simulation - Control Global

Transcription

SCADA Update Protects
Potable Production
Getting the Most
Out of Your Batch
Coal Conveying Confidence
SWEETER
SIMULATION
SEPTEMBER 2012
ON THE WEB
Comparative Anatomy:
WirelessHART and ISA 100
Once-separate silos of
simulation are cross-pollinating
into a functional whole from
which users can pick the
elements they need for
design, configuration,
training and process
optimization. Here’s what
the buzz is about.
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47 / SCADA Update Protects
Potable Production
Windsor Utilities Commission bolsters its water production system with data tracking-and-tracing capabilities
and wireless controls. by Jim Montague
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51 / Getting the Most
Out of Your Batch
The same techniques used to get the most ethanol out
of a scarce corn crop can help you optimize other batch
processes. by Greg McMillan
M
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R
S
A
N
D
D
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V
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56 / Coal Conveying Confidence
Leland Olds Station’s lignite-fired power plant integrates
gearboxes, efficient motors, pulleys and shafting to prevent unplanned downtime in its coal conveyors.
by Dave Soma
COVER STORY
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34 / Sweeter Simulation
Comparative Anatomy: WirelessHART and ISA 100
www.controlglobal.com/1209_StandardsCompare.html
Once-separate silos of simulation are cross-pollinating into
a functional whole from which users can pick the elements
they need for design, configuration, training and process optimization. Here’s what the buzz is about. by Jim Montague
CONTROL (ISSN 1049-5541) is published monthly by PUTMAN Media COMPANY (also publishers of CONTROL DESIGN, CHEMICAL PROCESSING, FOOD PROCESSING, INDUSTRIAL NETWORKING,
PHARMACEUTICAL MANUFACTURING, and PLANT SERVICES ), 555 W. Pierce Rd., Ste. 301, Itasca, IL 60143. (Phone 630/467-1300; Fax 630/467-1124.) Address all correspondence to Editorial and Executive Offices, same address. Periodicals Postage Paid at Itasca, IL, and at additional mailing offices. Printed in the United States. ©Putman Media 2012. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or part without
consent of the copyright owner. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CONTROL, P.O. Box 3428, Northbrook, IL 60065-3428. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Qualified-reader subscriptions are accepted from Operating Management in the control
industry at no charge. To apply for qualified-reader subscription, fill in subscription form. To non-qualified subscribers in the Unites States and its possessions, subscriptions are $96.00 per year. Single copies are $15. International subscriptions are
accepted at $200 (Airmail only.) CONTROL assumes no responsibility for validity of claims in items reported. Canada Post International Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement No. 40028661. Canadian Mail Distributor Information:
Frontier/BWI,PO Box 1051,Fort Erie,Ontario, Canada, L2A 5N8.
S E P T E M B E R / 2 0 1 2 XXXDPOUSPMHMPCBMDPN 5
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9 / Editor’s Page
85 / Technically Speaking
Old Habits Die Hard
Clinging to our stuff—and our old, bad
habits—make for inefficient and unsafe process management.
Who’s Hiring?
Oil and gas lead the way for hiring process
automation pros.
Building on our
successes together
in the United States
86 / Ask the Expert
15 / On the Web
All-You-Can-Eat Platters of Products
Don’t miss our big buffet of product information on ControlGlobal.com.
Cooling tower problems, plus the economy
control loop.
88 / Roundup
17 / Feedback
Temperature instrumentation technology.
Readers weigh in on paper vs. pixels and
WirelessHART vs ISA100.
90 / Products
18 / Lessons Learned
Improving Oil and Gas Well Safety
Scraping the bottom of the fossil fuel barrel,
and doing it safely.
Photoelectric sensors, dry-block calibrators,
SCADA apps for your smart phone, flare
monitors and more.
93 / Control Talk
25 / On the Bus
One Throat to Choke
The advantages of using a MIV or MAC to
upgrade your control system.
Smart Calibration
McMillan and Weiner talk about improving your control loops
26 / In Process
95 / Ad Index
New ISA standards committee, NIWeek
2012, alliances for boosting engineering
education, and more process news.
Check these pages.
33 / Resources
Safety Stories—So What?
A look back at former process safety stories
and a feeling that they haven’t helped.
Your calibration information headquarters.
96 / Control Report
Endress+Hauser is expanding
in the US - nearly doubling our
manufacturing capacity and
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CIRCULATION AUDITED MAY 2011
Chemicals & Allied Products
Food & Kindred Products
System Integrators & Engineering Design Firms
Primary Metal Industries
Electric, Gas & Sanitary Services
Petroleum Refining & Related Industries
Pharmaceuticals
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11,355
9,261
5,232
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3,789
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Paper & Allied Products
Stone, Clay, Glass & Concrete Products
Textile Mill Products
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Total Circulation
3,499
3,311
1,855
1,219
137
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EDITOR’S PAGE
Old Habits Die Hard
In the first week of August, I moved to St. Louis, Mo., to be closer to my fiancé. Thanks to
the miracles of modern telecommunications, I can easily continue to be editor in chief
of this magazine and its website. But in order to make this move, I needed to get rid of
WALT BOYES
most of my “stuff.” Those of you who remember the late, lamented comedian George
EDITOR IN CHIEF
[email protected]
Carlin will assuredly remember his routine on
“stuff.”
Carlin said, “A house is just a pile of stuff
with a cover on it. You can see that when you’re
taking off in an airplane. You look down, you
see everybody’s got a little pile of stuff. All the
little piles of stuff.”
He went on, “That’s what your house is, a
place to keep your stuff while you go out and
get—more stuff!”
Many trips to the charity donation center
later, I have much less “stuff” than I did before, and it feels good. Some of that stuff was
in boxes that were not opened even one time
since we moved to Aurora, Ill., eight years ago.
Clearly I didn’t need that stuff. There was lots
of stuff like that. I didn’t get rid of it all, but it
surely gave me a chance for reflection on what
a creature of habit I am.
I was talking to Eddie Habibi, founder and
CEO of PAS Inc. (www.pas.com), a few days
ago, and he said that end-user customers keep
telling him they’re looking for “state-of-the-art
products that are at least 10 years proven in
use.” I suspect that is more about the end users’
habits than the apparent contradiction.
We are all creatures of habit, in both our personal and professional lives. This is, of course,
both good news and bad news. The good news
is that we self-reinforce for things like being a
good employee and a good person. The bad
news is that, unless we have a significant shakeup in our daily lives, we keep doing things
the way we’ve always done them, regardless of
whether they’re the best thing to do or not.
As I’ve mentioned before, it seems to take a
major shake-up to get companies and employees to change their behavior and their goals. A
major shake-up like an explosion or other accident might be enough to make a company and
its employees make major changes in the way
they handle workplace safety—or maybe not.
Texas City clearly did not do enough to get BP
out of its old habit of shoddy safety, so the Macondo Deepwater Horizon disaster happened.
And since then, there have been many accidents in the process industries throughout the
world. It is a sad thing, and a really nasty habit,
to simply shrug and say, “Well, the process industries are dangerous. They don’t call them
boom factories for nothing, you know.”
In early August, at the Holly-Frontier Tulsa
East refinery, an explosion destroyed the hydrotreater unit. Holly-Frontier’s Tulsa East refinery is an example (probably, because we
don’t know the cause yet) of what happens
when you run a refinery at 125% of design capacity on a 24/7 basis until a failure occurs. A
Wall Street Journal article on Aug. 2 indicated
that too many refineries are having incidents of
“unplanned maintenance.” We can all guess
for ourselves what that actually means.
Most accidents in the process industries are
attributable to poor maintenance practices,
poor operations practice, operator error or a
combination of the three. We will certainly
find out if the Holly-Frontier accident is one
that we can add to the long litany of accidents
we don’t seem to be able to get beyond. We are
creatures of habit, and we can’t get beyond the
habits that make these accidents not only possible, but probable—even certain.
How long are we going to continue to kill our
friends and co-workers? As long as it takes for
us to give up our habits that lead to those accidents. We need to stop holding onto our stuff.
We are creatures of
habit, and we can’t
get beyond the
habits that make
these accidents not
only possible, but
probable—even
certain.
S E P T E M B E R / 2 0 1 2 www.controlglobal.com
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CONTROL ONLINE
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JIM MONTAGUE
E XECUTIVE EDITOR
[email protected]
All-You-Can-Eat
Platters of Products
DCS Gap Identification: Part 1
Maverick Technologies shows how to
avoid the pitfalls of DCS migration with
front-end loading
How to Use a Regulator to Reduce Time
Delay in an Analytical System
We know why you’re here. Sure, we publish and post lots of stories in Control
and at Controlglobal.com, and we hope they’re helpful and insightful. But we
also know the magazine’s real meat and potatoes are its basic products.
Of course, this is because the right product, service or technical feature can
make all the difference to process control engineers, their application’s performance and their organization’s survival and success. Luckily, you can jump on
Controlglobal.com, and click on the “products” tab for multi-pronged tools
for immediately finding just the right components. It’s like you’re standing in
front of a big smorgasbord or unlimited buffet, and some someone hands you
a big fork, plate and napkin. Yummy.
First, “Search Products” leads to the Product Resource Center, which is an easy-to-search, continually expanding database of almost 2000 products from
more than 500 manufacturers organized into 17 major
product categories and hundreds of subcategories. The
part I like best is that it’s all lean results with none of
the fat that clogs up searches on the regular Internet.
Second, “Download Literature” goes deeper to Controlglobal’s E-lit section, which presents more than 50 product brochures, catalogs and other
resources on how many products and solutions work and should be applied.
Third, the growing “Company Profiles” section presents each manufacturer in a product-style write up. Basic introductions are accompanied by
links to each firm’s products, applications, press releases, training resources,
literature, catalogs and exhibits. There are also links to key contacts and a
running tabulation of production mentions and editorial coverage.
Fourth, the “Technology Roundup” section is just what it sounds like—a
compilation of all Control’s many articles that each gather all the latest products available in a particular technical category. This is an instant list that
smart shoppers can use to begin comparing vendors.
Fifth, the “Vendor Notes” area includes 90 detailed explanations by suppliers about their products and how their technologies work. Because many
buyers don’t always know what device they need—especially with all the
technical advances happening these days—these notes and the E-lit section
can be very useful in helping potential users sort out exactly what solution
will be most appropriate and useful for them.
There may be better places than Control and Controlglobal.com to find
process control and automation solutions, but I sure haven’t seen them yet.
Swagelok explains the delays between
measurement and analyzer response.
Crucial Considerations to Determine the
Correct Level Detection Sensor?
Turck provides some useful answers.
To download these papers, go to www.
ControlGlobal.com/whitepapers.
Podcast: Wireless Comes of Age
Managing editor Nancy Bartels interviews ARC Advisory Group’s Harry
Forbes. www.controlglobal.com/multimedia/2012/arc-podcast-wirelesscomes-age.html
Energy Efficiency: How Everyone Can
Generate “Negawatts”
Invensys shows how to deploy energy
efficiency opportunities. www.controlglobal.com/wp_downloads/120814-invensys-energy-negawatts.html
Podcast: Process Sustainability
Jim Montague interviews ARC Advisory Group’s John Blanchard. www.
controlglobal.com/multimedia/2012/
process-sustainability-podcast.html
ControlGlobal E-News
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White Paper Alerts
Go to www.controlglobal.com and
follow instructions to register for our
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The Eclipse® Eg\]d /(- afljg\m[]\ _ma\]\ oYn] jY\Yj l][`fgdg_q
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compensation measurement. Make it your foremost choice for highpressure performance.
When things get hot, depend on SIL 3 Certified Eclipse® Model 705
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G N I K A E P S YL L A C I N H C E T
FEEDBACK
IN MEMORY OF JULIE CAPPELLETTI-LANGE,
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[email protected]
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[email protected]
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Wireless a Matter of Choice
Regarding “Wireless Comes of Age” (August 2012, p.34, www.controlglobal.com/
articles/2012/bartels-wireless-comes-age.
html), the quotes from me and others
(Mark Nixon of Emerson and Mike Cushing from Siemens) illustrate perfectly the
fact that the two protocols are not competitors; they are choices. End users get to
choose which of the two best meets their
needs. Other options include ZigBee and
WIA-PA (from China), which some users
might decide to choose because they offer some differences in functionality and
product availability.
ISA100 and Hart Communication
Foundation (HCF) chose to implement
slightly different protocols to meet expressed desires from their customer bases.
Users on the ISA100.11a committee requested that we include several options
to optimize the protocol for high security,
high reliability, high throughput or ease of
deployment. In the WirelessHART specification, HCF based the transport on standard HART messaging, and chose to limit
the options to make deployment simpler.
In either case, it is up to the vendor implementation to expose options and set
defaults, so that users don’t have to actually make any decisions unless they want
to tune the system.
ISA100.11a users wanted to be able to
extend the network to include as many
as 10,000 devices and a wide variety of
plant- and in-plant-related applications. So
the committee implemented an IP-based
network layer and a secure transport layer
(using industry-standard IPV6 addressing
and UDP or TCP) and an “over-the-air”
provisioning mechanism (plug-and-play)
since touching 10,000 devices was considered impractical. When it came to security, one of the ISA100 users manufactures
diapers, so they wanted a secure mechanism to disable security for those devices
deployed in their diaper plant, but not for
devices deployed in their other facilities.
Finally, the users on the ISA100.11a committee did not want to risk latencies above
100 ms, so the mesh networking protocol
in ISA100.11a limits the depth of the mesh
to the point where no user could get into
trouble by setting up the network with unexpected high latencies.
