Bantrel Co. Creates Innovative Solution for Oil Sands Companies in

Bantrel Co. Creates Innovative Solution for
Oil Sands Companies in Northern Alberta
Rockwell Automation Engineers Work with Canadian Engineering
and Oil Sands Companies to Modify Motor Control Centers for
Electric Heat Tracing Monitoring and Control
Solutions
Rockwell Automation® Integrated Architecture™
• Standard ControlLogix® controller
and Integrated Architecture simplify
monitoring and troubleshooting
• Allen-Bradley® E3 Plus electronic
overload relays provide increased
sensitivity in ground fault protection
• ControlNet™ and DeviceNet™ link
resistance temperature detectors
(RTDs) to the ControlLogix PLC
controller and IntelliCENTER®
motor control centers (MCCs)
Intelligent Motor Control
• Allen-Bradley 2100 IntelliCENTER motor
control center neatly holds contactors
and takes up little space
Services from Rockwell Automation
Background
• Rockwell Automation Services & Support
provides on-site wiring support,
configuration and testing
Petroleum and petrochemical processes are inherently complex,
particularly if you’re in northern Canada and dealing with sub-zero
temperatures capable of freezing the product in its tracks. Oil sands
companies in northern Canada – tasked with retrieving 300 billion barrels
of potentially recoverable crude – rely on companies like Bantrel to
ensure that the process facility designs, including the heat conservation
systems, are up to the task.
Results
New Electric Heat Tracing System
• Improved process of extracting
and upgrading oil from oil sands in
Northern Alberta
• Bantrel’s clients now have a new,
space-saving and cost-effective solution
for heat tracing applications
Benefits of System:
• Cost-effectiveness
• Increased safety
• Improved productivity
• Increased reliability
Bantrel has more than 25 years of experience as a leading engineering,
procurement and construction company providing multidiscipline
engineering, project management, procurement and construction
services to the petroleum, petrochemical, gas and power industries.
The company is heavily involved in the Canadian oil sands industry,
where it is expected that over $100 billion will be spent in new and
expanded facilities in the next few decades.
Heat conservation systems have two major components: thermal
insulation and heat tracing systems to maintain minimum ‘hold’
temperatures in non-flowing lines for either freeze protection or viscosity
maintenance. Traditionally, steam was the preferred heat tracing medium;
however, in the last decade, there has been a migration to electrical heat
tracing (EHT) to help reduce life cycle costs.
Challenge
EHT applications typically use individual or multipoint
solid-state controllers located throughout the plant
areas to measure and control the electric heater cables
attached to the process piping and vessels. While electric
tracing is much more cost-effective than steam, it poses
additional risks.
For example, EHT systems often employ multiple remote
cabinet-grouped controllers with separate power supply
sources. This makes maintaining the system a bit more
hazardous since power isolation usually occurs in another
location. Also, fault isolation between controllers is not
possible with multipoint designs. This situation has been
further complicated by the introduction of centralized EHT
buildings housing hundreds of EHT controllers switching
megawatts of power.
With a reputation for innovation, Bantrel wanted to design
new EHT control and monitoring systems that are safer,
more maintainable and reliable, while at the same time
being even more cost-effective than existing systems.
As an engineering, procurement and construction
company, Bantrel needed to develop a cost-effective
and standardized system that it could implement for its
customers in the oil sands industry. Ensuring a high level
of reliability also was important to the design team due
to the millions of dollars lost by the industry in the last
several years from EHT systems failures. Equally important
was achieving a low total cost of ownership since EHT
systems represent one of the single largest electrical
maintenance expenses in oil sands facilities.
To meet its reliability, maintainability and efficiency
requirements, Bantrel worked with Rockwell Automation
to modify its existing control technology to meet the
specific requirements of EHT applications.
Solution
At the heart of the new system is advanced control
technology from Rockwell Automation, including an
Allen-Bradley 2100 IntelliCENTER motor control center
(MCC) and an Allen-Bradley Redundant ControlLogix
PLC System. The proven technology of Allen-Bradley
2100 IntelliCENTER MCCs are ideal for safely and reliably
switching large loads, which is one key reason Bantrel
opted for MCC control of EHT loads.
