OLI Overview
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Latest SysCAD Version: 25 October 2024 - SysCAD 9.3 Build 139.36522
Related Links: Thermodynamic Calculation Engines, TCE Functionality Overview, TCE Species Mapping, TCE Configuration Options, OLI Example Projects
Available from Build 139.31866. Next generation of OLI models in SysCAD as part of TCE. Older models have been archived as Legacy models.
Overview
OLI Systems is the supplier of a leading Electrolyte Simulation Software used to predicate equilibrium conditions and properties (such as pH) for aqueous chemistry.
- It is developed and maintained by OLI Systems. (olisystems.com)
- To use OLI in SysCAD it is assumed that the user has some familiarity with the theory and use of the OLI Systems software programs.
- The SysCAD OLI library option (in ScdOLI2.DLL) requires the SysCAD "Energy Balance", "Integration Libraries" (formerly "SMDK Runtime") and "TCE" add-ons.
- OLI Alliance Engine for Commercial Process Simulators (OLI Engine) is licensed separately by OLI Systems and is required to be installed to use SysCAD TCE OLI Option. SysCAD requires the 32 bit version of the OLI Engine.
- "OLI Engine" includes OLI Chemistry Wizard which can be used to create the OLI database (dbs) files required by SysCAD.
- The user may also purchase OLI Studio: Stream Analyzer from OLI Systems Inc. OLI Studio can also be used to create OLI database files required by SysCAD. This package is not required for running TCE OLI in SysCAD, but is a useful package in its own right.
Additional Notes:
- The "OLI Engine: Developer Edition" License is NOT required to use OLI in SysCAD.
- "OLI Studio" or "OLI Studio: Stream Analyzer" does not include an "OLI Engine Runtime" license, this needs to be purchased separately from OLI Systems.
- "OLI Engine Runtime" is sometimes referred to as "OLI Runtime for SysCAD" or "OLI Alliance Engine" - this is the same thing.
- KWA Kenwalt Australia (SysCAD) are OLI Alliance Partners. (Alliance Partners)
- From Build 139, a TCE add-on is required instead of a legacy separate individual "SysCAD OLI" License add-on.
- For legacy OLI models (ScdOLI.DLL) SysCAD version of Build 137, 138 or 139 is required. It cannot be used within the same project as the new TCE OLI Option. The legacy version will be discontinued in the next SysCAD Build.
- OLI in SysCAD is not implemented as a Species Properties Model but as unit models for use at appropriate locations in a plant model.
OLI Systems Software
The following are direct quotes from the OLI website:
- Analyze chemical streams, predict mineral scaling and corrosion in industrial chemical processes.
- The behavior of electrolyte and water chemistry governs industrial chemical processes performance. OLI Systems makes it possible to deeply understand these behaviors to drive effective and efficient equipment design and process operations.
Please visit the OLI Systems website for more information.
Checking that OLI SysCAD integration is working
We recommend performing the following checks prior to creating user OLI projects to ensure OLI SysCAD intergration is working correctly.
- Check the License Information, the following add-ons must be allowed (Yes)
- Energy Balance
- Integration Libraries (formerly SMDK Runtime)
- Models: TCE (PHREEQC, OLI, AQSol and ChemApp)
- Check that "OLI Engine Runtime 32 bit" (also known as "OLI Runtime for SysCAD" or "OLI Alliance Engine") is installed and licensed from OLI systems.
- SysCAD requires a valid OLI Engine to work. See OLI Engine Version
- Check that the distributed SysCAD OLI example project will run without issues.
- Open any of the \SysCAD139\Examples\06 OLI\OLIFull example projects, after project load, check the message window for any reported errors.
- If errors were encountered, use the messages provided to fix the errors and try again.
Models
OLI TCE Option unit models:
- OLI Model Configuration - Used to define and view various options for the selected OLI database, including management of mapping of SysCAD species list to species list used in OLI.
- OLI Direct Calc - Standalone unit model to perform side calculations using OLI for predicting aqueous chemistry equilibrium conditions and properties on a user defined OLI stream.
- OLI Side Calc - Standalone unit model to perform side calculations using OLI for predicting aqueous chemistry equilibrium conditions and properties on a SysCAD stream in the current project.
- OLI Reactor 2 - Include this model in a SysCAD stream to use OLI to calculate predicted outlet conditions. Functionality is similar to SysCAD Reaction Block and FEM where for a given feed reactions occur with optional heat exchange. The model can be configured in a number of ways for different purposes.
- OLI Evaporator - Include this model in a SysCAD flowsheet to model an evaporator using embedded OLI calculations.