WirelessHART specifies a “full mesh”
network where all devices must have the
capability to be a router, so that whenever
possible, an alternate path can be found
within the network, even at the expense
of higher latency
or degraded battery
life. The ISA100.11a
standard allows for
routing, as well as
allowing less complex devices, which
Wireless
Comes of Age
are not capable of
routing and may
have longer and
more predictable battery life, to participate
in the network as requested by the ISA100
user participants.
Again, I don’t see this as good vs. evil or
mine is better than yours. It’s simply the
case where users get to choose which protocol is most appropriate for their application. Some end users are even mixing multiple protocols for specific deployments. I
think that arguing about winning and losing is missing the point. The idea that a
single wireless protocol is going to “win”
in the marketplace, I think, is unrealistic.
These are my views, not those of my employer or of ISA or the ISA100 committee.
Flow Like an Egyptian
Virtual Instrumentation for
Emissions Monitoring
ON THE WEB
EXCLUSIVE: Globetrotting
with Greg Shinskey
From Sustainable Plant:
Deepwater Horizon’s
Impact on the
Role of EH&S
Even in the notoriously conservative process
industries, wireless has moved past
the early adopter stage and into
AUGUST 2012
executive team
day-to-day operations.
WAYNE MANGES
OAK RIDGE NATIONAL L ABOR ATORY
NBOHFTXX!PSOMHPW
Keep the Print
I was reading an older issue of Control and
noticed a letter from an iPad user asking
for an app to read Control for the process
industries.
I want to counter that vote with a plea
to not ever kill the print magazine. I do so
much on the computer already that I don’t
want to read for pleasure there.
I’m not anti Apple either. I have an
iPhone and iPad, but I don’t do serious
reading/studying on it, and I don’t want to!
WILLIAM LOVE
XJMMJBNMPWF!MJWFDPN
17
LESSONS LEARNED
Improving Oil and Gas Well Safety
In the previous segments of this series, I explained how process control can improve
the safety of fracking, off-shore drilling, well blow-out prevention, drilling ship stabilBÉL A LIPTÁK
[email protected]
ity, etc. These articles were dealing with specifi c parts of the overall oil production process. Now I will walk through the whole process from beginning to end.
I am not in favor of the staggering investments
in these processes, but if we are going to scrape
the bottom of the fossil fuel barrel, at least we
should do it safely.
The Overall Process
Once the test wells identify the depths at which
the oil/gas bearing zones are located, the operation begins. It consists of three phases: 1) drilling, 2) production and 3) closing or killing the
well. (For a description of killing the well, go to
www.controlglobal.com/LL1209.html.) Looking at the equipment used in this process (Figure 1), this industrial process might appear to
be very complex and, therefore, hard to control.
In fact it is simple!
The control goal is simply to balance the variable pressure at the bottom of a vertical U-tube
with the pressure of a fluid which is circulated in
it. The fluid pressure at the bottom of the U-tube
is adjusted by changing the pump discharge
pressures and by changing the hydrostatic head
on the bottom of the U-tube through the adjustment of the density of the circulated fluid.
Phase 1—Drilling
If we are going to
scrape the bottom
of the fossil fuel
barrel, at least we
should do it safely.
18
Phase 1 starts with drilling the bore hole (~ 36
in. dia.) by lowering a drill bit into the well and
rotating it by a shaft inside a vertical drill pipe
(~ 6 in. dia.). Through this pipe drilling fluid
is pumped down, serving the dual purposes
of cooling the bit and carrying up the “cuttings” to the rig, through the annulus (or annular) between the pipe and the bore hole. As
the drilling progresses, a number of casings are
installed for support, and a number of blow out
preventers (BOP) are added, so that if excessive
pressure is encountered, the well can be closed.
During Phase 1, the goals are:
1) To keep the flow velocity and pressure
at the bottom (PB in Figure 2) high enough
www.controlglobal.com S E P T E M B E R / 2 0 1 2
to carry the cuttings up. This pressure ranges
from 5000 to 10,000 psig.
2) To keep the PB higher than the oil/gas pressure (PO) in the formation. This safety margin
(ΔP = PB – PO) should be held at about 500 psig.
3) To keep the PB pressure by some 500 psig
below the pressure (PF) at which the drilling
fluid would start to escape into the wall of the
borehole by fracturing it (PB < PF – 500 psig).
4) To protect against a “blow-out” that can
occur if high pressure gas pockets are encountered during drilling.
In order to satisfy the requirements 1), 2) and
3), all that is needed is to maintain a pressure
balance. This balance must also consider the
hydrostatic heads in the drill pipe (Hd) and in
the annulus (Ha), plus the friction losses as the
drilling fluid moves through the drill pipe (Fd),
the rig and the annulus (Fa). The hydrostatic
heads (H) are the product of the depth (D) of
the well and the density (r) of drilling fluid (H
= Dr), which in a 10,000 ft. well is about 5000
psig. Based on the accurate measurements of
these values, the required drill pipe and annulus pressures (Pdp and Pa) and the corresponding drill fluid pump suction and discharge pressures (PS and PD) are easily calculated as:
Pdp ~ PD = PO + ΔP + Fd – Hd
Pa ~ PS = PO + ΔP – Fa – Ha
Once they are accurately measured, all that
is needed is to satisfy the relationship:
PF > PB = PO + ΔP
In order to satisfy requirement 4) above, the
system also must be able to detect both the developments of “kicks” and initiate the response to
them. The development can be detected by noting an increase in the flow from the well (usually
Coriolis meters are used to measure the flows—
F in Figure 2) by the rise in the level in the
“mud tank” (L) and by the rise in the drill pipe
and annulus pressures (Pdp and Pa). The critical
Escaping steam means lost energy
and lost profits. If only I could monitor
my steam traps without running all
over the plant.
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in wireless so you don’t have to be.
rosemount.com/stopsteamloss
The Emerson logo is a trademark and a service mark of Emerson Electric Co. © 2011 Emerson Electric Co.
LESSONS LEARNED
Pdp, Fdp, Pdp
Pk, Fk, Pk
PD
N2
PS
P𝛛, F𝛛, P𝛛
Kill fuid
(concrete mix)
Mud
tank
C
L
Riser
Ocean surface
Upper
annular
Kill line
Blind shear
ram
Variable
bore ram
Blowout
preventer
Lower
annular
Choke
line
Casing
shear ram
Riser
Bop
rams
Variable
bore
ram
Wellhead
Ocean bottom
Conductor
casing
Drill pipe
Surface
casing
Hd: Head in drill pipe
Ha: Head in annulus
Fd: Friction in drill pipe
Fa: Friction in annulus
D: Depth of well
r: Density of drill fluid
Production
casing
Borehole
Intermediate
casing
PF
PB
Production
casing
PO
DRILLING VARIABLES
Figure 2: The variables that need to be accurately measured in
DEEP WATER DRILLING
Figure 1. The main components of an offshore oil well and its
blow-out preventers (BOP).
measurements, therefore, are the pressures, densities and flows
as shown in Figure 2.
When a “kick” is detected, the pressure balance must be reestablished by doing the following (in sequence):
1) Increase the nitrogen (N2) blanket pressure on the mud
tank (Figure 2).
2) If that does not stop the “kick,” gradually close the variable bore ram (Figure 1) in the BOP, and if “soft” closure is
desired (no sudden rise in pressure), then throttle the choke
valve (C in Figure 2) while doing it.
3) If the “kick pressure” is still rising, first close the casing ram
in the BOP and then (if needed) the blind shear ram (Figure 1).
Phase 2—Production
During the production phase, the pipe that in Phase 1 was taking the drilling fluid down into the well serves to carry the oil
or gas up from the formation to the rig. They rise under their
20
order to safely operate the drilling rig.
own pressures, so normally no pump is needed to provide the
driving force. During this phase, the flow direction is reversed,
the fluid properties are changed (pressures, flows, densities,
conductivity), but the process is similar.
The laws of hydraulics through a vertical U-pipe still describe the process. Therefore, some of the same sensors that
were used in Phase 1 can also be used, although they require
recalibration and range change.
The oil/gas is collected in storage tanks and is transported
by barges or through pipelines under the ocean to the shore.
During this phase the required safety controls to protect
against “kicks” are similar to those described in Phase 1. The
fact that the product is flammable requires additional protection to guarantee safety. If the BOPs fail and the presence of
flammables is detected (Chapter 7.8 in Volume 2 of the Instrument Engineers’ Handbook), the immediate response should
be to turn off all ignition sources on the rig or start nitrogen
purging them. If, in spite of these steps, fire is detected and
can’t be extinguished, the rig should be disconnected from
the well and moved away.
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SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
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330.486.0002
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What is PlantTria ?
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Isolates control valve mechanical issues
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www.PlantTriage.com
or call: +1-262-369-7711
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How Does Your Control System Compare?
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Choose 20 control loops from one unit operation. Do not choose the 20 most important.
Measure
How to Evaluate
Your Results
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Editor of BPÕ
s internal newsletter
Technology in Action
ON THE BUS
One Throat to Choke
Up the interstate from us, one of our region’s refineries is working on commissioning
its first fieldbus project. The plant is adding a new gasoline feedstock upgrading unit,
and decided it was time to start employing fieldbus. This site had done some pioneering work in the area of intelligent valve positioners, and its instrument department had
been using that supplier’s valve diagnostics and
instrument asset management package since
the 1990s. Unfortunately, said supplier doesn’t
make the plant’s favorite DCS. So, with its first
fieldbus system going in, it was faced with having to learn a second (and separate) asset management system, or creating its own kluge to integrate with the one created specifically for its
legacy field devices.
With fieldbus, one has freedom to choose,
but the world of open consensus standards—
especially those that incorporate end-user input—can exhibit varying levels of achievement. Microprocessor-based devices should
have a standard way to communicate with one
another and with microprocessor-based hosts,
and we’re a long way down that road with all
the leading technologies. But, users aiming to
exploit recent innovations, such as NE107 field
diagnostics, may have some concerns about
how to craft their specifications. For example,
you might be really enthusiastic about performing on-line valve diagnostics, only to be disappointed that either the positioners weren’t purchased with the proper options or licenses, or
that the host system’s tools are missing some
features you wanted. While a licensing oversight can usually be resolved by getting out your
checkbook, it’s still a significant effort to take a
commissioned positioner—or any device—out
of service to unlock the desired capabilities.
If you’re aiming to do control in field devices, you’ll find that positioners—the instrument that most likely performs device-based
PID—are unequal when it comes to speed.
The slowest can be six to 10 times slower than
the fastest. The vast majority of loops, let’s say
80% to 90%, are perfectly happy with dubiously
synchronized, variable-latency, host-based PID.
Normally, the project can get the plant commissioned and be out the door with 100% of
loops solved in the host. It’s as the plant matures, and the staff seeks out optimization opportunities, that the compromises made in the
specification phase begin to surface. At that
juncture, it’s not unfeasible to replace positioners in a few applications. It’s feasible, but not
free or trivial. That the boss may be unhappy is
not unfeasible either.
One solution is to hire a main instrument
vendor (MIV) or main automation contractor (MAC). Before any specification or procurement for the project ensues, the controls
lead gathers the key stakeholders—operations,
maintenance, project management and systems
specialists. This group then identifies a supplier
who can be single point of accountability for
everything from cabinet integration to orifice
plates. Some track record of having done this
for other clients is recommended, and I usually
like a few end-user references I can call.
The MIV’s role is meaningless if it has no resources or leverage to fix problems. And, since
the DCS is perhaps the single biggest procurement line item and arguably the most proprietary and complex component of the process
control package, it’s hard to conceive of a case
where the MIV is not also the host vendor.
But what about my neighbors to the north?
When a brownfield site has a legacy installed
base of incompatible DCS and asset management suppliers, there may be few options but to
revert to the host’s offerings. Be sure to get your
arms around this during the “beauty contest”
phase—it just might affect your host decision!
Evolving technologies such as EDDL, FDTDTM and FDI may get us a measure of consistency between competing suppliers, but it remains
to be seen how much this will extend to devices
manufactured before 2010 or so. For all that remaining legacy installed base, some sites may
have to keep their two-headed kluges alive.
JOHN REZ ABEK
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
[email protected]
When a site has
an installed base
of incompatible
DCS and asset
management
suppliers, it may
have to revert to the
host’s offerings.
25
IN PROCESS
ISA Charters New Standards Committee on
Intelligent Device Management
Group will work on templates of best practices and work processes for the effective use
of smart devices in the process industries.
The International Society of Automation (ISA) has established a new standards committee, ISA108, Intelligent
Device Management. The committee
will define standard templates of best
practices and work processes for the design, development, installation and use
of diagnostic and other information
provided by intelligent field devices in
the process industries.
Intelligent field devices, pervasive in
modern process manufacturing, bring
the promise of transforming the way
information related to these devices
and the processes they control is used.
For example, devices with impending
maintenance problems can be identified earlier with the information provided directly to process automation systems, plant asset management systems
or other systems or software as required.
In many cases, the promise remains
unrealized, often because users are
employing old maintenance work processes with new technology. The new
devices and applications are installed,
but operators and technicians stick to
their traditional approaches to preventive or routine maintenance, and do
not take advantage of the huge amount
of information available to them.
Indeed, as ISA108 Managing Director Ian Verhappen, of Yokogawa Canada, points out, “With more than 80%
of smart instrument data not being
used or even connected to an online
data collection system, the lost revenues to the process industries are tremendous. Thus, the need is clear for a
series of standards on how to integrate
this data into control systems and work
practices to achieve the benefits of proactive maintenance.”
