API reference#

BioSTEAM’s main components can be categorized by 5 functionality levels:

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  • Equipment design, costing, and utility requirements are evaluated by Unit objects. All built-in and custom unit operations are subclasses of Unit. Adjustments can be made to the heating and cooling agents of the HeatUtility class (e.g., steam pressure, price) as well as the electricity price of the PowerUtility class.

  • Thermodynamic equilibrium and mass and energy balances are facilitated by Stream objects, which define material flows, temperature and pressure. Chemical properties and models are imported from thermo, a community-driven open-source library developed by Caleb Bell.

  • Automation of the simulation of large sets of scenarios is facilitated by Model objects which define Parameter and Metric objects that dictate the input and output features of the model.

  • Simulation is carried out by System objects, which can be created without supplying any information on the order of unit simulation. After simulation, TEA objects can perform cashflow analysis to solve for a number of financial indicators.

  • Biorefinery models and results are available through the Bioindustrial-Park. A number of key biorefinery systems for cellulosic pretreatment, fermentation, and product purification can be imported from the biorefineries library.