The CAPE-OPEN Binary Interop Architecture (COBIA)

The CAPE-OPEN Laboratories Network (CO-LaN) has developed the CAPE-OPEN Binary Interop Architecture (COBIA), a source-available Application Programming Infrastructure (API) and middleware platform purpose-built for use in chemical process simulation applications. COBIA updates the capabilities of CAPE-OPEN by replacing Microsoft’s Component Object Model (COM). This cross-platform standardized binary API has multiple advantages including simplified architecture for development of chemical process simulation components, improves performance, and enhances CAPE-OPEN’s plug-and-play architecture, readily integrating third-party simulation components such as unit operations and thermodynamic models into process modeling environments, and enables CAPE-OPEN applications on non-Windows platforms. This presentation will describe COBIA, provide an overview of implementing CAPE-OPEN process modeling components for use in process simulation, and discuss the current state of COBIA implementation in process simulation tools.