26
ISA108 will hold an initial meeting
on Sept. 24, 2012, in Orlando, Fla.,
in conjunction with ISA Automation
Week 2012. However, the bulk of the
committee’s work will be conducted
electronically. If you’re interested in
participating in ISA108, please contact
Ellen Fussell Policastro of ISA Standards at [email protected].
“Software-Designed”
Instrument Sets New
Benchmarks at NIWeek
A record-setting 3400 of the National Instruments faithful descended on Austin,
Texas, during the first week of August
for the company’s NIWeek 2012 celebration of all things LabView. The weeklong technical conference for the company’s user and developer community
addresses the breadth and depth of NI
applications—from embedded industrial
control to Higgs boson research—and
has evolved since its launch in 1994 into
the primary venue for the company to
unveil the fruit of its latest R&D efforts.
This year, the company set its sights
on the audacious task of “redefining
instrumentation”—not a new pressure
transmitter or better thermocouple,
but the high-frequency, bench-top and
rack-mount devices used to design and
test complex electronic systems. Each
of these high-performance, purposebuilt devices can run into the tens
of thousands of dollars, according to
Charles Schroeder, NI director of marketing for test, who also led the company’s development effort.
The problem with traditional
DESIGN BY SOFTWARE
National Instruments’ RF vector signal transceiver (VST) represents a new class of softwaredesigned instrumentation that allows engineers
and scientists to tailor open, field-programmable
gate array (FPGA)-based hardware for their
specific needs.
instrumentation is that it simply hasn’t
kept pace with advances in underlying
computing technology, Schroeder explained, noting the explosion in smart
phone capabilities over the past decade,
even as instrumentation performance
and functionality have advanced only
incrementally. He attributed the rapid
advances in mobile device capability in
part to an open platform together with
a robust ecosystem of developers that
could push device capabilities forward.
“You can go from megabits to gigabits
[in processor speed], but it doesn’t help
if the software doesn’t advance.”
Instrument users, on the other hand,
have had no choice but to wait—often in vain—for suppliers to add that
needed functionality. “But now we’re
talking about Moore’s Law for instrumentation—a fundamental shift in how
instrumentation is designed and used,”
Schroeder said. NI calls this concept a
“software-designed” instrument. And in
NI’s case, that means instrumentation
developed from the bottom up using
NI’s LabView graphical design environment. This allows customers to use NI’s
instrumentation directly off-the-shelf,
:HFDOOLW';$GYDQFHG
Webster’s would call it
“a fully-integrated data
acquisition station”
Once you
experience it’s range
of capability and
reliability, you might just
call it “awesome”.
4
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DXAdvanced R4 has everything you need to monitor
and record valuable process information. The Advanced
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or to effectively reprogram the device
“all the way down to the pins,” Schroeder said.
The company’s first example, also introduced at NIWeek 2012, is the world’s
first vector signal transceiver (VST),
an instrument that combines radio
frequency (RF) generation, RF analysis and high-speed digital I/O—all in
a single instrument. The instrument
is far smaller and less expensive than
the three individual instruments it replaces—yet a high level of functional
integration yields comparable accuracy
and 10 times the speed of competitive
alternatives, Schroeder said.
At Qualcomm Atheros (www.atheros.
com), for example, the VST is being used
to design wireless networking devices for
the next-generation 802.11ac wireless
standard. “With 802.11ac, there’s greater
complexity and a geometric increase in
the number of modes that must characterized,” said Doug Johnson, director of
engineering. “Instrumentation flexibility and to-the-pin control are critical for
keeping our RF test process as efficient as
possible, and we’re pleased with the performance gains we’ve seen when testing
with NI’s new vector signal transceiver.”
He added, “The VST allowed us to
increase characterizations dramatically, from 30 to 40 points per insertion [in the test system] to hundreds of
thousands on a single insertion. It provides us freedom and flexibility in the
way we develop our 802.11ac solutions
for our customers, and has significantly improved our test throughput.”
“We have to be able to design at a
higher level,” added James Truchard,
NI president and CEO. “Users and
developers need higher levels of abstraction and a systematic way of
implementing these abstractions in
design and test processes,” he said.
“The software-designed instrument
provides an elegant method for handling complex systems, yet allowing
access to the lower levels as needed.”
Indeed, the VST is only the first in
what is envisioned as a new paradigm
of instruments that put an unprecedented level of control and customization in the hands of its users, according to Eric Starkloff, vice president of
product marketing, systems platform.
“Already customers have been able to
do things we couldn’t imagine.”
Other new products introduced at
NIWeek 2012 included a new “headless” CompactDAQ system for embedded applications that eliminates the
need for a separate host PC; a RIObased general-purpose inverter controller (GPIC) for the rapid deployment of
digital energy conversion systems; and
LabView 2012, which notably includes
demonstration code and recommended
application architectures to save time,
ensure scalability and lower maintenance costs of LabView applications.
WINA Wireless
Workshop at ISA Meet
The Wireless Industrial Networking
Alliance (WINA) will present a handson workshop, “Working Wireless—
Providing Real-World Insight into
Maximizing Wireless Performance,”
at ISA Automation Week, to be held at
the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.
The workshop will be offered on
Monday, Sept. 24, from 1 p.m to 5 p.m.
in Room 314A.
This hands-on session will provide
an opportunity to work with the tools
and learn the methods used in performing wireless site surveys and gain
insight into configuring wireless backbone networks for best performance.
The first half of the session will be devoted to radio theory and the tradeoff between bandwidth and range, as well as
other critical parameters. A number of
various wireless systems will be reviewed.
The second half will give attendees
tthe chance to test their new skills in
an in-depth set of exercises that analyze and demonstrate wireless protocol
considerations, including the use of
Everything
Industrial Automation
®
CUSTOM CONNECTOR
1.800.433.5700
© Allied Electronics, Inc 2012. ‘Allied Electronics’ and the Allied Electronics logo are trademarks of Allied Electronics, Inc.
An Electrocomponents Company.
IN PROCESS
spectrum analyzers and signal monitoring equipment. Included will be the
use of high-performance radio pairs,
power supplies, cables and antennas.
For more information, visit www.
wina.org/events or www.isaautomationweek.org.
Saving Panel
Space in Serbia
The most expensive real estate isn’t under the mansion of some Wall Street
billionaire. It’s inside the control, automation and power cabinets in most
process industries. All process control
engineers know this, including Djordje
Tripkovic, dipl. ing. el. He’s an engineer at Energotehnika Juzna Backa
(Entjuba, www.entjuba.rs/home), an
electric, gas and “heating line” utility
in Novi Sad, Serbia. He reports that
some of Entjuba’s often crowded panels and cabinets are used to control the
valves and heating circuits for a boiler
that’s fueled by sunflower shells, generates 18.5 megawatts, and supplies about
400 cubic meters per hour of 130 °F
to 150 °F hot water to businesses and
homes in the nearby town of Sremska
Mitrovica. In addition, Entjuba builds
a lot of its own equipment, including
its panels.
Tripkovic says he was delighted
when he found he could save some
precious space by implementing four
of Woehner’s (www.woehner.de) new
Motus Contactron Control hybrid motor starters with their 60-mm, copper
busbar mounting systems in the cabinets and panels controlling the valves
and circuits on the boiler. These cabinets control pumps and ventilators,
electrical actuators for valves, ash and
sunflower shell transporting devices,
and other motors. Consequently, the
Motus starters control electrical, on/
off actuators and flowpath-regulating
valves for hot water. The Motus devices
at Entjuba are for current of 2.4 amps,
such as that used in actuating valves
that have relatively low consumption.
“The conventional solution is a motor
circuit breaker and two contactors,” says
Tripkovic. “We’re using Motus starters
because they use less space in the cabinet and require less work on the wiring,
so they’re cheaper to implement and
maintain. We can put the four Motus
starters where we used to put one contactor/inverter combination, and, since Motus is mounted onto Woehner’s copper
busbars with an adapter, we don’t need
to do wiring from busbars to device. Less
wire also lowers our costs.”
Think Environmental Protection.
Think Cashco Vapor Control.
The full line of Vapor Control System from Valve
Concepts has established the industry standard for
engineered quality and in-field adaptability. The
engineered modular design enables us to reduce
capital outlay costs from 33% to 66% depending on
the model.
Our vents are engineered to be fully modular in design
so they can be converted in design and function in the
field. Any one of our vents can be changed to a pipe
away, spring loaded, or even a pilot operated vent
without having to buy a whole new unit. Now that’s
innovation that VCI customers profit from.
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Ph. (785) 472-4461, Fax: (785) 472-3539
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escalate. Harmony is achieved and core KPI metrics
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For more information, email [email protected].
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RESOURCES
Your Calibration Information Headquarters
Control ’s Monthly Resource Guide
Every month, Control ’s editors take a specific product area, collect all the latest, significant tools we can find,
and present them here to make your job easier. If you know of any tools and resources we didn’t include, send
them to [email protected], and we’ll add them to the website.
TEMPERATURE CALIBRATION
The most common and frequently
measured variable is temperature. But,
this “Calibrating Temperature Instruments” whitepaper reports that every
temperature measurement is different, which makes the temperature calibration process slow and expensive.
While standards determine accuracy
that manufacturers must comply with,
they don’t determine the permanency
of accuracy. So, users must be sure to
verify the permanency of accuracy. If
temperature is a significant measurable variable from the point of view of
the process, it’s necessary to calibrate
the instrument and temperature sensor. This is a free download. The direct
link is at http://tinyurl.com/cdnurwx.
BE AME X
www.beamex.com
meter is accurately measuring the flow
volume or mass, it must be recalibrated
on a periodic basis. This whitepaper
presents various choices for building
a successful recalibration program.
It’s free, but registration is required.
The direct link is at http://tinyurl.
com/9gnshtf.
COX INSTRUMENT
www.cox-instruments.com
HOW TO CALIBRATE A DP TRANSMITTER
This link is to a brief, basic tutorial on
calibrating DP transmitters. It includes
step-by-step instructions, including diagrams and charts. The direct link is at
http://tinyurl.com/9xetoys.
LE ARNING INSTRUMENTATION &
CONTROL ENGINEERING BLOG
ht tp://instrument toolbox.blogspot.com
NIST HANDBOOK
CALIBRATING SMART TRANSMITTERS
This whitepaper outlines practices for
calibrating smart transmitters. It covers
subjects, including range setter, current trim, sensor trim, device integration, getting better calibration results
and pre-commissioning calibration. It
is free and no registration is required.
The direct link is at http://tinyurl.
com/9eultke.
EDDL
www.eddl.org
CALIBRATING FLOWMETERS
Across various industries, the performance of a flow measurement device
is ultimately dependent on the proper
functioning of its sensors or other signal-producing elements, which have
an active relationship with the flowing
fluid. In order to be confident that a
Chapter 2 of the updated version of
NIST’s Engineering Statistics Handbook contains a long section on calibration. The purpose of this section is to
outline the procedures for calibrating
artifacts and instruments while guaranteeing the “goodness” of the calibration results. It covers artifiacts, designs,
artifact control, instruments, instrument control and more. The entire
handbook is free and includes a printable version of the various sections.
The direct link is at http://tinyurl.com/
bv2dpnw.
NIST
www.itl.nist.gov
INTRODUCTION TO CALIBRATION
This basic tutorial, “Instrument System Models and Calibration,” covers
basic calibration terms and techniques.
By the time users have completed the
free, self-directed tutorial, they should
be able to explain the model of a basic instrument system; calculate the
relationship between input and output for a complete system; explain and
identify the main instrument system
errors; explain the principles of calibration; and explain primary and secondary standards. The tutorial can either be downloaded directly or printed.
cqgo96c.
SCRIBD.
www.scribd.com
CALIBRATING VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS
This free, downloadable PDF whitepaper, “Using Calibration to Improve
Measurement Accuracy,” from National Instruments addresses such
questions as: How do you determine
the accuracy of your virtual instrument? And, how can you maintain
that accuracy? In addition, it covers
other topics, such as the difference between absolute and relative accuracy;
internal versus external calibration;
and component versus system calibration. It also covers many options for
maintaining your system’s calibration.
d3emsqv.
NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS
www.ni.com
pH PEN CALIBRATION VIDEO
This 10-minute YouTube video describes two of the most common types
of pH pens and how to best ensure
their accuracy. The direct link is at
http://tinyurl.com/cerza6z.
www.youtube.com
33
L I F E C Y C L E S I M U L AT I O N
SWEETER
SIMULATION
Once-separate silos of simulation are cross-pollinating into a functional whole
from which users can pick the elements they need for design, configuration,
training and process optimization. Here’s what the buzz is about.
by Jim Montague
“I love it when a plan comes together,” says Col. John “Hannibal” Smith. The cigar-chomping leader of “The A-Team” was
talking about his group’s cartoonish, live-action TV adventures
in the 1980s. However, he might as well have been discussing
simulation’s multiple and merging roles in many process applications. The confidence and satisfaction is the same.
Slow and costly models applied to only big-ticket applications have long since been joined by faster and less expensive simulations in a wider variety of settings. However, constantly improving and higher fidelity models, new variables
and parameters, better software, more powerful computers,
3D displays and other advances are also blurring the lines
between simulation’s usual categories.
Most notably, static simulations used for design and configuration are being linked to dynamic simulations for operations and training, and these have been enhanced by
closer-to-real-time data, which allows them to optimize actual operations, performance and products. As a result, tying
and unifying simulation into one multi-functional bundle is
letting users pick the capabilities they need without having
to implement several different solutions.
