Simulation of unit operations of a chemical plant for acid gas removal

A method of determining unit operations of a chemical plant configured for acid gas removal from a gaseous inlet stream, the method carried out by a computer or a distributed computer system, wherein the method comprises and comprising the steps of:

• i) providing (S1) a first set of parameters for the unit operations;
• ii) providing (S2) a second set of parameters for the unit operations based on the provided first set of parameters and based on data retrieved from a database;
• iii) determining (S3) a digital model of the chemical plant based on the first set of parameters and the second set of parameters, wherein the digital model comprises a system of equations defining the unit operations of the chemical plant;
• iv) selecting (S4) starting points of a previously performed equation-based solution method of the system of equations stored in the database and one starting profile out of multiple previously successfully used starting profiles via a metadata search, wherein selecting the starting profile is determined based on input parameters which are the closest to the metadata associate with the starting points, and wherein the starting points are at least partially selected from:
• i) the first set of parameters;
• ii) the second set of parameters;
• and
• iii) the data retrieved from the database;
• v) determining (S5) resultant settings for the unit operations of the chemical plant using the equation-based solution method for the system of equations initialized by the selected starting points.