- OLI Flash Tank - Include this model in a SysCAD flowsheet to model a flash tank using embedded OLI calculations.
- OLI Reverse Osmosis - Include this model in a SysCAD flowsheet to model reverse osmosis using embedded OLI calculations. OLI can be used to calculate maximum permeate recovery (to incipient solids formation) and other operating modes.
- OLI Feeder - Include this model in a SysCAD flowsheet to specify a feed using OLI species.
- OLI Solvent Extraction - Available from Build 139.34985. Include this model in a SysCAD flowsheet to model solvent extraction using embedded OLI calculations.
- OLI Pond - Include this model in a SysCAD flowsheet (Dynamic mode) to specify a dynamic pond using embedded OLI calculations.
OLI Legacy unit models: The following models are used for backward compatibility purposes only. These will be discontinued from Build 140 and users should convert any existing projects to use the TCE OLI models. See Converting OLI Legacy Project to use OLI TCE models for suggested work flow.
- OLI Chemistry Model - please change to the new model OLI Model Configuration
- OLI Sample Model - please change to the new model OLI Direct Calc Model
- OLI Reactor - please change to the new model OLI Reactor 2
Species Mapping:
- Ionlist is used to breakdown the species to ions. Please see Species Mapping for more information on this topic.
- When using OLI Liquid 2 phase for modelling of immiscible liquids then the SysCAD individual phase name must be specified for the mapping of these liquid phase species.
Notes:
- OLI evaporation models using OLI that do not incorporate VLE calculations are suitable for water evaporation only.
OLI Liquid-2
Available from Build 139.34985. Liquid-2 functionality is available for use in the SysCAD-OLI interface when a second liquid phase, typically used for organics, is configured in the OLI dbs file. This functionality allows for the modelling of unit operations where two immiscible liquids are present, such as OLI Solvent Extraction. To use this functionality, the SysCAD configuration file must be manually updated to indicate the individual phase in the SysCAD species database which corresponds with the second liquid phase in the OLI dbs file. If using multiple dbs files, this is repeated for each OLI dbs file that contains a second liquid phase. The steps are as follows:
- Open the cfg file within the CfgFiles folder using a text editor.
- Search for "[OLI]" to locate the OLI section of the file.
- Update the cfg file in a similar manner to that shown in the following example.
Example:
Given an [OLI] section that looks like this in the cfg file: [OLI] NumEngines=3 MinWaterContentForSolve=0.2 DatabaseFolder=C:\SysCAD Projects\OLItest\OLI\ Database0=SolvEx.dbs
the cfg file [OLI] section should be modified to this: [OLI] NumEngines=3 MinWaterContentForSolve=0.2 DatabaseFolder=C:\SysCAD Projects\OLItest\OLI\ Database0=SolvEx.dbs Second_Liquid_Phase_Name0=o
- where:
- SolvEx.dbs contains a second liquid phase
- The SysCAD database contains corresponding species for mapping to the second liquid phase using the individual phase "o" for organic, i.e.:
- C12H26(o)
- R3NH2SO4(o)
- etc...
OLI SysCAD Project Workflow
The list below are some recommended steps in creating a new OLI SysCAD project group.
If user only intend to use OLI for standalone equilibrium calculations, thus not linking it to existing SysCAD stream or species database, then follow the (A). If user wishes to use OLI to evaluate SysCAD streams, then follow (B).
Important Notes:
- OLI software requires an OLI configuration file (*.dbs).
- see OLI Referenced File for instructions.
(A) Using OLI as stand-alone thermodynamic calculation engine to perform OLI equilibrium calculations:
- Create a Configuration File,
- select the OLI models in step 1 of 2 of edit configuration file,
- In Step 2 of 2 of edit configuration file, select the the OLI dll from the TCE tab .
- Create or open a SysCAD project using the cfg file you have just edited.
- Insert a OLI Model Configuration
- load in the OLI Model Definition file
- Inset a OLI Direct Calc Model. Use the direct calc to perform OLI equilibrium calculations.
(B) Using OLI to evaluate SysCAD streams or as part of the SysCAD flowsheet:
- Create a SysCAD.93.db3 file, the SysCAD database must contain the same number of individual phases as the OLI model file.
- An OLI Database Utility is available to assist user with the creation of SysCAD.93.db3 file.
- The database is created using existing SysCAD data, OLI Model data is not transferred to the SysCAD database.
- Once a SysCAD.93.db3 file has been create, copy this database and the IonList.txt into the OLI SysCAD project \CfgFiles subfolder
- Check and edit the SysCAD.93.db3 file inside the CfgFiles subfolder and correct any missing data.
