The Process Simulation Handbook
A graduate-level process-simulation course, rebuilt for the browser. Same arc as the classic Aspen Plus / HYSYS textbooks — flowsheet solving, thermodynamics, reactors, separations, energy integration — but every worked example is built, run, and screenshotted in MaximaLabs, with steps you can reproduce in your own browser in minutes. No install, no license.
Simulation Fundamentals
LiveWhat a process simulator actually does: the flowsheet as a graph of unit operations and streams, the two ways to solve it (sequential-modular vs. equation-oriented), degrees-of-freedom analysis, and how recycles are torn and converged.
Thermodynamic & Physical Property Models
LiveChoosing a property method — equations of state vs. activity-coefficient models — and the consequences of getting it wrong. Seeing VLE as a phase diagram, and property estimation for missing components.
Flash & Phase Equilibrium
LiveThe calculation every unit operation calls thousands of times: the isothermal flash via Rachford-Rice, how K-values converge, bubble/dew points, and the adiabatic (P,H) flash.
Reactors
LiveThe four reactor models — stoichiometric/conversion, equilibrium (Keq/van't Hoff), Gibbs free-energy minimization, and kinetic (CSTR/PFR) — with conversion, the extent of reaction, and the heat-of-reaction energy balance.
Separation Processes
LiveFrom a single flash to rigorous multistage distillation: the MESH equations, McCabe-Thiele, reading stage profiles, and shortcut (Fenske-Underwood-Gilliland) design.
Heat Transfer & Energy Integration
LiveHeaters, coolers, and two-sided heat exchangers; the energy balance and LMTD; rating a geometry (U, area, over-surface); and pinch analysis to target minimum utilities across a flowsheet.
Process Analysis & Optimization
LiveTurning a converged model into engineering answers: sensitivity sweeps, design specs (state the result, solve for the input), case studies, and optimization against an objective.
Dynamic Simulation
LiveAdding time: the balances become ODEs/DAEs initialized from the steady-state solution, PID control loops track setpoints and reject disturbances, and any flowsheet can be run in time.
Fluid Handling Equipment
LiveThe equipment that moves fluid between unit operations: pumps and the head curve, compressors and turbines via the isentropic-efficiency energy balance, isenthalpic valves, and Darcy-Weisbach pipeline pressure drop.
Solids Operations
LiveFrom crystal to dry powder: the MSMPR population-balance crystallizer, cake filtration and centrifugation, drying, and comminution/classification (mills, screens, cyclones).
Case Studies
LiveFour worked industrial flowsheets end to end: extractive distillation past an azeotrope, ethylene oxide through to glycol, a continuous polymerization reactor, and a capital-cost evaluation.