For example, Exxon Mobil estimates its process applications worldwide are saving about $750 million per year by using ROMeo optimization software, Pro/II simulation software
34
and other solutions from Invensys Operations Management
(www.invensys.com), according to Joe McMullen, product
manager for SimSci-Esscor at Invensys. ROMeo secures and
reconciles measurements from Exxon’s components, simulates
subsequent conditions and courses of action, and recommends
which ones will optimize the process and make it most profitable. Likewise, he adds that Royal Dutch Shell is also rolling
out ROMeo in several refineries, and so far gains about $1000
in optimization benefits for every $25 it spends on support.
“The ultimate goal is to use one calculation engine for
many different purposes,” says McMullen. “As long as training simulators and process control systems are on different
platforms, keeping them synchronized will continue to be
an issue. By contrast, our dynamic modeling tool lets users
easily create a model for use in a training simulator by just
pressing a button, and our EyeSim 3D, virtual reality training simulator is starting to gain traction too.”
Propylene Process Makes Its Own Model
Similarly, the biggest oil company in Sweden, Preem (www.
preem.se), has integrated Hysys simulation models from Aspen Technology (www.aspentech.com) into its DMCplus
controller to develop new advanced process controls (APCs)
and cut product variation in half. Preem has two refineries
including its Preemraff Lysekil refinery that processes 11.4
million tons of crude oil per year (Figure 1), and 500 retail
gas stations. In fact, Preemraff was where the company recently addressed the challenge of controlling its propylene/
propane (PP) splitter, which is used to separate C3 streams
into 99.5% pure, chemical-grade propylene and 98.5% pure
propane. Any deviations in quality could affect Preem’s profitability because of pure propylene’s high market value.
Preem reports it initially tried to use traditional modelpredictive control (MPC) for the PP splitter to drive its process to optimum performance and profitability, while still
respecting all equipment constraints. However, reliable
plant step test data, usually used to create an MPC design,
was very difficult to obtain because of excessive settling
times and disturbances that prohibited the PP unit from
reaching a true steady state. So, Preem’s engineers decided
to develop the MPC model from data generated by a dynamic simulator instead of the actual process.
Now, it’s important to remember that whatever applications
that dynamic simulations end up serving these days, their
starting point must still be a sound steady-state simulation.
For the PP project, a steady-state Hysys model of the
splitter, heat pump and ancillary equipment was reused
from a previous study. The Hysys model’s predictions of
column temperature profile and other variables were validated against plant data. Next, a dynamic simulation was
constructed using AspenTech’s Hysys Dynamics software
by specifying added engineering details, including pressure/flow relationships and equipment dimensions. All basic controllers also were built in the model, which was then
checked for consistency and calibrated against process data.
The dynamic simulation was configured to automatically run a sequence of events and record all selected variables. Step tests were then run with Hysys Dynamics, and
the data was exported to the DMCplus’ model application.
Once the step test data was imported into DMCplus, the
task of dynamic model identification took on the appearance of any other DMCplus project. Historical process data
was also imported into DMCplus to validate the dynamic
models. Finally, a DMCplus controller was built and a connection to the DCS was established. Once online, this Hysys-enhanced controller helped reduce propylene variation
by 50%, saving Preem more than $55,000 per year.
Because of the extensive simulation effort—and the fact
that the underlying model of the PP splitter was sound—no
added controller tuning was necessary during commissioning,
according to Dr. Nicholas Alsop, Preem’s APC manager. The
design procedure using dynamic simulation as an alternative
35
Photo courtesy of AspenTech and Preem
PERFECT PROPYLENE AND MORE
Figure 1. Preem is using AspenTech’s Hysys simulation models to reduce
propylene variation by 50% and eliminate plant tests.
to models from plant tests was validated. In addition, the Hysys
Dynamics model was next used as the engine for an operator
training simulator (OTS), further increasing the value of using
dynamic simulation for this study.
“When the Hysys-based DMCplus controller was put in
prediction mode with the real plant, the results were so good
that no live plant tests were needed,” says Alsop. “As a result
of this good experience, we’re using Hysys as a tool in every
DMCplus controller project.”
Glenn Dissinger, Ph.D., product manager for AspenTech’s
Hysys product family, adds that, “Preem’s simulation of its PP
splitter is really about putting APC on top of operations. Previously, users performed step tests by putting in disturbances,
and then waiting days for results when the process returned to
a steady state. Now, their dynamic models allows them to get
results in minutes, and calibrate them with actual operations
data. As a result, more users are aware of the need to look at
dynamic simulations.” In fact, to further accelerate simulation efforts, AspenTech has introduced AspenSearch, which
allows users to quickly locate existing models and other plant
information to reduce the time it takes to accurately model an
asset’s operations.
Training, Optimization is a Two-Way Street
Thanks to recent gains in data processing speed and capabilities, it seems that process simulations that start out in one
realm can quickly flow into other areas as needed. For instance, Fertilizantes Nitrogenados de Venezuela (Fertinitro)
While other manufacturers debate the best shape for Pitot Tubes...
Meriam has been focusing on system accuracy.
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Photo courtesy of Fertinitro and Honeywell
TRAINING TO OPTIMIZE AT UREA PLANT
Figure 2. Fertinitro used MathWork’s MatLab to check granulation equations and used Honeywell’s UniSim to create an interface and operator
training simulator (OTS) for its urea plant that reduced shutdown hours and
improved process performance.
is a urea and ammonia producer located in the José Antonio
Anzoátegui Petrochemical Complex in eastern Venezuela,
and it synthesizes 1.3 million tons per year of ammonia, and
synthesizes and granulates 1.5 million tons per year of urea
for nitrogen fertilizer. To improve its operations, Fertinitro
recently developed simulation models and deployed operator training simulators (OTSs) in both its ammonia and urea
processes. The project cost about $3.5 million and implemented Honeywell Process Solutions’ (www.honeywellprocess.com) UniSim R300 in the ammonia process and UniSim Operations R320 in the urea process.
Natalia D’Ambrosio, process superintendent at Fertinitro,
reports that, “OTSs were needed because traditional training
didn’t focus on plant operations, and we needed to improve
the operators’ skills to optimize conditions, familiarize new
operators with the plant and reduce plant shutdowns caused
by operational errors. The operators also needed to learn how
to solve critical situations in a safe way.”
Consequently, points configured for the ammonia plant’s
simulation included 164 process streams, 336 field-operated
devices, 163 controllers, four anti-surge controllers, 20 instructor variables and 19 malfunctions.
“The major challenges for the ammonia OTS were to
simulate turn-ons for the burners and reach the correct heating rate in the reformer furnace; achieve the right temperatures in the convective duct coils in the reformer; and find
the correct CO2 leakage in the removal section,” explains
D’Ambrosio.
Likewise, points configured for the urea and granulation
plant’s simulation included 70 process streams, 112 control
valves, 150 field-operated devices, 10 instructor variables
and 12 malfunctions.
“The major challenges for the urea OTS were to manage thermodynamic packages; reach the correct conversion
levels in the urea reaction and the reactor top temperature;
produce the correct quantity of low-pressure steam in the
high-pressure recovery section according to the plant load;
simulate the CO2 compressor’s anti-surge control; and stabilize the pump that sends recycle solution to the high-pressure system,” says D’Ambrosio. “In the granulator’s simulation, several equations were developed to simulate its
behavior. These granulometry equations were studied using
MathWorks’ MatLab software, and then a Unisim interface
was prepared for them.” (Figure 2)
The models developed for the ammonia and urea OTSs
represented conditions in the plants with an average deviation
Thousands of enclosures
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ENCLOSURES
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of 5%, according to D’Ambrosio. As a result, plant shutdown
hours decreased from more than 120 in 2009 to less than 10
in 2010 and almost zero in 2011.
“So far, 96 operators have trained on the ammonia
and urea OTSs, including about 35% newcomers,” adds
D’Ambrosio. “Some process conditions have been improved,
letting us increase the steam generation and reduce natural gas use. New control logics and operating philosophies
also are proven in the simulator to validate their effectiveness and operational security before they’re implemented.
Our next challenge is to integrate both of these simulations
to allow even more realistic and complex training and even
better oprimization.”
Martin Ross, product manager for Honeywell’s UniSim
solutions, reports that simulations were previously constrained by available computing power, but those limits have
been removed, and the beneficiaries are users like Fertinitro. “The cost of calculations is way down. The equivalent
of 9 gigabytes of memory used to cost $25,000 to $30,000,
and now it’s basically free,” explains Ross. “This is enabling
simulation across PCs, allowing users to build larger models
and solve more complex problems. Now it’s easier to look at a
steady-state simulation’s recommendations, and then push it
through a dynamic simulation for quick assessments, adjustments and redesigns. These days, both design engineers and
engineering procurement contractors (EPCs) can use simulation to optimize their processes. Meanwhile, everyone is
using simulation for training, but they’re also using it to address asset management and lifecycle issues too.”
In fact, Honeywell has combined its UniSim Design Suite
for process modeling and UniSim Operations Suite for training since 2005, and recently refreshed its HMI to be more
intuitive and Windows-based because users want fewer les-
IT INFRASTRUCTURE
Photo courtesy of Siemens Industry
REMOVING RADON
Figure 3. Operators at the Fernald Closure Project used a
simulation station assisted by Siemens PCS7 DCS and their own
radon control system (RCS) to validate and optimize their radon
clean-up project and to train for new situations.
sons to sit through and more Xbox-style interfaces. “If a user
has one simulation for detailed engineering, then they want
to use the same platform later for operations and other jobs,”
adds Ross. “We say that once you’ve got a good model, then
you can also use it in a bigger framework for tasks like training. Process simulation is simply becoming more accessible
to all kinds of users, who want to initialize training with real
plant data or gain other competency tools.”
Rough Locations, Unusual Settings
Naturally, as simulations merge their static and dynamic
sides and pick up speed and mobility, they’re also starting to
show up in some unusual applications and some very harsh
environments. For example, energy and mining consultant
Norwest Corp. (http://norwestcorp.com) of Golden, Colo.,
and an independent oil company client recently needed a
full-fields imulationt oo ptimizeh igh-pressure,a ir-injection
(Continued on p. 41)
SOFTWARE & SERVICES
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Technology and Solutions Event
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24–27 September 2012
Orange County Convention Center
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,62
(Continued from p. 39)
and horizontal-infill drilling for a tight
reservoir in the Williston Basin—located in Montana, the Dakotas and
Saskatchewan—but they couldn’t afford a costly simulator. So, they researched and chose Tempest software
from Roxar (www.roxar.com), which is
part of Emerson Process Management
(www.emersonprocess.com).
Using nine years of available production data from a similar field nearby to
calibrate their simulation model, Norwest and its client report they achieved
an excellent history match; used the
model to optimize the timing and sequence of infill drilling; converted existing wells to air injection; and saw
oil production spike when new wells
were drilled. At the end of the first
year, production and injection forecasts
matched actual performance, even during transient operations. The partners
more than doubled estimated recovery
and applied the lessons learned to older
fields nearby. Estimated primary recovery was only 8-10% of original oil in
place, but the client recently predicted
recovery of 24%. Besides high-pressure
air injection, they’re investigating a hybrid air-and-water injection method to
further improve recovery and reduce
operating expenses.
Norwest presently uses Tempest for
black oil, compositional and thermal
simulation in projects ranging from
multi-component coalbed methane
(CBM) to tight gas reservoirs and enhanced recovery operations. Reservoir
simulation ought to be done routinely
on many more oil and gas fields, according to John Campanella, Norwest’s senior reservoir engineer.
“I think reservoir simulation should be
brought down to every engineer’s desktop,” says Campanella. “We need to push
simulation out of the back room and into
the mainstream where people can use it
on a daily basis. Besides big 3D projects,
there are a lot of existing fields where simulation could be applied, but too often it
gets skipped, and one big reason is cost.
Most simulator licenses are priced too
high for everyone to access when they
need it, and cost is a big issue for smaller
oil companies and consulting firms like
us. It’s hard to justify a package that costs
more than $200,000 like several we evaluated. While other simulators may have
more bells and whistles, Tempest does
the job efficiently and cost-effectively on
almost anything from small, conceptual
models to full-field CBM models. Some
of our clients don’t have the expertise to
do CBM modeling or large-scale simulation. Others have the ability, but their
people are spread too thin, and so they
come to us to help get things moving.”
For example, Campanella adds that
Norwest was contracted to reevaluate another oil field with more than
50 years of production. After building
a simple conceptual model, history
matching and running a simulation
with Tempest, Norwest demonstrated
that the water-oil contact was about
140 feet lower than previously believed, and identified a deeper target
capable of producing clean oil in a section thought to be completely wet. “After the simulation, that well was deepened, completed, and produced 100%
oil for almost six months.”
Similarly, in an earlier project, Fluor
(www.fluor.com), CCA-Wesco (www.
cca-corp.com) and Siemens Industry
(www.siemens.com) joined to clean up
8900 cubic yards of heavy metals, organic material and radioactive waste in
two silos at a former uranium refinery
covering 1050 acres in Fernald, Ohio.
From the 1950s until the plant closed
in 1989, the silos had become the
world’s largest source of radon at 13 to
16 million picocuries per liter (pCi/L)
each, so controlling and mitigating the
gas was a crucial part of processing and
removing the waste.
