OpenEdu | 中華開放教育平台

This MOOC provides the students with a self-study, step-by-step guide to doing
thermodynamic calculations in Aspen Plus. It provides actual operation of the Aspen
Plus interface to solve example problems of specific types, including vapor–liquid,
liquid–liquid, vapor–liquid–liquid and chemical reaction equilibria, and simple
applications to liquefaction, distillation, and liquid–liquid extraction. One important
feature is that learning occurs by means of illustration. It is not a course of rules but
of specific examples, encouraging students to generalize from those examples
and apply what they have observed to a specific problem.

The purpose of this MOOC is to introduce the student to the use of Aspen Plus in
thermodynamics; consequently, very few of the process simulation capabilities are
considered here. In undergraduate chemical engineering degree programs, process
simulation is heavily used in the capstone design course, and this is where its details
and intricacies are generally taught. This course serves as a prelude to instruction in
the more complex process simulation and provides a coherent approach to
introducing the Aspen Plus simulator in undergraduate thermodynamics courses. We
hope it will make such courses more interesting and relevant by allowing
calculations of real processes that would otherwise be very tedious. One advantage
of doing such calculations by computer is that repetitive calculations with varying
parameters are quickly achieved so that the student gains experience in the ways in
which different input parameters affect the output. Such calculations develop
engineering insight. Any instructor knows that asking students to do repetitive
calculations by hand is met with moans and groans. Doing a calculation for one
case is an important learning activity while doing many cases by hand has much
less pedagogical return for the student’s time investment.

Undergraduate students

Applications on vapor–liquid, liquid–liquid, vapor–liquid–liquid and chemical
reaction equilibria, and simple applications to liquefaction, distillation, and
liquid–liquid extraction.

Week 1：Pure Component Property Analysis
Week 2：The NIST ThermoData Engine (TDE)
Week 3：Vapor–Liquid Equilibrium Calculations using Activity Coefficient Models
Week 4：Vapor–Liquid Equilibrium Calculations Using an Equation of State
Week 5：Regression of Liquid–Liquid Equilibrium (LLE) Data and
Vapor–Liquid–Liquid Equilibrium (VLLE) and Predictions
Week 6：The Property Methods Assistant and Property Estimation
Week 7：Chemical Reaction Equilibrium and Distillation Calculations
Week 8：Liquid–Liquid Extraction and Sensitivity Analysis
Week 9：Electrolyte Solutions

Unit quiz, overall quiz, homework, mid-term exam, final-term exam