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The FienX Toolkit: Utility System Modelling in Microsoft Excel for Windows

Modelling and analysis of utility systems in Excel workbooks has a long and successful history. Models of widely varying complexity have been developed for decades. From modest ad-hoc calculations, to large automated on-line models for system monitoring and optimisation, Excel offers the power and flexibility to build them.  However, the modelling task is made much easier and more accurate by a dedicated "add-in" to extend Excel's functionality into the realms of thermodynamics, unit operations, and emissions calculation.​​​​​​​

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With the FienX Toolkit you will

  • reduce repetitive calculations;

  • implement globally recognised property libraries;

  • conveniently manage units of measure;

  • produce consistent results across projects;

  • reduce manual calculation errors;

  • speed up workbook auditing and verification.

Our Toolkit makes available all the properties of water and steam relevant for steam system modelling, as well as a range of functions for doing calculations on moist air - socalled "psychrometrics" - to help analyse cooling towers or HVAC systems, for example.

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In addition, a "FULL" licence offers a range of thermodynamic calculation "templates" for the most common unit operations found in industrial steam systems, such as:

  • steam generators

  • steam turbines

  • desuperheaters

  • flash vessels

  • deaerators

  • etc.

Furthermore, the FULL version has calculations for gaseous, liquid and solid fuels, to find heating value, combustion air requirements, and emissions. A sample model that exhibits most of these features is included under the Help menu.

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Last but not least, a "PRO" licence also contains ​a set of powerful template workbooks for​:

  • internal steam costing

  • basic energy Pinch Analysis

  • fired heaters performance analysis

  • R-curves + gap analysis

  • cooling tower rating

  • basic project economics evaluation

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A concise help document in PDF format is found here.​

Click any image to see an enlargement...

Function Wizard.png
UnitOp menu_edited.jpg

NOTE:  This software is designed for Microsoft Windows and will not work on other operating systems.

As indicated above, there are three licensing options (or tiers): LITE, FULL, and PRO.

  • Licenses are PERPETUAL, so only require a one-time payment.

  • Licenses are "locked" to a specific device, but can be transferred to another device up to 5 times.

  • Licenses cannot be activated on virtual machines.

 

You can download the software for a free 14-day trial of the PRO functionality.

 

Click on the button below to be transferred to our "Merchant of Record" (FastSpring), to purchase a licence.

LITE
FULL
PRO (Trial)
Comment
Price (US$)
75
700
6750
Steam/Water thermo properties
yes
yes
yes
Those relevant for practical industrial modelling
Psychrometric properties
yes
yes
yes
Moist Air properties (e.g., humidity ratio, enthalpy, etc.)
Fuel Combustion functions
yes
yes
Heating value, Air requirement, Emissions generated
Unit Operation models
yes
yes
Including fired-heaters thermal efficiency
Generic modelling template
yes
yes
yes
Strictly needed for any modelling purposes.
Generic data trending template
yes
yes
yes
To be adapted to client data historian
Task-specific templates
yes
See Help document and Trial version for details

A licence for the FienX "FULL" Toolkit is among the deliverables from any modelling work done by FCL.

The charts below were entirely constructed in Excel, using only FienX Toolkit functionality.

Mollier Diagram (Steam)
Steam Enthalpy vs. Entropy Chart

The FienX Toolkit implements the widely accepted IAPWS-IF97 international standard formulation for the thermodynamic properties of water and steam. ​In 1997, this replaced the IFC-67 formulation that is familiar to many from its use in the 1967 ASME Steam Tables.


An archival paper describing IAPWS-IF97 is available:
W. Wagner et al., "The IAPWS Industrial Formulation 1997 for the Thermodynamic Properties of Water and Steam", ASME J. Eng. Gas Turbines and Power, 122, 150-182 (2000).

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For psychrometrics, we implemented formulae found in the 2009 ASHRAE Handbook of Fundamentals.​​

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The template workbook for R-curve analysis (only with PRO licence) implements methodology presented in detail in the following paper:

"Top-Level Analysis of Site Utility Systems", Varbanov, P., et al, Trans IChemE, Part A, June 2004.

Standard Psychrometric Chart (sea level)
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