
Polymer characterization using AspenTech’s patented technology to fully characterize polymers and oligomers, and to track the evolution of molecular weight distribution for most types of polymers.
Industry-leading physical properties, employing state-of-the-art polymer activity coefficient models and equations of state; includes extensive databases of polymer segments, initiators, and phase equilibrium parameters.
Polymerization kinetics includes the most comprehensive set of polymerization kinetic schemes available on the market. User-defined reactions can be included to account for new or unusual chemistries.

Options

Aspen Polymers can be used for steady-state process simulation inside Aspen Plus or dynamically with Aspen Plus Dynamics or Aspen Custom Modeler. Aspen Plus Dynamics and Aspen Custom Modeler environments are intrinsically equation-oriented, making them ideal platforms for simulating gas-phase polyolefin processes or other polymerization processes involving high recycle rates and/or complex flowsheets.

Aspen Plus Dynamics is used to carry out safety and controllability studies, examine reactor dynamics in detail, size relief valves, optimize transition policies, and develop startup and shutdown policies for polymerization plants.
Aspen Custom Modeler is fully integrated with Aspen Polymers. It can be used to develop custom models of polymerization processes or equipment, such as reactors, dryers, extruders, and crystallizers; these models can be re-used inside Aspen Plus.

Benefits

Aspen Polymers can be used across the full manufacturing cycle. The key business benefits include:
Research and Development: Use simulation to reduce experimentation in the bench-scale and pilot plant units, enabling faster introduction of new products into the market.
Engineering: Use Aspen Polymers to identify optimal operating conditions, leading to 2-10% increased capacity, lead to incremental profit increases of $1-15M/year.
Safety: Use Aspen Polymers with Aspen Plus Dynamics to conduct reactor runaway and shut-down safety analyses.
Operations: Use Aspen Polymers models as online soft sensors to monitor process operations and as an offline engineering tool to evaluate grade transition policies in order to minimize transition time and off-spec product.