On November 7, 2018, the Methods & Tools Special Interest Group has issued a Request for Comments to the CO-LaN membership regarding the interface specification for Flowsheet Monitoring.
Over the past years, the M&T SIG has developed an interface specification document on Flowsheet Monitoring which is the ability to access all elements in a flowsheet without interfering with the flowsheet. Flowsheet Monitoring Components are software components that can be plugged into a flowsheet and have access to all thermodynamic property calculation methods, all Streams and all Unit Operations.
The main concepts on the functionality Flowsheet Monitoring covers have been floating around for some time. At the CAPE-OPEN 2007 Annual Meeting, University of Trieste presented on how to make use of the US EPA WAR algorithm in a CAPE-OPEN PME. This was feasible but difficult without the possibilities offered by what is now the Flowsheet Monitoring interface specification.
Bill BARRETT and Jasper van BATEN have published on the subject. See BARRETT, W. M. AND J. van Baten. Evaluating Process Sustainability Using Flowsheet Monitoring. Chemical Engineering & Technology. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co., Weinheim, Germany, 35(8):1405-1411, (2012). In that paper they proposed the first version of the Flowsheet Monitoring interface specification.
So the specification as it stands now is the result of a long development process and has evolved over time through the input of quite a number of CO-LaN members.
The Methods & Tools Special Interest Group has asked the CO-LaN membership to deliver comments by December 31, 2018.