Consequently, the partners in the
Fernald Closure Project selected Siemens PCS 7 DCS to automate Fernald’s clean-up process and radon control system (RCS) because it could
work via Profibus and WinCC software
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with the 12 other control systems employed during the project. In addition, PCS 7 and the RCS helped train operators
running the plant, and also provided validation and verification required by the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DoE).
“PCS 7’s process object viewer let us audit all the alarm
messages and priorities, which was an absolutely vital part of
this project,” says CCA-Wesco’s engineering manager, Shirley Jeffreys. “This helped us make sure interlocks and all of
the alarms were in place. Also, a simulation station in the
control room played an important role because the application’s second step was to verify that the automation functionality was in place and working appropriately. We couldn’t
have proven the software prior to completion of construction and installation without the process simulation. We
wrote a full process simulation for every system, and any
changes were tested prior to implementation.” (Figure 3)
Frank Showalter, the Fernald project’s facility operations
manager, adds that, “The simulation was vital because it
helped speed the development process. For example, the
team was able to verify the control strategy and the ability
to transfer and process hazardous material during the code
development before construction was complete. The process
could be immediately evaluated in the control room and during interactive meetings via the Internet, allowing personnel
in multiple locations to easily collaborate on the project.”
Fernald’s simulator also provided realistic, hands-on training opportunities. Operators practiced work evolutions before
equipment was installed to develop their skills and validate
operating procedures. Their view of the process was identical
to normal process operation, and they could experience the
impact of their inputs. Also, engineers could simulate process
upsets, so that operators could learn to recognize abnormal
conditions before emergencies developed. Fluor reported that
the clean-up project was finished in 2006.
Mark O’Rosky, Emerson’s simulation and training manager, confirms that traditional static simulations for design
and dynamic simulations using process changes for highfidelity control system modeling have been joined by longerterm lifecycle simulation models, which are also known as
multi-purpose design simulations (MPDS). These MPDSs
take dynamic data and use it for many tasks, such as evaluating and optimizing formerly fixed designs, or running simulations at five or six times normal operating speed to get results faster. “Users are already manipulating real-time data
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to get more accurate responses from their simulations. So, in
the future, I think we’re going to see vendors including simulations for real-time adjustments to controls. A simulation
will watch a process and give feedback during operations.”
Pictures vs. Reality
One of the most exciting sides of simulation lately is its recent
push into 3D displays and immersive environments. It seems
everybody wants the Xbox experience in their displays and
simulations, perhaps so younger operators will be drawn to
process control. However, despite their hypnotic graphics, 3D
and immersive displays still haven’t really come into mainstream use yet.
Similarly, even fans of simulation’s emergence in 3D,
agree that crisp and colorful graphics are useful only if their
“realism” truly reflects what’s going in their process application. “For example, process applications in the North Sea
are now legally required to have dynamic simulations, and
use them for operator training,” adds AspenTech’s Dissinger.
“However, the question remains: how realistic does a simulation need to be? The nuclear power industry may need
exact replicas, while chemical and refining processes may
need different levels of realism, up to and including buying a complete, duplicate set of DCS hardware. Just as any
simulation must begin with a good steady-state model that’s
calibrated and tuned with current data and converted to a
dynamic operation, it must continue to represent true operations and show operators how to recognize and respond
to them.”
Besides making sure your APC model is accurate, Honeywell’s Martin adds it’s also vital to make sure you don’t implement more simulation than you really need or are going to
use. “The Holy Grail of simulation is dynamic optimization,
but the other question is: do you really need it and can you
maintain it?” says Martin. “This isn’t a technical question, but
it’s a deployment problem. Can you build a model that’s good
enough to give you a worthwhile benefit?”
In addition, Martin adds that 3D displays will soon serve
as engineering platforms where—not just simulation—but
a host of control and automation tasks can be carried out.
In fact, Honeywell is integrating its UniSim process simulators with Virthualis’ (www.virthualis.it) MindSafe 3D simulation to develop a 3D simulation solution to enhance operator training and plant safety. The partners are integrating
Photo courtesy of Honeywell and Virthualis
ALL-AROUND IMMERSION
Figure 4. Honeywell’s UniSim process simulator has integrated with Virthualis’
MindSafe 3-D simulator to provide a holistic, virtual environment that can respond to
changing conditions, such as heat from fires that can influence pressures, and other
conditions in pipes and equipment.
the two to provide a holistic virtual
environment that can be used to efficiently design, analyze and verify plant
operations, as well as prepare operation
teams for safe, reliable and efficient operations (Figure 4).
While UniSim models what happens inside the pipe work and process
equipment, MindSafe does the same
for the external environment. This
creates realistic, interactive scenarios
that respond to changing conditions.
For example, heat from fires can influence pressures and other conditions in pipes and equipment, which,
in turn, can affect possible leaks. This
system can be used to perform both
engineering studies and emergency
response training.
Into the Cloud Too
Because one of the main forces allowing simulation to get into more varied,
smaller-ticket applications is less costly
and more powerful data processing, it’s
no surprise that a few simulations are
being performed in virtual and cloudbased computing environments, and
being displayed on smart phones and
other mobile devices.
For instance, Mynah Technologies
(www.mynah.com) just launched a
Virtual Dynamic Simulator service for
designing and implementing simulations via private cloud computing and
VMWare’s virtualization technology.
Mart Berutti, Mynah’s president and
COO, reports its benefits include:
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and upgrades with minimal hardware.
“Simulation in the cloud takes regular
dynamic simulation and applies virtual
computing technology, so it can be easily
used for training and other purposes,” explains Berutti. “However, you still have
to start with a good model.”
Using the same technology as the public cloud, the private cloud allows flexible access and agility, but does it behind
the security of the end user’s firewall.
“We have our own private cloud for business, and we’re building internal private
clouds for users,” adds Berutti.
Jim Montague is Control’s executive editor
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D ATA C O L L E C T I O N
SCADA Update Protects
Potable Production
Windsor Utilities Commission bolsters its water production
system with data tracking-and-tracing capabilities and
some wireless controls.
by Jim Montague
Water is always on, but to keep it flowing
constantly, municipal utilities must work
equally constantly to maintain and upgrade the wells, pumps, treatment and distribution lines that serve their communities. This means servicing, repairing and/
or replacing all the hardware and software
that these systems depend on.
For example, Windsor Utilities Commission (www.WUC.on.ca) recently replaced
its aging supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system and built in
greater redundancy. It also combined these
improvements with a second project to upgrade medium- and low-voltage electric
switchgear on high- and low-lift pumps at its
Detroit River intakes, reservoir booster station, pumping stations and main campus.
WUC has provided safe and reliable water since 1935, and presently serves 72,000
businesses and homes in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It also sells bulk water to the
nearby towns of LaSalle and Tecumseh.
Its two main plants produce a total of 349
megaliters (mls) per day, which is slightly
less than 90 million U.S. gallons (Figure 1).
To accomplish its primary mission of water
treatment and distribution, WUC has implemented the latest treatment technologies
and is recognized as an industry leader in
ozonation and meeting Ontario’s Drinking Water Quality Management Standards
(DWQMS).
However, WUC’s innovations encompass
more than ozonation and quality management, and its water treatment plant is one of
the most advanced in Canada, according to
John Stuart, WUC’s chief operating officer,
his team and their partners at Rockwell Automation (www.rockwellautomation.com).
Consistent Water Needs Data
In early 2010, Stuart and his
colleagues recognized that
their process controls were
reaching the end of their lifecycle and needed upgrading.
Rather than waiting for a problem
to occur, they sought a solution that
would not only bolster the system’s
data tracking and tracing capabilities, but also reduce the risk that
a single-source failure could halt
their operations. This meant WUC
needed a fully redundant SCADA
system with intelligent motor control and networking to improve system diagnostics.
“We don’t have a lot of water storage in our distribution system, so we
depend on our high-lift pumps,” explains Stuart. “If there’s any impact
on the system, we have just 10 to 15
minutes to go to backup power. So we
needed to get away from that potential
single point of failure by changing our
system architecture, splitting our electrical feed, and adding redundant I/O
cards and processors.”
Presently, WUC’s treatment and
distribution system has 2600 discrete I/O points and 900 analog
I/O points monitoring the pumps
and other equipment’s starts, stops,
flows, voltages, currents, alarms and
other data points. “If the plant had
kept its original control system and
lost an I/O card, such as the one
running the dosing pumps, then
the control system would fail to
add chemicals to the water, which
47
would have compromised the water quality,” adds Stuart.
“In a redundant system, two processors and associated I/O
cards would have to stop working for such a failure to occur.”
Besides improving its tracking, tracing and redundancy,
WUC wanted a system that could address three key areas:
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WUC manually recorded data every hour and risked
human error. The new system needed to provide onthe-spot report creation of historical production data.
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nearing retirement. WUC wanted to retain their knowledge by distilling it into an automated process.
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wireless platform that would allow one operator to use
a handheld, portable tablet to control the system. This
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on one operator per shift, rather than two.
New Controls Aid Information Access
Because of their longstanding collaboration, WUC again enMJTUFE3PDLXFMM"VUPNBUJPOUPIFMQLFFQJUTGBDJMJUZPOUIFMFBE-
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Solutions Business (SSB) team provided project management
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information with real-time visibility of water quality, as well
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software, which delivers unified access to virtually all plant
STAYING HYDRATED
Figure 1. Windsor Utilities Commission’s (WUC) two main water treatment plants take in and use an industry-leading ozonation process to treat
about 349 megaliters of drinking water per day for a total population of more than 264,000 people over a service area of 276 km2.
48
information sources (Figure 2). By tapping into data gathered
by FactoryTalk Historian software, FactoryTalk VantagePoint
provides visibility into historical production data by putting the
information into context via web-based reports. These reports
provide role-appropriate visualization of high-level desktop
dashboards. Prompt reporting capabilities are helping WUC
stay ahead of regulations, and allowing real-time changes to
plant processes to avoid downtime, fines or worse.
To further improve operations, Onyx and Rockwell integrated more information software. For instance, FactoryTalk
Asset Centre change-management software enhances security through a set of asset-centric tools, which document and
record all changes made to production on a role- and password-based system. FactoryTalk View Supervisory Edition
(SE) HMI software supports distributed-server application,
allowing maximum control over plant information. And, all
programming was standardized to ease troubleshooting and
future expansion of the control system.
“We’ve also got an aging workforce,” adds Stuart. “Within
10 years, we’re likely to lose all of our operations guys and a
lot of our institutional knowledge. Also, there was little or no
redundancy on the software we had, so we would have been
out of luck if there was a failure,” adds Stuart. “So our operators customized the FactoryTalk View SE software to match the
unique needs of our operations. Being able to capture our operators’ knowledge in this new SCADA system was invaluable.”
In addition, WUC replaced conduits and wires from each
I/O with ControlNet networks to help reduce wiring and installation costs, increase reliability and enable point-to-point
management and troubleshooting. ControlNet is also used
to transmit electrical information, bus voltage, motor data
and network security to operators using the Common Industrial Protocol (CIP).
Allen-Bradley Centerline low-voltage motor control centers (MCCs) provide the controllers with soft starting and
stopping of the continuously run motors, and Allen-Bradley
PowerFlex AC drives provide the variable-speed motors with
energy savings on pump loads. Allen-Bradley IntelliCenter
software connects the MCCs with the rest of the plant, providing real-time diagnostics and MCC documentation to
help maximize MCC and related equipment performance.
Medium-voltage soft starters were installed in the synchronous and non-synchronous motors, and medium-voltage
PowerFlex AC drives replaced the step-up/step-down drives.
Besides providing the products necessary for a plantwide control system, Rockwell Automation also supported WUC with
other services. Through comprehensive network validation,
Rockwell’s engineers verified the installation and operation of
WUC’s new network. This ensured that the system was consistent with current functional requirements and that WUC could
hit the ground running after migrating to the new control system. They also provided onsite training to WUC’s operators.
NEED TO KNOW
Figure 2. Upgrading the SCADA system in WUC’s control room
and pumping stations included adding ControlLogix PACs and
FactoryTalk VantagePoint software, which provides visibility
into historical production data via role-appropriate, web-based
reports and desktop dashboards.
With a robust SCADA system in place, WUC was able to
achieve its ultimate goal of moving to a platform uses wireless, tablet-based controls. Also, Stratix industrial Ethernet
switches provide secure integration with the enterprise network, so employees can confidently use the wireless devices
without fear of outsiders hacking the system. Operators are
now free to make rounds and take samples anywhere in the
plant without the risk of missing an alarm because they were
not within earshot of the control room.
Smarter SCADA Means Safer Water
The new SCADA system at WUC was commissioned in
early 2010, and completed under its $3.8 million budget
in January 2011. WUC became the first water provider in
Ontario to use wireless tablets for plant control, and in
August 2011, the plant transitioned from two operators
per shift to one. The new system also eliminated the risk
of single-source failure, and has helped reduce the risk
of reporting errors by automatically tracking and tracing
plant data.
Improved real-time control helps reduce downtime since
operators can now proactively fix problems. When an issue
does occur, the tablet allows operators to work directly with
maintenance professionals at the source of the problem,
rather than communicating commands over a phone or radio
from the control room.
In the future, WUC plans to integrate its laboratory information management system onto the FactoryTalk VantagePoint software, and also use the new control system’s power
monitoring capability to check separate electrical feeds, determine how much power is used for pumping at different flow
rates, and improve pumping efficiency. The ability to determine the most efficient flow rate will give plant management
and staff the ability to optimize the backwash and chemical
process dosing by 2013.
