¿Levantar Ronda?
The learner owns 100% of a fictional Granada company that sells refillable household cleaning products by subscription and through independent shops…
About this simulation
A 90-minute, 4-round basic Express simulation for Spanish vocational training (Formacion Profesional), module 0110 Operaciones unitarias en planta quimica of the Tecnico en Planta Quimica (Real Decreto 178/2008) and module 0188 Operaciones basicas en la industria quimica of the Tecnico Superior en Quimica Industrial (Real Decreto 175/2008).
The learner is Aroa Tornadijo, a newly qualified plant operator of a fictional solvent-recovery firm, through 2027, at the methanol-recovery column that serves a neighbouring resin plant.
Four situations set the year's course: the start-up after the Christmas stop, and how the column is started (the condenser's cooling water first and total reflux before any product) and how the reflux is set (from the balance and the laboratory, not at the top of its range); full load in the spring, and how flooding is watched (the differential pressure trended with its alarm in service and the steam backed off) and how the composition is controlled (the sensitive tray checked against the laboratory); a wetter feed in the summer (the balance recomputed, the feed tray moved and the operating sheet updated before it arrives) and the energy (the feed-bottoms exchanger back in service with a cleaning plan); and the restart after a steam trip (the interlock tested and the column back at total reflux before the feed) and how trips and changes are recorded.
Three critical errors cap the round: steam to the reboiler before the condenser has water, the high differential-pressure alarm inhibited to keep full load, a restart with a bridge in the high-pressure interlock. KPIs: product on specification, column operating cost, tonnes lost a week and process incidents. Lesson: more reflux gives more purity, but every point costs energy. Spanish primary, English parity.
Fictional plant, companies and people; real curriculum cited.
What participants learn
After the session, participants will be able to:
- Apply the start-up sequence of a distillation column, putting the condenser cooling water and the reflux drum in service before any steam and running at total reflux until the profile and the laboratory confirm the top
- Evaluate the reflux setting from the column's material balance and its operating curve, weighing each point of extra purity against its cost in steam and in feed not processed
- Analyze the differential pressure and the sensitive-tray temperature to detect flooding and composition drift where they start, backing off the steam instead of inhibiting an alarm
- Calculate the new material balance and feed tray before a feed change, and keep the feed–bottoms heat exchanger in service with a cleaning plan
- Judge whether a column is fit to restart after a trip by finding its cause and testing the interlock, and record every trip and change so the next shift can read the column
Who it is for
An introductory simulation that assumes no prior knowledge of the subject, designed for undergraduate courses. It also works in vocational and high-school programmes and in onboarding sessions.
How a session runs
- The instructor creates a session from the Eureka dashboard and invites the participants.
- Participants play 4 rounds. In each one they submit their decisions and the simulation calculates the results. The first round opens with: lunes 11 de enero, 6:00: el arranque después de la parada de Navidad.
- The simulation can be run in English, Español.
- The instructor follows each participant's progress and results from the dashboard, and uses the class results for the debrief.