Today, the chemical industry invests a lot of money in the development stage. It involves processes like investigation, pilot-plant testing, and scaling up. A significant part of this time and expenses is spent on the selection of mixing devices and regimes in reactors according to the requirements of the process. The knowledge and understanding of mixing processes are thus required as wrong choices could lead to several issues in process development.
To avoid this, VisiMix equips chemical engineers with a simulation tool at all stages of production and development. The tool allows chemical engineers to see the connection between process requirements and hydrodynamics and brings the mixing process in correspondence with the process requirements. This eliminates the need for time-consuming and expensive trial-and-error procedures.
Beginning of the Journey
VisiMix was established in 1995 with a vision to optimize production processes conducted in mixing tanks via the most suitable hardware and the best modes of its operation. The company is on a mission to give process engineers convenient access to its sophisticated knowledge base for completing tasks such as selecting or designing mixing tanks and determining modes of their operation.
The turning point that triggered the growth of VisiMix was when Gad Amir joined the company as the CEO. Back then, VisiMix was merely an aspiring startup. Amir immediately realized the unique potential of VisiMix® products and the exceptional qualifications of the R&D/engineering and programming teams and steered the company toward its current position as a global market leader. Since then, the company is constantly scaling upwards on the growth curve.
The Flagship Product
The company’s product, VisiMix® Computational Process Engineering suite, is the only available tool that allows process engineers to directly connect characteristics of processes conducted in mixing tanks with the design parameters of these tanks when tackling a broad range of tasks. These tasks include design, scale-up/down, sensitivity analysis, etc. VisiMix supports its customers at all steps of software installation and operation, particularly when dealing with non-standard equipment configurations.
A Revolution in Chemical Kinetics Simulations
Presently, chemical kinetics simulations for mixing tanks are in high demand. However, they are implemented only for perfectly stirred or plug flow reactors where the chemical composition of the fluid is uniform. The obtained analysis does not provide users with information on the impact of non-ideal mixing on chemical kinetics and the resulting concentration of reactants entering a mixing tank or reaction products yielded there.
VisiMix is the only software available today that combines together sophisticated modeling of physical processes in mixing tanks with advanced descriptions of chemical kinetics. Utilizing its vast knowledge of various hydrodynamic and process phenomena in mixing tanks, VisiMix has recently introduced ChemViMix®, a trailblazing software specially developed for simulating the dynamics of chemical reactions in tanks with non-ideal mixing. The inspiration behind ChemViMix was to join, in the same software, two different areas of simulations – the cutting-edge Mixing Simulation with the Chemical Kinetics Simulation – that have never been joined together in commercial software products.
What ChemViMix offers?
ChemViMix offers an analysis of chemical processes for mixing tanks previously covered by VisiMix Turbulent®. This analysis is based on its proprietary sophisticated models of mixing processes rather than on a simplified model that idealizes these processes. The simplified model eventually leads to distorted predictions of the chemical composition of fluid in a tank.
Such distortion would be highly undesirable, especially for the production of fine and special chemical substances. ChemViMix allows any engineer to combine sophisticated modeling of physical processes in mixing tanks with a detailed description of chemical kinetics. Previously, this was achieved only by a few university labs.
Valuable Results with ChemViMix
By entering a small number of parameters into convenient input tables, a ChemViMix user can achieve the following results:
- Predict the average concentration of each reactant and assess its non-uniformity in a mixing tank
- Compare the actual output of reaction products against predictions made for perfectly mixed reactors
- Verify scale up to the industrial level of a process successfully implemented at the laboratory level
- Analyze the effects of inlet point positions, the chemical composition of the inlet flow, mixing system design, etc. on product output
ChemViMix is officially expected to be released in Fall 2023.
The Success Drivers
The continuous growth of VisiMix is driven by a couple of factors. Firstly, its software is based on a proprietary knowledge base that accumulates results of mixing process studies conducted internally for several decades and verified against publicly available experimental data. Using this unique knowledge base, the company directly and efficiently calculates a broad range of process variables, which are of primary interest to its users, using a relatively small set of mixing tanks and fluid characteristics as input.
VisiMix has designated this approach as Computational Process Engineering. The company believes that the scope and convenience of analyses that it offers make it a global leader in the industry. Moreover, VisiMix provides excellent user support, which also contributes to its success.
A Client-centric Approach
VisiMix primarily targets clients that frequently develop new production processes for novel products in areas such as organic synthesis of new substances, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics where dynamic changes routinely take place. A majority of VisiMix clients are satisfied with its services and often heap praises on the company. Here are some testimonials from satisfied clients.
“Our experience in using your software is good. We are using your product often for thermal calculation. Today, the specifications of all reaction vessels are stored in the VisiMix software. The results are reliable.”- Buchi AG, Switzerland
“Savings can be realized by solving the problems by means of simulation rather than experimental investigations in the pilot plant or even the production plant. Therefore, the use of VisiMix software helped solve mixing problems fast and effectively.”- Evonic-Degussa Company, Mr. Markus Doerner.
The company is planning to expand its client base in areas such as fermentation and the production of biologicals where its software has a high potential for growing in popularity. “Clients’ feedback is extremely important for us as the development of new products and new versions of existing products is primarily driven by comments and suggestions that we receive,” says Amir.
A Team of Outstanding Professionals
Amir leads a staff of highly-qualified and goal-oriented personnel. VisiMix has three core teams—R&D/engineering, programming, and sales/marketing—each of which is led by exceptional professionals who are with the company from its early days. As the CEO of VisiMix, Amir prioritizes areas of future development based on its vision and mission. Moreover, he leads the day-to-day work of the VisiMix team, helping them realize their full potential. Amir created and is maintaining a friendly and supportive workplace environment. He positively stimulates the staff members for every success they are able to achieve.