Jim Montague is Control’s executive editor
49
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B AT C H O P T I M I Z AT I O N
Get the Most
out of Your Batch
The same techniques used to get the most ethanol out of a scarce corn crop can help you
optimize other batch processes.
by Greg McMillan
Most of the effort to date in optimization has been in continuous plants using the well-established tool of model predictive control. Except for my article, “Unlocking the Secret Profiles of Batch Reactors” (Control, July 2008, p. 59,
www.controlglobal.com/articles/2008/230.html), most of
the published effort on batch optimization has been in the
use of data analytics and, more specifically, projection to latent structures (PLS) to predict endpoints as discussed in the
Control Talk columns “Drowning in Data, Starving for Information” (Feb-May, 2010, see sidebar on p. 54).
There are some innovative, easy-to-implement general
solutions to increase batch efficiency and capacity. Special
software is not required—just some special thinking to open
the mind to the opportunities. The test case is the front end
of an ethanol plant with batch fermenters, but much of the
methodology is applicable to batch reactors for food, beverages, drugs and chemicals.
Initial Opportunities
When I was leaving for college, my dad said, “Make sure
you use a good grain analyzer to optimize alcohol batch
time and yield.” Good advice, dad. These words of wisdom
would be useful in the years to come at “Purple Passion” parties with tubs of grain alcohol and grape juice. The greatest
value was seen 40 years later for ethanol plant optimization
opportunities.
51
Corn
Production rate
enhanced PID
Setpoint AC
1-4
Average fermentation time
enhanced PID
SC
1-4
AY
1-4
AT
1-4
XC
1-4
NIR-T
XY
1-4
Slurry solids
enhanced PID
Feedforward
Fermentable stach
correction
DX
2-4
DC
2-4
RCAS
FC
1-5
Dilution water
FT
1-5
FC
1-6
Backset recycle
DT
2-4 Coriolis
meter
FT
1-6
Slurry
tank #1
Slurry
tank #2
Lag and delay
Predicted fermentable starch
DY
2-4
OPTIMIZING YOUR BATCH
Figure 1. The control system uses a feed analyzer and a simple production rate controller to provide a rapid optimization of ethanol
yield.
The control strategy takes advantage of an off-line or atline analyzer of corn yield (fermentability) to provide with
corn feed rate an inferential measurement of production
rate as the process variable for a simple flow controller. An
enhanced PID is used to deal with variable update time of
the feed analyzer. The operator sets the production rate for
the front end of an ethanol plant that includes a parallel
train of batch fermenters. When the corn analyzer indicates
the corn fermentability has increased, the ethanol production rate controller cuts back corn feeder speed, immediately translating the increase in yield to a decrease in corn
feed rate. Since corn is more than 50% of the ethanol cost,
the reduction in cost of goods (COGS) is significant—especially this season with a drought-compromised corn crop.
A change in fermentability also corrects the setpoint for
slurry percent solids control. The tricky part here is the setting of lags to mimic the residence times of the slurry tanks
and the delay to match the turnover time.
Feed-forward control is added to make production rate
changes smoother. If the operator changes the production
rate of the front end to better match up the back end distillation and purification capability, the dilution water flow setpoint automatically changes to maintain the current ratio of
water-to-corn feed rate.
52
When an off-line analyzer indicates a fermenter has
reached an endpoint, the average fermentation time for
the 10 fermenters is updated. A fraction of the equivalent
change in fermentability from the average is taken as a bias
correction to the analyzer signal.
More Opportunities
More recently, I realized I could use the slope of the
batch profile for ethanol (ETOH) concentration to decide
whether to end or extend the batch based on the value of
additional yield and capacity. When the ETOH concentration approaches the endpoint, the slope starts to flatten out,
since the alcohol concentration inhibits the yeast. If you
convert the slope to ETOH gallons per minute and multiply by the analysis time interval, you have the additional
ETOH until the next analyzer update. If you divide the
current ETOH gallons in the batch by the number of corn
bushels effectively used in the batch, you have a simple estimate of the yield in terms of ETOH gallons per bushel.
If you divide the additional ETOH per batch by the yield
and multiply by the cost per bushel, you have the dollar
value of the additional ETOH by extending the batch. If
you take the current ETOH gallons in the batch and divide by the current batch time in minutes, you have the
© 2012 Siemens Industry, Inc.
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Answers for industry.
Precision that stands
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“Make sure you use a good grain analyzer
to optimize alcohol batch time and yield.”
– Greg McMillan’s dad’s advice to him on going away to college.
C(Head) and R(Rack) Mounted
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current fermentation production rate
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additional capacity by terminating the
batch. A polynomial fit of the profile
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If the cooling tower can’t keep up
with cooling demand for hot summers and higher yield corn, the
higher-than-normal temperature adversely affects the yeast, decreasing
the fermentation rate. The peak in
the cooling demand can be monitored, and the start of fermenters
staggered to space out the peaks and
even out the cooling load. If the fermenter temperature is controlled by
manipulating the outlet temperature
of the heat exchanger in a recirculation line, you can estimate the cooling rate as simply the exchanger inlet
temperature minus the outlet temperature multiplied by the recirculation flow. If the recirculation flow
does not change, the exact value is
not important, since we are looking
at when the cooling rate slope reverses sign, indicating a peak. The
exchanger inlet temperature is the
fermenter temperature, so new sensors are not required. To synchronize
the temperatures, the inlet temperature can be sent through a dead time
block to simulate the transportation
delay through the exchanger.
General Methodology
An off-line or at-line feed analyzer
is used to compute the yield of a key
raw material. For a continuous frontend or a fed-batch, a process variable
is computed that uses the predicted
yield to provide an equivalent product
flow rate. The production rate controller immediately cuts back on the actual raw material feed rate for a measured increase in predicted yield. An
enhanced PID is used to deal with
the variable update time from at-line
and off-line analyzers. If the batch
takes less or more time than normal
to reach the endpoint, a portion of the
inferred change in yield is used to correct the feed analyzer.
If a periodic analysis is not available
during the batch, a cooling rate may
provide an inferential measurement
of the conversion rate in chemical reactors and in fermenters for alcohol
KROHNE – process instrumentation
is our world.
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 1-800-FLOWING
us.krohne.com
Drowning in Date; Starving for Information
Four Control Talk columns, which originally appeared in the February through
May 2010 issues of Control, can be found online.
Part 1 — www.controlglobal.com/articles/2010/DrowningInfo1002.html
Part 2 — www.controlglobal.com/articles/2010/AutomationData1003.html
Part 3 — www.controlglobal.com/articles/2010/Data3_1004.html
Part 4 — www.controlglobal.com/articles/2010/Data4_1005.html
production. An oxygen uptake rate for
biological reactors can provide an inferential measurement of cell growth
rate for pharmaceutical production.
Continuous on-line and relatively
frequent at-line analyzer measurements are inputted to a dead time
block to create a continuous train of
old measurements. A new measurement minus an old measurement
divided by the dead time is the slope
of the concentration profile. The
dead time is set large enough to provide a good signal-to-noise ratio.
From the slope near the end of the
batch, the additional product produced in the dead time interval or
the analysis time interval for sampled measurements is computed.
The slope (e.g., conversion rate, cell
growth rate, product formation rate)
near the end of the batch is used to
make an economic decision about
whether the batch should be terminated for extra capacity or extended
for extra yield.
Next, the slope is converted to
product mass flow and multiplied by
the analysis time interval to get the
additional product mass for the given
dead time or analyzer time interval.
The current product mass in the
batch divided by the mass of each key
raw material added to the batch gives
the yield in terms of product for each
key raw material. The additional
product mass per batch is divided by
this yield and multiplied by the cost
per unit mass of each key raw material. The results are summed to arrive at a dollar value of the additional
product by extending the batch.
The current product mass in the
batch divided by the current batch time
in hours offers an estimate of the current batch production rate. Alternately,
the production rate can be used from
the flow controller based on predicted
feed yield. The production rate multiplied by the profit per unit mass, and
finally multiplied by the dead time or
analysis time interval gives an estimate
of the value of additional capacity by
terminating the batch.
The analysis time interval should be
shortened to be just large enough for a
good signal-to-noise ratio near the end
of the batch to make the optimization
more accurate. If the analysis of the
profile of a key composition or product is not available until after the batch
has been transferred, the results can be
cautiously used for the next batch.
Greg McMillan is a member of the
Process Automation Hall of Fame.
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COAL CONVEYING
CONFIDENCE
Leland Olds Station’s lignite-fi red power plant integrates gearboxes, effi cient motors,
pulleys and shafting to prevent unplanned downtime in its coal conveyors.
by Dave Soma
The maintenance team at Leland Olds Station, a coal-fired
power plant near Stanton, N.D., cares deeply about keeping
the plant running, and providing people with electricity—especially in the dead of winter. That’s why, in 2009, we began
looking for a better gearbox to use on the plant’s coal conveyors.
Located four miles southeast of Stanton on the Missouri
River, the plant is owned by Basin Electric Power Cooperative (www.basinelectric.com), one of the largest electric generation and transmission cooperatives in the United States.
It generates and transmits wholesale, bulk electric power to
2.8 million customers in nine states (Figure 1).
When the 222-megawatt Unit 1 at Leland Olds Station
went online in January 1966, it was the largest lignite-based
power plant in the Western Hemisphere. Unit 2, a 447-megawatt unit located adjacent to Unit 1, began commercial
56
operation in December 1975. In 2007, construction began
on a $410-million project to install a wet limestone scrubber
to remove sulfur dioxide emissions.
In general, the plant consumes about 3.3 million tons of
lignite per year from North American Coal Corp.’s (www.nacoal.com) Freedom Mine in Beulah, N.D. The plant also uses
about 230,000 gallons of water per minute—most of which is
released back into the Missouri River. The plant’s boilers produce 1005 °F steam, which spins Unit 1’s 290,000-hp turbine
and Unit 2’s 590,000-hp turbine at 3600 rpm.
Leland Olds Station is the only power plant in North
Dakota that uses a “v-slot” coal-unloading system. This vshaped hopper and enclosure automatically unloads six rail
cars at a time. It takes about one hour to unload a 60-car
train (Figure 2).
MOTORS AND DRIVES
MIDWESTERN POWERHOUSE
Figure 1. The two-unit, coal-fired Leland Olds Station power
plant near Stanton, N.D., generates and transmits about 669
megawatts of wholesale, bulk electric power to 2.8 million
customers in nine states.
BIG COAL = BIG ELECTRICITY
Figure 2. A trainload of lignite waits to be unloaded at the Leland
Olds Station. The plant uses a v-shaped hopper and enclosure to
automatically unload six rail cars at a time and takes about one
hour to unload a 60-car train.
‘Musical Gearboxes’
Originally, chain cases were used on gearboxes serving the
plant’s conveyors, but due to issues with grease and improving plant cleanliness, the maintenance department switched
to belt drives. However, we found the change from chains to
belts added too much tension and overloaded the bearings
in the gearboxes, and that’s when the maintenance headaches began (Figure 3).
For years, we’ve been playing musical gearboxes on these
conveyors. We would take a failing gearbox off and replace
it with our spare, and hope that we could fix the gearbox before we needed the spare somewhere else on the line. Most
of the time, we were scrambling to make these things work
and keep the conveyors running.
Extra time was also needed to realign belts after a gearbox
was installed, which is a critical job, requiring skill, time and
effort. These change-outs were also complicated because of
where the gearboxes are located—in confined, hard-to-reach
spaces with not much room to work.
This was a big deal for us and the plant because failing
gearboxes threatened our ability to generate power. While
we never did lose generation, we had to sweat it out a few
times to get the job done. We knew this was not a good situation, and we needed to do something about it.
Combining Reducers, Motors, Pulley and Shafting
Consequently, we called in a trusted distributor to help
find a reliable solution. Craig Taylor, manager of Motion
Industries’ (www.motionindustries.com) branch in Bismarck, N.D., had been a frequent visitor at the plant, and
had helped our team with several other projects. Taylor was
familiar with the failing gearboxes, and recommended Baldor’s (www.baldor.com) Dodge Quantis right-angle, helical bevel gear reducer.
“We’ve had good success using Dodge Quantis gearboxes
in other applications over the past six years,” explains Taylor.
“They have a good service record, so there was no question
about what Leland Old Station’s conveyors needed.”
81
MOTORS AND DRIVES
CONSISTENT CONVEYING CHALLENGE
Figure 3: Keeping the plant’s coal conveyors running used to be a concern for its maintenance team because an earlier switch from
chain cases to belt drives added too much tension, overloaded the bearings in the gearboxes, and caused them to chronically fail
and need replacement.
products into one packaged solution. He adds it’s beneficial
to deal with one company and get one quote. Plus, he believes customers get better packages and prices as a result.
We and other Leland Old Station officials agreed, and we
ordered six of them.
Likewise, it was nice when the shipments arrived, because we didn’t have to do a bunch of assembly here at the
plant. The drum was already mounted on the shaft, and
the bearings were mounted too. So, when we got the assembly into position, all we had to do was mount the gearbox and motor package. Our electricians hooked it up, and
away we went.
Consistent Performance
GEAR REDUCERS AND FRIENDS
Figure 4: To achieve more consistent gearbox performance, the
plant’s maintenance staff implemented Baldor’s Dodge Quantis
right-angle, helical bevel (RHB) reducers, Reliance Super-E
premium-efficient, explosion-proof motors, Dodge pulleys and
shafting, and Dodge Imperial bearings.
However, Taylor recommended more than just the gearbox. For added reliability, he suggested implementing a
Baldor package that—in addition to the Quantis reducer—
also included its Reliance Super-E explosion-proof premium-efficient motor, Dodge pulley and shafting components, and Dodge ISAF bearings (Figure 4).
