Tag: Chemical Engineering

Back in the day, jobbing oil & gas process engineers used a handy GWBASIC utility called ESI. It was written in 1984 by Engineering Software Inc and supported to 1988. The start screen looked like this:

I used the utility on PC’s running Windows for years. Then in 2015, Microsoft released Windows 10 which did not support GWBASIC. As a result, I lost access to ESI.

A few years ago, I discovered a free, cross-platform emulator for the GW-BASIC family of interpreters called PC-BASIC. I installed it on my PC running Windows 10 and now Windows 11 and it works.

I am able to use use ESI once again.

Follow this link to download PC-BASIC by Rob Hagemans.

Process simulation software packages such as Aspen Technology’s Aspen HYSYS are used to mathematically model chemical processes, from unit operations to chemical plants and refineries. They are able to perform chemical engineering calculations concerned with mass balance, energy balance, phase equilibrium, heat transfer, mass transfer, chemical kinetics, fractionation, pressure drops and more. HYSYS is used extensively in industry and academia for steady-state and dynamic simulation, process design, performance modelling, and optimization.

An open source alternative to HYSYS is DWSIM. DWSIM is an open source chemical process simulator for Windows, Linux and macOS  and features a Graphical User Interface, advanced thermodynamic calculations, reactions support and petroleum characterization / hypothetical component generation tools.

It was written and is maintained by Daniel Medeiros.

Download it here and try it.

CheCalc is a very useful source of easy-to-use basic chemical engineering calculations.

It’s particularly useful for quickly estimating pipeline sizes and pressure drops.

Try it here.