The concept of a digital twin has become one of the most effective approaches in modern industry to foster innovation and increase productivity. There is a plethora of literature focusing on simulations and optimizations of mechatronic systems. However, during our literature review, we noticed a scarcity of publications addressing the chemical industry and process engineering. In our analysis, we identified numerous advantages of using SIMIT, particularly in conjunction with Siemens products, as it seamlessly integrates with controllers and programs such as TIA Portal and SIMATIC PLCs. As part of our work, we developed a simulation of membrane filtration and batch distillation in SIMIT. For the membrane filtration simulation, we created our own filter component in SIMIT CTE and provided detailed instructions for its use. Additionally, we formulated guidelines for creating simulations in SIMIT SP. The parameters of the filter component were adapted to the experimental filter, resulting in a precise match between the simulation results, the experiment, and the analytical assessment. Despite the successful membrane filtration simulation, we encountered challenges in attempting to simulate batch distillation. There were significant differences between the experimental and simulated results, which we attribute to the inability to view and change the distillation column settings via the CTE software. Therefore, there is still room for further improvement in the area of integrated simulation of thermal separation processes.
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