Taylor reports he worked with Baldor’s System-1 group,
which is a team that facilitates design, quotation and order
processing of multiple power transmission and electrical
82
Since they were installed in the fall of 2009, our Quantis
reducers have performed flawlessly. They run great, and
our team only looks at them while performing our regularly scheduled, preventive maintenance program. It’s a nice
change not to be worried about failing gearboxes, but we
also appreciate the benefits of getting the power we need
from a compact unit.
Because space is at a premium where the gearboxes are
used, having a smaller unit makes it much easier for us to
get to all of the other equipment. Another feature is that
these gearboxes have a built-in, roll-back clutch, instead of
a separate piece of equipment, which took up space and required additional maintenance. In general, fewer moving
parts means there is a lot less for us to deal with.
We’re also glad to have a Baldor Reliance motor as part
of the package, especially the efficient design for energy
savings. We have a lot of Reliance motors in the plant, and
we’ve had good luck with them, too.
MOTORS AND DRIVES
In addition, the Baldor Dodge ISAF bearings were well
received by our maintenance team (Figure 5). In the past,
set screw bearings were used, but they caused severe damage to the shaft over time, which meant machining a new
shaft as well as replacing the bearings. However, the Dodge
bearings use an adapter-style mounting that attaches to the
shaft with a concentric grip that reduces damage. We really like these bearings because they offer 360° of support.
Because they support the shaft better, they won’t cause any
damage and are easy to maintain. These bearings have
solved a lot of our problems.
Thanks to all these solutions, we’re enjoying maintaining the plant without the panic we experienced in the past
from constantly failing gearboxes. Now when peak demand
hits, I don’t worry about meeting critical demand, because
our Quantis reducers and other products have proven to
be so reliable. We believe our strategy of choosing a package based on total cost of ownership was the right decision.
Our maintenance headaches have gone away. It would be
nice if everything worked this way.
Dave Soma is the mechanical super visor at the Leland Olds Station.
ALL-AROUND SUPPORT
Figure 5: The plant’s maintenance team reports its Dodge Imperial bearings have an adapter-style mounting that attaches to
the shaft with 360° degrees of support, don’t cause any shaft
damage, and are easy to maintain.
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CONTENTS/INDEX
EYEBROW
6 The Once and Future
Protocol
WirelessHART Takes Off
11
WirelessHART is a powerful
17
How Process Leaders
Use HART
Save time, increase profits and
and flexible industrial wireless
Best practices for success with
productivity with HART.
standard.
HART from outstanding users.
ADVERTISERS
Analog Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Emerson Process Mgt/Rosemount . . 9
Endress + Hauser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Fluke/Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Fluke/Industrial Group. . . . . . . . . . . 16
Hart Communication Foundation . .22, 24
MACTek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
MESCO Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Mitsubishi Electric Automation . . . . 21
Moore Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Pepperl+Fuchs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Phoenix Contact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
ProComSol. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Rockwell Automation. . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Samson Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Yokogawa Electric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
All Roads Lead to HART—Get Connected Now!
By Ron Helson, Executive Director, HART Communication Foundation
F
or a significantly increasing number of users, whether planning to expand or
update an automation or safety system,
improve a plant asset management system, or
start a new plant project, HART Communication is the protocol of choice.
No matter the project evaluation criteria—
risk, system integration, training, interoperability, funding, flexibility, security, resources, required
skills, engineering time, existing systems, schedule or
any other considerations—in process automation, all
roads lead to HART!
Why? HART is the world’s number one and most
often selected communication technology. HART
delivers the valuable process and device information
users need with low risk and low cost. HART is the
right choice—today and into the future.
Today’s business environment demands doing more
with less. HART Communication works 24/7 to do
just that—but only if you “get connected” to use
the valuable information from your HART devices.
When you get connected, you unlock all the realtime diagnostics, intelligent capabilities and power
of HART Communication to help you save time and
money through predictive maintenance, process optimization and avoiding unscheduled downtime.
Connecting plant control, safety and asset
management systems to the intelligence in HART
devices benefits all phases of the plant life cycle
and, ultimately, your bottom line. In the following pages, read compelling, real-world
examples that demonstrate the benefits of
getting connected. See how HART works
now and will work in the future, and find
out how WirelessHART can enable your
operation to implement the latest advances
in smart instrumentation.
Users worldwide are sending a clear message to
industry suppliers by purchasing and deploying
HART-enabled products in overwhelming numbers.
They choose HART because it is the simple, reliable,
secure, low-risk, interoperable, cost-effective intelligent communication protocol that they know and
trust—the global standard that delivers value and dependability year after year. Suppliers are responding
with new and increasingly more intelligent HARTenabled products, many of which are described in
this supplement.
Even a relatively small investment to get connected
delivers big results, providing actionable information
that will improve your plant operation and lower
costs. Join other users who are gaining significant
benefits for their companies when they get connected
to the intelligent information in HART devices. They
have discovered, as you will, that it’s true: For intelligent process automation…all roads lead to HART!
This issue is our 12th HART Supplement in Control magazine. We thank you and everyone
involved for continued interest and support of this valuable resource.
For more on HART ® and WirelessHART® go to www.hartcomm.org or www.controlglobal.com.
HART® and WirelessHART® are trademarks of the HART Communication Foundation.
Advertising supplement to CONTROL S-5
EYEBROW
EYEBROW
HART’S
FUTURE
The Once & Future Protocol
HART is the most widely used communication protocol in the
process industries and the best choice for the future.
F
rom the very beginning, HART Communication filled a crucial need for digital communications from instrument to control and
maintenance systems. As the needs of the process
industries have grown and changed, HART Communication has evolved to meet those needs, and is
clearly the choice of the process industries for the
communications protocol of the future.
HART IN THE BEGINNING
The Highway Addressable Remote Transducer
(HART) Protocol became an open protocol in
1990; HART Communication Foundation (HCF)
was established in 1993, multiple vendors began
offering HART communication as an option, and
eventually it became the standard I/O solution.
“As it relates to digital field communications
for instrumentation,” Michael Robinson, solutions business manager at Endress+Hauser notes,
“HART has been in the marketplace as a reasonable solution for a substantial amount of time.
The market has embraced the technology, and the
implementation costs are relatively low for either
a brownfield or greenfield installation.”
Shannon Foos, process segment manager, fieldbus
and asset management, at Rockwell Automation
says, “Coming from the world of electrical control
based on 4-20 mADC, HART provides added value
by superimposing digital information on the analog
loop-- an incremental step above the traditional
4-20 mA device. This incremental step was easy for
both users and automation vendors to implement.”
Robinson continues, “If you also consider that
the technology is integrated into ‘de facto’ PV/
CV field signal technology, and that most 4-20
mA instrumentation outputs are supplied with
HART communication as a standard option with
no additional cost to the user, it does not surprise
me that its adoption has been significantly more
S-6 Advertising supplement to CONTROL
successful than the other bus technologies or
protocols.”
Gary Prentice, national sales manager for Moore
Industries International, puts it bluntly. “Even the
earliest versions of HART filled the need to manually perform configuration and diagnostics remotely. Many (HART) users have not outgrown this
basic need. More sophisticated users take advantage of the multiple dynamic variables with a single
process penetration and the online diagnostics.
Most users’ needs continue to be met with HART,
and they are comfortable with the technology.”
In 2012, HART has more than 35 million installed instruments and devices, far surpassing any
other process fieldbus. Garrett Schmidt, wireless
product manager for Phoenix Contact explains
why. “HART is the world leader of field device
protocols because it is backward-compatible to
standard 4-20 mA. You can use HART instruments without upgrading the control systems.”
Mark Nixon, lead system architect at Emerson
Process Management, says that the reason HART
has more than twice as many installations as its
nearest competitor is, “Simplicity. The industry has
been using 4-20 mA and HART for over 20 years,
so there is a wealth of experience to draw on and a
very well-defined set of tools and processes that have
been developed. WirelessHART simply built on the
success already achieved with HART. The HCF and
its member companies continue to drive HART and
its related technologies for customer value. The standard continues to evolve so that real-world problems
can be solved in a standards-driven manner. For
example, the latest release of HART includes support
for discrete-oriented devices such as on/off valves.”
Jeff Dobos, ProComSol president, says HART is
“inexpensive and easy to use, makes use of existing wiring in plants, and cost and installed base
will keep it dominant for a long time.”
HART’S FUTURE
THE BASICS: HOW HART WORKS
There are three basic modes of operation for the
HART protocol.
In point-to-point mode the digital signals are
superimposed on the 4-20 mADC loop current.
One process variable (PV) is sent on the 4-20 mA
signal, and other signals, such as secondary or calculated PVs (up to four or eight in newer devices),
as well as device setup, calibration and diagnostic
and maintenance status, can be transmitted digitally over the 4-20 mA signal.
Multi-drop signals are transmitted with the current
loop set at 4 mA. Multi-drop mode allows up to 64
devices on a single loop. Multi-drop mode “has been
very successful on RTUs in remote wellhead monitoring,” says Jonas Berge, director of applied technology for Emerson Process Management, Singapore.
The third mode is WirelessHART. This mode is
true HART, but the data is sent wirelessly using
an IEEE 802.15.4 radio. “The goal with WirelessHART was always to extend the capability
of the proven wired technology,” says Ed Ladd,
senior business development manager for process
automation at Mitsubishi Electric Automation,
Inc. “It was designed to provide a reliable sensor
level network that could interface with current
systems in the field.”
WirelessHART was designed so it could be used
to retrofit wired HART devices with a wireless
adapter that is a native HART device and can be
located either at the device or anywhere along
the current loop. Thus, any HART device can be
upgraded to act as a WirelessHART device, within
the capabilities of its native HART version.
Because the HART protocol was designed for
multiple vendors, many HART commands are universal and must be adhered to by all vendors for
any device. This forms the backward-compatibility
to other previous versions of HART, so that any
installed HART device can be used with any other
HART device, completely interoperably. Other
DATA ANYWHERE
HART
SCADA
OPC
Historical
Trending
INTERNET
SPC / SOC
MIS / MRP
ETHERNET - TCP/IP
RT DATA
HART SERVER
HA
Thomas Holmes, president of MACTek Corporation, sums it up. “HART is here to stay because
no other field communication solution can cover
the wide range of devices and applications—wired
and wireless, analog and digital. Since HART
includes the 4-20 mA signal, it is the only solution that works with the existing installed base of
control, safety and monitoring systems and the
installed base of measurement devices.”
I/O SYSTEMS
MULTIPLEXERS
RS 232 INTERFACE
HART
FIELD
DEVICES
PLANT
FLOOR
Figure 1: HART data is available anywhere on the 4-20 mA loop!
commands, such as Common Practice, include
calibration and PV range, while a third set of commands includes device-specific commands such as
Linearization Tables.
HART, whether wired or wireless, uses EDDL
(Enhanced Device Description Language), with all
the information needed by the host to communicate with a field device. The DD (Device Description) is a binary file which cannot be read as a
text file. This enhances the cyber security of field
devices.
The DD is generated via a tokenizer during the
development and testing of the instrument. The
DD contains all of the information required by
a connected host, either a handheld communicator or a PC, for an engineer to be able to support
the instrument. More complex instruments have
been able to benefit from a backward-compatible
upgrade to the DD that allows a more graphical
user interface, much the same as that offered by
the Device Type Manager.
HART data can be transmitted using a multiplexer (available from several vendors), connected to many field instruments with a single
connection to a host system. The multiplexer is
often incorporated during the design phase of the
project, but can also be added as a retrofit due
to the backward-compatible and interoperable
nature of the HART protocol. Recent control
systems have been able to take advantage of
I/O cards that can pass HART commands over
a fieldbus network such as Profibus DP. HART
HART’S FUTURE
COMMUNICATE TWO WAYS
PC Host Application
Digital Channel
4-20mA Analog Channel
Field Device
Two Simultaneous Communication Paths
Figure 2: The digital signal is superposed on the analog signal.
data can also be transmitted via OPC to the control system or the asset management system.
WHAT PEOPLE USE HART FOR
Most users use HART for calibration and routine
diagnostics. This is changing rapidly. More HART
devices are being connected directly to the process
control system or asset management system now
than previously. Endress+Hauser’s Robinson says,
“This depends on the individual’s perspective of
how that process device impacts the profitability
of the plant. Even though a process asset isn’t connected to the plant controls does not minimize its
importance to the process. We all know that the
right information in the right hands at the right
time always yields positive results.”
Phoenix Contact’s Schmidt says, “Being able to
use HART has a lot of benefits; I think one of the
most overlooked uses is for getting off of preventative maintenance schedules and being able to
predict device failure with the HART data—especially for valves. Partial stroke testing (PST) and
positioning feedback data is extremely valuable.”
HART AND THE FUTURE
Users discover more ways to use HART Communication to make their plants competitive and
sustainable; suppliers offer more intelligent HART
products; and the use of HART technology grows
globally.
The ARC Advisory Group reports about half
the worldwide installed base of process measurement and control devices is HART enabled. ARC
forecasts the number of installed HART devices
will surpass 37 million by year end 2012 .
ARC says, “HART continues to have the largest share of the market. We see strong, continued
growth (for HART) .”
The HART Communication Foundation continues
to enhance the HART Protocol. HART technology
developments support changing industry requirements and preserve investments, to provide new
opportunities for both users and suppliers. Backward
compatibility ensures that an investment made in a
HART device is protected into the future.
