Flowsheet Monitoring interfaceA paper by researchers from Politecnico di Milano was made available on line today by Elsevier in Computers & Chemical Engineering. It addresses the optimal design of chemical plants by taking into account waste reduction.

In the example used to present their methodology, the authors modelled the cumene process in UniSim Design  while the environmental sustainability of the process was assessed with the WAR algorithm present in COFE. It would have been easier and less error prone to model the process in COFE and to make use of the COWAR component from US Environmental Protection Agency there.

Still the researchers seem to have found the use of the COWAR algorithm in COFE easy enough to use. The link between COWAR and COFE relies on a prototype version of the Flowsheet Monitoring interface specification. It is envisioned by both AmsterCHEM and US Environmental Protection Agency to update the connection through the CAPE-OPEN Flowsheet Monitoring interface once this specification is definitely approved by CO-LaN.