Evaluation of the Open Source Process Simulator DWSIM for Bioprocess Simulation

Abstract

In the recent times, the application of process simulation software has found its way to the simulation of bioprocesses. Presently, bioprocesses are simulated and technoeconomic analysis is performed in commercially available software for such as SuperPro Designer®, Aspen Plus® etc. These softwares are not freely available and therefore, there exists a need for an open source software for the simulation of bioprocesses. Furthermore, the chemical process softwares show compatibility issues, when used for bioprocesses. More recently, an open source process simulator called DWSIM was introduced for the simulation of chemical processes. However, the applicability and compatibility of DWSIM for complex bioprocess simulation involving microbial biomass has not been reported yet. Therefore, the present study evaluates and reports the simulation results of the bioethanol production process developed by NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA), performed in DWSIM. The simulator results were compared to those of existing commercial software, and the results showed good agreement with the literature. This suggests that DWSIM could be a promising alternative for bioprocess flowsheeting and simulation, and further technoeconomic analysis.