The Best way to learn Aspen Plus & HYSYS – ChemEngGuy (2024)

I was checking out some stuff in QUORA until I got a Question and Answer request. It was about Aspen Plus… here is the question.

So… what is the best way to learn Process Simulation, Plant Modeling, and all the related Aspen Tech Software skills?

There is no straight forward answer to that, there are many ways in which we humans learn and it will be VERY hard to state the best way to do so.

What we can do is simply state several tips and best practices for learning.

Aspen Plus & HYSYS can be learnt in many ways, as any software, the more you get to use it, the more you will be able to learn from it.

Therefore, if you can only take ONE tip –> work a lot with the software! it WORKS!

Check out my e-book if you haven’t. It is about Process Simulation and some of my tips 🙂

You can find a lot of workshops, tutorials, support center and formal training here.

• Advantage: This is one of the best ways to learn since they are literally the ones who created the software and know the best practices.
• Disadvantages: it is expensive and you need to have the contact already

this is also pretty common, most students from bachelor level in chemical and process engineering will be taught some basics of the software on how to model several processes and basic unit operations. Here isone exampleof a university offering it.

• Advantages: you get to work in teams, you get to relate a school project with a real life project. It is relatively cheap as you already paid for it in your tuition.
• Disadvantage: not really a formal training, depends strongly on your instructor and you might miss very important details on the software tools. Your instructor may not guide you into the best practices of the software, as it will

I learnt directly from my boss and colleagues that have been using the software for decades. They know a lot in how to model specific details and which things are worthy of modeling and what is not. I saved a LOT of time & effort because of this, so try it!

• Advantages: Direct and hands on to project. Industry/product oriented, no need to be modeling things you are not going to use such as compressors if you are into distillation columns alone.
• Disadvantages: They might not have enough time for you to actually explain you how to model things. If they have been using previous versions, they are likely that they won’t know new features of Aspen Plus Version upgrades. Kinda hard to find mentors 🙁

There are plenty of courses online that will help you a lot, specially if you are staring from a newbie position. Here is my best course catalogs.

• Advantages:At your pace, relatively cheap. You can get access to online tutor and instructors in some courses. These courses are a great way to pump up your knowledge for basic to intermediate levels.
• Disadvantages:You are mostly on your own. Might be expensive. Typically, will not cover very specific type of simulations. Hard to find extensive offering specially in advanced topics (polymers, biotech, electrolytes, etc.)

One of thebest channelsfor that is this one right here which has a good structured set ofplaylists…

• Advantages:At your pace, its for free. Many videos!
• Disadvantages:You are on your own. Some tutors will not explain at all. No good audio/video. Incomplete material. Hard to understand to certain accents. No formal introduction to the problem. Very “basic” material, and not so many “specific” or “detailed” models are found here.

This E-Book is about learningAspen Plus in 24 hoursand will definitively help you out with setting up your simulations.

Thisoneis about Aspen Plus & HYSYS operations in the real life and how it can be used to simulate existing unit operations & processes.

[UPDATE] I prepared a Blog Post which makes small reviews of the most common types of Books & E-Books out there! Check it out!

Typically, you will get existing simulations of common processes directly from Aspen Databases.

You can open them, some of them will have explanations, other will not. Some might be tutorials and even be presented as sample/template in the HELP section.

Just work with them and try to make them work.

As stated, the best way to learn is by DOING. So try opening that software, play with it, make no worries if you destroy something.

Go out, try to simulate processes from the courses, youtube videos, or tutorials.

The more workshops you do, the better simulations you will get and the more motivated to learn more you will be 🙂