5. Connecting CHEMCAD to the Wolfram Cloud for Membrane Calculations

CHEMCAD is a suite of process design software and Mathematica is a powerful computer algebra system for theoretical or numerical solution of advanced mathematical problems. In previous publications, we provided detailed instructions and examples for connecting Mathematica running locally or on the cloud to CHEMCAD. In References 1-3, we showed how to connect CHEMCAD to Excel using Mathematica Link For Excel running locally on the desktop computer. Reference 4 explains how to deploy functions to the cloud. Once deployed to the cloud, functions can be accessed over the internet in Excel, which in turn is connected to CHEMCAD through data mapping. This data set further extends that study by providing an additional example.

The example is a simple well-mixed membrane calculation with a fully specified feed stream split by the membrane into retentate and permeate streams similar to Reference 3. To arrive at a solution, we specify the governing equations and invoke the symbolic solver in Mathematica to generate the design functions. The model is flexible since changes to the underlying equations can be easily made to accommodate different mechanical designs in the equipment, different transport mechanisms, or additional components. The results are interesting because a wide range of advanced design and simulation equations can be posed in Mathematica, deployed to the cloud, and then used directly by multiple users running CHEMCAD.