Patent benchmark Process Flowsheets & Simulations
Explore 4 validated, solved Patent benchmark simulation flowsheets in MaximaLabs — real components: methanol, water, lactic_acid, methyl_lactate, h2, oxygen. Open any one directly in your browser.
Solved via: PENG-ROBINSON, COOLPROP, BRINE.
Patent benchmark: methyl lactate synthesis (CN104628563A)
Real patent replication, not an invented process: CN104628563A's acid-catalyzed lactate-ester route -- lactic acid esterified with excess methanol, then purified by vacuum distillation -- reproduced here as a continuous flowsheet. The patent's own worked methyl-lactate example reports 98.8% esterification conversion and 99.6% product purity at 120 degC/3h; this flowsheet's reactor conversion is set directly to the patent's reported 98.8% (not fitted), and the vacuum column (0.2 atm, matching the patent's vacuum-distillation purification step) reaches 98.75% methyl lactate purity in the bottoms -- within roughly 1 percentage point of the patent's claimed 99.6%, the gap being this flowsheet's own finite stage count/reflux rather than a fitted parameter. See the Patent Benchmarks docs page for the full validation table and citation.
5 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON
19 0
View & openPatent benchmark: gas fermentation to single-cell protein (JP2024028821A)
The gas-fermentation process class JP2024028821A describes: hydrogen-oxidizing chemolithoautotrophic bacteria (the patent names Cupriavidus necator and Rhodococcus opacus strains) fixing CO2 using H2 as the electron donor to grow single-cell protein biomass. Built here with real physics closing two genuine gaps this session's fact-check found missing: gas-liquid mass transfer (Henry's-law dissolution + a volumetric kLa driving the H2 dissolution rate) and chemolithoautotrophic growth stoichiometry (McCarty's electron-balance method combining the H2-oxidation, O2-reduction, and C5H7O2N cell-synthesis half-reactions) -- not a Monod-on-dissolved-substrate shortcut repurposed for a gas feed. Honesty note, stated plainly: JP2024028821A is a prophetic patent with zero disclosed numerical yields, rates, or operating conditions, so unlike the methyl-lactate benchmark, there is no published number here to validate against -- this demonstrates the real capability (a genuinely mass-transfer-limited fermenter, exactly the regime a real gas-fermentation plant is designed around) rather than replicating a claimed result. The reactor's kLa and Henry's-law constant are illustrative order-of-magnitude values (a real design would fit kLa to measured aeration/agitation data), and the synthesis electron fraction fs=0.4 sits in the literature-typical 0.3-0.6 range for aerobic hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria.
5 unit ops • COOLPROP
18 0
View & openPatent benchmark: enzymatic cannabinoid synthesis (US9359625B2)
Real patent replication: US9359625B2's THCA-synthase-catalyzed conversion of cannabigerolic acid (CBGA) into either THCA or CBCA depending on operating pH -- closing the genuine enzyme-kinetics gap this session's fact-check found (only Monod biomass-growth kinetics existed anywhere in this codebase, no Michaelis-Menten). The patent's own disclosed pH-selectivity data anchors this model: it reports 'catalysis at a lower pH... favored THCA... while... neutral pH... favored CBCA,' a ~10:1 THCA:CBCA ratio at pH 5.0, and CBCA dominant at pH 7.0 -- fit here as a single-ionizable-group pH-titration switch (pKa_switch=6.0), which reproduces the reported 10:1 ratio at pH 5.0 exactly (that's how pKa_switch was chosen) and gives ~10:1 CBCA:THCA at pH 7.0 (matching the patent's 'CBCA exclusively' qualitatively, not to an exact published ratio, since the patent gives no numeric ratio at pH 7.0 to match). Reactor volume is sized to clear the patent's own disclosed '>20% conversion' commercial threshold (reaches ~25.0% here). Honesty note: the patent discloses no Km/kcat, so Vmax/Km are illustrative screening values consistent with the reported conversion/selectivity, not independently measured enzyme kinetics -- see the Patent Benchmarks docs page.
3 unit ops • BRINE
20 0
View & openPatent benchmark: selective C3 diene/acetylene hydrogenation (US6495732B1)
Real patent replication: US6495732B1's palladium-catalyzed selective hydrogenation of a cracked-gas C3 stream, removing methylacetylene (propyne) and propadiene down to trace levels while leaving propylene and propane untouched -- the patent's own Example 1 feed (82.7 mol% propylene, 2.37% methylacetylene, 1.30% propadiene) reacted here to '>99.5% removal of both dienes/acetylenes, no propylene-to-propane over-hydrogenation' (propane's mole fraction is unchanged before/after -- the actual selectivity claim the patent is about). Honesty note: the patent discloses conversions/selectivity at specific pilot conditions but no PdO-catalyst rate constants to derive kinetics from, and its real design runs the catalyst as reactive-distillation packing inside one column rather than a separate reactor -- this flowsheet uses two fitted-conversion reactors (conversion set to match the patent's own '95-100%' and 'essentially all... removed' language, not independently measured) ahead of the column, a legitimate simplification of the topology, not the kinetics.
6 unit ops • PENG-ROBINSON
19 0
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