AN OVERVIEW OF SUPERCHEMS FOR DIERS - A PROGRAM FOR EMERGENCY RELIEF SYSTEM AND EFFLUENT HANDLING DESIGNS

The Design Institute for Emergency Relief Systems (DIERS) Users Group awarded Arthur D. Little, Inc., a contract to provide the next generat ion computer program for emergency relief system and effluent handling designs. The new computer program, SuperChems for DIERS, is a dynamic simulator, capable of performing emergency relief system and effluent handling designs for complex geometries and multiphase reaction syste ms. in addition, SuperChems for DIERS is an equation-of-state based Pr ogram which provides several benefits over existing non-equation-of-st ate based methods for systems involving supercritical reactions like p olymerizations of butadiene and acrylonitrile, solution effects such a s HCl/Water, and a priori determination of phase splitting. This new c omputer program allows the user to dynamically simulate several common configurations for vent containment design. For example, the user is able to simulate a vessel discharging a two-phase mixture into a quenc h/vent where the catch/vent tank will vent to a stack or a scrubber. U nit operations available include separators (horizontal and vertical), cyclones, etc. The impact of back pressure and continuing reaction in the vent containment system is accounted for in the dynamic simulatio ns.