Step 3: start writing a VBA functionĬreate a new excel workbook. If it doesn't work and you cannot see the numbers, go to the Installation sheet in the same excel file and follow the instructions. Open it and make sure that it works fine. Step 2: test your installationĬoolProp installer copies a test excel file called TestExcel.xlsx on your desktop. I installed it with all the default settings. You can alternatively download the latest version from here.

Go to this web page and download the CoolProp installer (a file called CoolProp_v6.1.0.0.exe). RequirementsĪ windows machine (or a windows virtual machine like mine) with Microsoft Excel installed. The above equation means that the compression process is reversible, so we can calculate the temperature of the compressed gas, assuming that its entropy is equal to the entropy of the input gas stream. I did not document the procedure, but I try my best to repeat it here with all the details. This encouraged me to overcome my excel-phobia and dive into it by writing two macros for the calculation of pressure drop in a gas pipeline and the power requirement in a compressor. We are only interested in the pressure drop in the whole pipeline, not in every little segment. This segment based calculations although fits into an excel sheet, is not something that we need to see in detail. Therefore, the pressure drop needs to be calculated in short segments of the pipe, where we can assume the physical properties of the gas phase are constant. Gas is compressible, and as the pressure drops in the pipeline, gas expands and it linear velocity increases. The same hold for the calculation pf pressure drop. This is something that can be probably done in an excel sheet, but can be done much easier with a few lines of code. I assumed a multi-stage compressor with inter-stage cooling and a maximum compression ratio of three to three and a half. I first calculated the isentropic work of a compressor and then divided it by the mechanical efficiency of a centrifugal compressor to estimate the real power requirement. For the pressure drop, I used the Weymouth correlation. I'm not saying excel is a weak or bad tool I'm just saying other tools are better!įew months ago, I calculated the pressure drop of a CO2 transport pipeline and the amount of compression work that is required for the gas transport. Even when everything works fine, I suddenly run into a problem that can be solved way easier using a Python/Julia script. I must confess, excel is not my cup of tea and I constantly make mistakes. Usually, I call it from Julia or Python, but when it comes to communication with colleagues, they often prefer an excel file. CoolProp is a very useful package for the calculation of the physical (transport and thermodynamic) properties of pure fluids and mixtures.

Coolpack fluides mixure