Currently, industry processes are shifting toward those that emit fewer pollutants, whose byproducts are less destructive to the environment, as well as those that create energy efficiently from renewable or recycled resources and can remedy our current ecological predicament.  CPFD Software’s most important product, Barracuda® software for the chemical, petrochemical and power generation industries, can be a vital aid in this endeavor.  It is currently used by a variety of gas/solids processes including the production of gasoline, plastics, nylon, specialty chemicals/pigments and the gasification of coal and wood.

Barracuda software helps mitigate damaging outputs and inefficient energy use through accurate modeling of complex mixing and reacting processes within large industrial units.  These units are critical to oil refineries, deep-bed chemical reactors, coal or biomass power plants and gasifiers, ore-extraction reactors and their internal components, e.g. cyclones. Barracuda enhancements to treat complex heterogeneous chemical reactions between the particulate solids and gas were made in collaboration with ExxonMobil, Millennium Inorganic Chemicals, and Sandia National Labs (under a DOE research program).  Industrial applications include helping petrochemical companies discover ways to produce more, and less costly, gasoline while also reducing emissions by retrofitting existing facilities with more ecologically friendly technology.  Ore production companies are striving to reduce energy consumption for the production of important metal oxides like TiO2 for pigments, Ti for exotic metals, and ZrO2 for nuclear fuel rods. 

Breakthrough CPFD technology will help to avail exciting new developments in all of these efforts.  Barracuda has extensive applications in determining the effectiveness of burgeoning technologies that lessen our climatic impact, including production of ultra-pure silicon for photovoltaic solar cells, design of ‘clean coal’ carbon capture sequestration processes, efficient extraction of oil from Canadian tar sands, or generation of power through combustion of renewable resources—all of which open doors of opportunity to energy autonomy, job production, and environmental sustainability.