- Create a Configuration File,
- select the OLI models in step 1 of 2 of edit configuration file,
- In Step 2 of 2 of edit configuration file, select the required Species from the Species Tab.
- select the OLI dll from the TCE tab .
- Create a SysCAD project.
- Add OLI Model Configuration,
- load in the OLI Model .dll file
- complete the OLI Species to SysCAD Species Mapping.
- Edit SysCAD.93.db3 and configuration file if species are missing.
- Once species mapping is satisfactory, add OLI unit models to the project where appropriate.
Referenced File
The file that will be referenced by the SysCAD OLI Chemistry Model is the OLI Chemistry Model Database file created in OLI, e.g. NickelSpecies.dbs.
The "OLI Chemistry Model" (dbs file), can be generated using "OLI Chemistry Wizard" or "OLI Studio".
To generate an "OLI Chemistry Model" in OLI Studio perform the following steps:
- Create a stream in a new project or for an existing OLI project (*.oad) file.
- Select MSE or AQ databank.
- On the Definition tab, add the components of interest.
- Run an isothermal single point calculation.
- If File Viewer tab is not visible, select menu Tools|Options. Then for Plug-Ins select the "OLI File Viewer" option and press OK.
- On the File Viewer tab, for "File Type" select "Generated Model File". Push "Save File" button which will prompt to save a file with .dbs extension. This is the file required by SysCAD.
Notes:
- This file is essential for the OLI Chemistry Model in SysCAD to function.
- The file can be saved at any location - it does not have to be saved in the SysCAD project.
OLI Engine Version support
OLI Engine Runtime (32-bit) is licensed separately by OLI Systems and is required to be installed to use SysCAD TCE OLI Option. "OLI Engine Runtime" is sometimes referred to as "OLI Runtime for SysCAD" or "OLI Alliance Engine".
Multiple versions support of installed OLI engine is available from Build 139.33127. This applies to both OLI_Legacy and OLI_TCE SysCAD integration. Therefore, it is possible to
- use “SysCAD OLI Legacy” (scdoli.dll) with OLI engine version 10.x or 11.x, OR
- use “SysCAD TCE OLI” (scdoli2.dll) with OLI engine version 10.x, 11.x or 12.x. (Recommended)
NOTES:
- User must select the required OLI SysCAD integration (scdoli.dll OR scdoli2.dll) to use in the project, it is NOT possible to include both in the same project.
- The OLI legacy integration models will be discontinued in future versions. User should convert any projects using OLI Legacy integration models to use the new OLI TCE suite of models. Please see Converting OLI Legacy Project to use OLI TCE models for hints about project conversion.
Converting OLI Legacy Project to use OLI TCE models
The new OLI TCE Integration suite of models were completely re-design from the ground up. There is no “automated” upgrade path for converting projects using OLI_Legacy models to OLI_TCE models.
A recommended conversion workflow is:
- Create folder "OLI_Legacy" + Cfgfiles subfolder:
- Store your OLI_Legacy project here
- make sure the Cfgfiles is set up to open the legacy project (using scdoli.dll)
- The purpose of this folder is so you can still open the legacy project for reference and comparison.
- Create folder "OLI_Preparation" + Cfgfiles subfolder
- make a copy of the legacy project here, this is the project you need to work on in preparation for OLI_TCE model changes.
- The cfgfiles subfolder can be the same as OLI_Legacy.
- Open the project and remove all the OLI_Legacy models, do these in the following order:
- use "Change Unit" to change all the OLI Reactor to "Tank"
- Delete any OLI Sample Model
- Delete the OLI Chemistry Model
- Save the Project. The project should be free of any OLI_legacy models.
- Edit the configuration file to remove the scdoli.dll group of models.
- Reopen the model to check if the project can be loaded. If successful, then the project is ready for OLI_TCE model changes.
- Create folder "OLI_TCE" + Cfgfiles subfolder:
- make a copy of the "OLI_Preparation" project here.
- Edit the configuration file to use the scdoli2.dll group of models.
- Edit the TCE tab to select the correct OLI options (engine version, dll path, database selection, etc.)
- Open the project using the edited configuration file.
- Edit the project in the following order:
- Add and setup OLI Model Configuration to replace the OLI Chemistry Model
- Add and setup OLI Direct Calc Model to replace the OLI Sample Model
- For any OLI Reactor that were changed to "Tank", use "Change Unit" to change them to OLI Reactor 2 or any other more relevant OLI unit models.
- Fix the controls and reports.
- Save the project.
- Solve and debug the project as usual.
- If possible, open the OLI_Legacy model for reference or comparison.