Resistance temperature detectors (RTDs) which are used
to monitor pipe and vessel temperatures are wired to 1794
FLEX™ I/O modules. The modules are then connected to the
ControlLogix PLC system via ControlNet. DeviceNet is used
within the MCCs for load control and system monitoring.
Rockwell Automation used its Allen-Bradley IntelliCENTER
MCCs employing E3 Plus electronic overload relays.
The E3 Plus overloads were modified to improve their
single phase monitoring capabilities, as well as increase
the ground fault sensitivity to the required 20 to 100
milliamps for EHT applications.
Maintaining a compact size was a key requirement of the
system. Because MCCs are typically located in buildings
in the center of a facility, they can consume valuable
building floor space; therefore the smaller they are, the
better. Bantrel specified Allen-Bradley 0.5SF plug-in
wrapper unit designs which are a mere six inches high
compared to the 12-inch units offered by the competition.
This small package was achieved by using the E3 Plus relay
and the Bulletin 100C™ IEC style three-phase contactors
rated for 30 amperes.
In a single process area at an oil sands facility, there can
be thousands of RTDs monitoring the temperature and
movement of petroleum products within the pipes and
vessels. With the new system, it wasn’t possible to reduce
the number of RTDs because it would simultaneously
reduce the amount of control and the number of heating
options. Instead, the team worked to simplify the cabling
required by RTDs.
To collect the RTD temperature data required by the
ControlLogix System, Rockwell Automation designed
compact cabinets enclosing FLEX I/O RTD input modules
that are used to integrate up to 120 RTDs into a single
ControlNet node, significantly reducing the amount of
RTD wiring back to the main controller as was required
in previous (more traditional) configurations. A single
ControlNet cable connects multiple RTD Input cabinets to
the central ControlLogix System. To keep the temperature
within a programmed range, the ControlLogix system
then controls the MCC contactor units via DeviceNet.
In addition, the three-phase contactors were configured
to switch three single-phase EHT loads based on flow
patterns and temperature requirements. This allowed
one-by-four conductor power cable per contactor to
be run to a local distribution junction box rather than
three-by-two cables required by conventional single point
EHT control, thereby further reducing cable costs.
Results
The new EHT system is a result of innovation and
teamwork by Bantrel, the oil sands companies and
Rockwell Automation. By leveraging the benefits of
Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture, and
technologies such as the E3 Plus relay and IntelliCENTER,
Bantrel and Rockwell Automation customers can realize
many benefits through this EHT system implementation.
The new EHT system is a result of
innovation and teamwork by Bantrel,
the oil sands companies and
Rockwell Automation.
Cost-effectiveness – Savings are quickly realized by
Bantrel and its customers through the use of standard
control components and reduced wiring and installation
costs of the new EHT system. Power and RTD cable is
reduced by more than one-third, which in turn cuts longterm maintenance costs.
Increased Safety – Low voltage MCCs are inherently
safer than conventional EHT control systems as the main
disconnecting means is integral with the contactor
wrapper unit. Also, conventional EHT control systems do
not offer the safety features associated with draw out MCC
style metal-clad control gear.
Increased Reliability – Traditional systems are plagued
by failures, but the combination of proven ControlLogix
and FLEX I/O, used in conjunction with IntelliCENTER
MCCs for this EHT solution, greatly increases the overall
system reliability.
Improved Productivity – Communication of operational
data and diagnostic information over DeviceNet keeps
operation and maintenance personnel up-to-date on
system performance and allows them to quickly pinpoint
trouble spots.
The oil sands industry has evolved from steam tracing
systems to electric heat tracing and will continue to
evolve with the latest solution from Bantrel. This new
MCC/PLC based EHT system has proved successful in
several applications in Alberta and is poised to help other
companies in the region improve the efficiency and
reliability of their petroleum processing operations.
The results mentioned above are specific to Bantrel’s use of Rockwell Automation products
and services in conjunction with other products. Specific results may vary for other customers.
Allen-Bradley, Bulletin 100C, ControlLogix, FLEX I/O, Integrated Architecture, IntelliCENTER and Rockwell Automation are trademarks of Rockwell Automation, Inc. ControlNet and DeviceNet are
trademarks of the Open DeviceNet Vendor Association. Trademarks not belonging to Rockwell Automation are property of their respective companies.
Publication PETIVP-AP570B-EN-D – May 2011
Copyright © 2011 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in USA.