DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNOLOGIES AND ANALYTICAL CAPABILITIES FOR VISION 21 ENERGY PLANTS

A software review meeting was held at Fluent Inc. in Lebanon, NH on January 31-February 1, 2002. The team reviewed the current status of the software and its compliance with the software requirements (Task 2). Work on a fuel cell based power-plant flow sheet that incorporates a reformer CFD model was started. This test case includes more features (multiple ports, temperature dependent properties) than the mixing tank test case developed earlier and will be used for the further testing of the software (Task 2). The software development plan was finalized (Task 2.7). The design and implementation of a CFD database was commenced. The CFD database would store various models that a process analyst can use in the flowsheet model (Task 2.8). The COM-CORBA Bridge was upgraded to use the recently published version 0.9.3 CAPE-OPEN specifications. Work on transferring reaction kinetics data from Aspen Plus to Fluent was started (Task 2.11). The requirements for extending CAPE-OPEN interfaces in Aspen Plus to transfer temperature dependent properties to Fluent was written and communicated to the Aspen Tech developer of CAPE-OPEN interfaces (Task 2.12). A prototype of low-order model based on the Multiple Regression technique was written. A low-order model is required to speed up the calculations with the integrated model (Task 2.19). The Berkshire Power (Agawam, MA) combined-cycle power plant was selected as the Demonstration Case 2 (Task 3.2). A CFD model of the furnace in Demonstration Case 1 was developed. The furnace model will be incorporated into the flowsheet model already developed for this case (Task 4.1). A new hire joined the Fluent development team for this project. The project management plan was revised based on the software development plan. A presentation on the project status was made at the Clearwater Conference, March 4-7, 2002. The final manuscript for ESCAPE-12 conference was submitted (Task 7.0)