IEC 62591-WirelessHART, designed to bridge
the gap between wired and wireless, is the first
international wireless standard for process monitoring and control. WirelessHART benefits both
existing and new monitoring and control applications. The development of wireless capabilities
and other enhancements for the functionality of
the HART Protocol preserves the viability of the
technology’s future indefinitely.
And more enhancements will come to extend, amplify and improve your HART assets for the future.
HART TECHNOLOGY FOR TODAY AND THE FUTURE
Planning an automation solution requires many
considerations, including technology risks mitigation, funding, resources capability, team agreement, leveraging of installed assets, system integration and real-world needs assessment. From
point-to-point to multi-drop to wireless, HART
technology enables real answers. HART Communication is the most robust, most versatile fieldbus
protocol, and positioned to carry the industry well
into the future.
Using wireless here and there is one thing.
But using it across my entire operation?
There’s no one I could trust to do that.
See more, do more and be more profitable with the most trusted partner in wireless — Emerson.
Emerson is your proven partner with Smart Wireless in more customer sites and with more operating
hours than anyone else in the process industry. Smart Wireless has the widest range of technologies
to expand your vision into more places across your operations. And its self-organizing mesh network
delivers the highest reliability available. It is simply the most intelligent, secure and cost-effective
operation-wide wireless option available. See how Smart Wireless can empower your bottom line
at EmersonProcess.com/SmartWireless
RIDE THE WAVE
Wireless transmission – on 2.4 GHz waves
Historically, industrial wireless communication has
not been used in process automation applications;
however, WirelessHART™ will change this trend.
WirelessHART saves cabling costs and can be used in
applications considered impossible using traditional
installation methods. The technology is based on
the proven HART protocol, so implementation and
training is easy and straightforward. Even better,
the wireless field devices integrate easily into the
highly-available and stable mesh network generated
by components from Pepperl+Fuchs.
Learn more at: www.pepperl-fuchs.us/wirelesshart
Pepperl+Fuchs, Inc.
Twinsburg, Ohio
330.486.0002
www.pepperl-fuchs.us
TAKE-OFF!
WirelessHART Takes Off
Interoperable, backward-compatible,future-proofed,
WirelessHART is a powerful and flexible industrial wireless standard.
F
irst introduced in 2007, WirelessHART has
become the standard of choice for wireless
communication with industrial field devices.
Also known as IEC 62591, WirelessHART is the first
international standard for wireless industrial field
devices. Daniela Roth, marketing communications
for MESCO Engineering GmbH, explains why the
standard has become so well-accepted in such a
short time. “WirelessHART fits well to HART technology with wired communication.”
“Most all industrial customers are already
familiar with HART,” says Moore Industries
International national sales manager Gary Prentice. “I believe it is this embedded familiarity that
has given WirelessHART its head start. Moreover,
most all of the asset management systems and
hand-held communicators used for programming
field devices are already based on HART. Wireless
standards or protocols other than HART have to
be further explained when it comes to seamless
integration with other devices or existing legacy
control and management systems.”
Gary Cusick, president of MACTek Corporation, says, “The industry recognizes the benefit of
a wireless solution based on the industry-standard
HART protocol. Users expect a wireless solution
to be based upon their existing devices and skill
level. Also,WirelessHART technology is supported
and implemented by a large number of device suppliers around the world.
“Third,” Cusick continues, “WirelessHART is
now field-proven, with more than 8000 networks
(and more than 10,000 devices) working in process applications worldwide. Lastly, “users have
confirmed that WirelessHART, is a simple, reliable
and secure solution that truly addresses the needs
of the process industry. Users have come to know
that a wireless solution that claims to be everything to everybody is not a practical solution and
will add unnecessary complexity to the solution.”
Success in the Mesh
Figure 1: Wireless HART is a robust self-organizing and selfhealing mesh network.
Many of the 280+ members of the HART Communication Foundation are offering or preparing to offer WirelessHART devices. Jonas Berge,
director of applied technology at Emerson Process
Management, says, “WirelessHART has more supporting instrument suppliers than any other wireless industrial protocol. Interoperability is assured
because they all use the same common application
protocol: HART commands. All features for all
instruments regardless of vendor can be accessed
thanks to the HART standard.”
Robert Schosker, product manager for intrinsic
safety, HART, signal conditioners, power supplies
and surge at Pepperl+Fuchs, notes, “Nearly 70% of
all products shipped today incorporate the HART
protocol. Integrating a wireless technology on top
of a hugely successful standard protocol that’s
simple, easy and already understood makes HART
a viable—and trusted—option as a wireless
TAKE-OFF!
provider. Secondly, getting to the market first
helped immensely. And almost every manufacturer
of field devices offers HART as part of its product
portfolio, making the availability of products easier
and offering less risk to the customer.”
Having identified HART as a good basis for
a wireless instrument network,, the creators of
WirelessHART needed to take into account the
needs and requirements of the major end users of
instrumentation. The major instrument vendors
and organizations, such as the HART Communication Foundation, carried out customer surveys
and received the same top three requirements:
“Make it simple, reliable and secure.”
Customers also said they needed a network that
can monitor itself and repair problematic pathways automatically and in good time. Reliability
was a key focus of the WirelessHART development team.
Another key focus was security. Data must not
only be encrypted, but as recent malware attacks
on field controllers have shown, it must also
be authenticated to make sure it has not been
changed since transmission.
Finally, one of the most powerful features of
HART, and what has made it so successful, is its
simplicity of operation. As with the wired HART
protocol, a master device issues a command and
a slave instrument responds. WirelessHART has
to be more aware of power requirements, so has
included additional features, such as reporting on
exception or changing refresh/update rates based
upon conditions.
WirelessHART is simple enough to work with
for commissioning engineers, operators and
maintenance technicians. The network has many
automatic functions built in to simplify engineering—it is as simple as 4-20 mA.
A WORD ABOUT POWER
While WirelessHART was designed for battery
operation, there are many applications in which
the transmitter will be wired for power, but not
to signal. But it is in battery operation that users
have to consider power.
The standard was designed specifically for
low-power operation, less than 4 mA at 12 VDC.
Update rate (how many times a minute the transmitter wakes up and takes a measurement and
transmits data) affects battery life, as do cold, heat
and other environmental considerations.
Several vendors provide WirelessHART devices
with integral batteries that are approved for hazardous area classifications.
ABOUT THE MESH
Emerson’s Jonas Berge says, “In a plant environment full of steel, you need mesh topology with
multiple hops and multiple paths to ensure reliability. Only WirelessHART provides both true
mesh technology with multiple hops and star topology (direct connection to the gateway for faster
updates) if needed. It is self-organizing, so no undue effort is required to make it work—it works
out of the box. Routing devices also mean a single
gateway covers a large plant area. Other wireless
technologies are star topology with limited hops.
This requires a large number of backbone routers,
which is impractical and costly to wire up in an
existing plant.”
Every WirelessHART device, including the WirelessHART adapters now available from a number
of vendors, is seen by the network as a traditional
HART device. Wired and wireless devices can be
mixed together, providing input to the control
system. Every WirelessHART device can be used
as a router. In other systems, devices can either be
endpoints or routers. This can produce a serious
issue for maintenance—having to keep multiple
types of similar devices on hand and available and
easy to differentiate at 2 a.m.
The gateway provides the connection to the host
network. The input to the gateway is the WirelessHART mesh network. The output is the signal
to the control system via the main host interfaces—Modbus, Profibus and Ethernet. The gateway
also provides the network manager and security
manager. The network manager builds and maintains the mesh network. The security manager
manages and distributes security encryption keys
and holds the list of devices that are authorized to
join the network. If a network path becomes unreliable or broken due to an obstruction or interference, the network manager will automatically find
an alternate route for the information.
HART, WIRELESSHART AND DATA RATES
Some may think that HART is slow. HART has
been used to report slower moving process data
(tank level, temperature) via multi-drop, or even
the secondary process variable data from multivariable instruments. But WirelessHART has been
TAKE-OFF!
Self-organizing, self-healing
WirelessHART
Gateway
Control or Asset
Management
System
Handheld
Terminal
Figure 2: Wireless HART network include gateways, process
connected Wireless HART devices, repeaters and adapters.
targeted at process applications, including monitoring and control, and operates at 250 Kbps—
significantly faster than the 31.25 Kbps rate at
which Foundation fieldbus (FF) and Profibus PA
operate.
Again, Jonas Berge comments. “Can you use
WirelessHART for control? The technology supports it. It is time-synchronized and scheduled.
One-second update period transmitters are now
available. Discrete on/off signal and actuating
devices are now available too. On/off valves are
coming. Gateway routing algorithms are being
optimized for ever lower-latency inbound and
outbound traffic. Slower loops like large capacity analytical, temperature and level are possible
candidates for wireless control.”
THRESHOLD TRIGGERED SMART REPORTING
Originally, HART was intended to be a polling system, with the host polling each slave instrument in
turn. Since then, new features such as report-on-exception and smart reporting have been added. This
permits the device to report when a pre-defined
condition occurs, increasing battery life.
NETWORK SECURITY
The WirelessHART technology was designed to
enable secure industrial wireless sensor network
communications while making sure that ease-ofuse is not compromised. Security is built in and
cannot be disabled. Security is implemented with
end-to-end sessions using AES 128-bit encryption. These sessions ensure that the messages are
enciphered so that only the final destination can
decipher and use the payload created by a source
device.
To be a credible threat, an attacker must possess
access, knowledge and motivation. WirelessHART
security architecture addresses all three of these
areas by minimizing, controlling and auditing
access; requiring high levels of technical expertise
to subvert the network; and reducing the consequences (span and duration) of any individual
security breach.
WirelessHART does NOT use TCP/IP and is
therefore safe from the typical Wi-Fi hacker.
PLANNING A WIRELESSHART NETWORK
Because of the self-building and self-healing
nature of the network, it is as simple as 4-20 mA.
The mesh network reduces the amount of effort
required at both the planning and commissioning
phases. There is little difference between commissioning a wireless network and a wired one.
Site surveys are not as detailed as would be
required with other topologies. A simple walk
through of the plant to identify instrument locations will also identify possible obstructions. A
pathway around an obstacle can be provided by
adding a router. This is similar to the plant walkthrough required for planning cable runs. junction
box and marshalling cabinet locations.
Commissioning is also similar to commissioning 4-20 mA loops. There is very little information
more than what would be entered using a handheld communicator for a wireless instrument. The
commissioning engineer completes the joining process and can monitor the join status on the handheld. There is a loop test command just as there is
in wired HART. And this is done using the same
hand-held that is in your tool box today!
MAKING THE MESH MORE ROBUST
The way to increase the robustness of the network
is to add more devices to the network. Each additional device geometrically increases the number
of potential paths information can travel through
the mesh. The WirelessHART mesh network is designed so that up to 10,000 devices can be added
to a single network.
WirelessHART builds on the solid foundation of
HART communication, enabling users to quickly
and easily gain the benefits of wireless automation
while maintaining total compatibility with existing
devices, tools, skill levels and systems. That’s why
WirelessHART has become the most commonly
used process automation wireless field instrument
network. It is simple, reliable and secure, and…it
is HART.
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Copyright © 2011 Rockwell Automation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. AD RS2291-R1P
PlantPAx is a registered trademark of Rockwell Automation, Inc.
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BEST PRACTICES
How Process Leaders Use HART
Leading process plants use HART communication
to get their best performance.
F
or over twenty years, HART communication
has been the largest communication protocol in use in the process industries. There
are over 35 million HART instruments installed.
HART is simple, reliable and secure. Yet still many
HART users are only using only the calibration and
configuration capabilities that are the basic features
of the protocol.
This is changing, though, and changing fast. As
the requirements of end users for more connectivity,
more sensors and devices and better maintenance capabilities to enhance production efficiency increased,
HART capabilities have kept up with these needs.
But HART has always had the capability to
do far more than just calibration and configuration with a hand-held device or a PC. HART was
designed from the beginning to connect to control
systems and asset management systems.
In order to prosper in the continuing uncertainty
of 21st-century business, end users are discovering
that they need to have a better grasp of their processes, get faster, more detailed diagnostics, and
cut expenses while continuing to improve performance and productivity. When they look at their
existing plants, many are surprised to see that they
already have the ability to do those things using
their existing HART-enabled sensors and devices.
WirelessHART extends the HART protocol for
new and nontraditional sensors, such as on/off
valves and steam trap monitors. WirelessHART
has broken the speed-barrier with one-second update rates and has improved the capability of the
HART protocol to be used in closed-loop control.
Most modern control systems are now provided
with native HART interfaces. Several vendors
provide I/O systems with embedded HART communications. WirelessHART provides, from the
gateway, Modbus and Ethernet connectivity to
any control or maintenance system, and HART
via OPC is in common use.
TEN ESSENTIAL BEST PRACTICES
Leading plants leverage HART communication as
much as they can. Here are the ten essential best
practices common to all leading plants and their use
of HART and WirelessHART. We are going to look
at what several leading plants have done with HART.
1. Networking and communications protocols
are life-cycle solutions.
You cannot every so often rip and replace your
networks. This is as true for the plant LAN as it
is for the I/O. When designing a network solution,
picking the communication protocol is critical
for long-term success. In 2005, the MOL Danube
Refinery (the 2010 HART Plant of the Year) embarked on a comprehensive maintenance strategy,
using HART. The goals of the strategy included:
r$SFBUJOHBOPOMJOFBOBMZTJTUSBOTNJUUFSBOE
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r*NQSPWJOHQMBOUBWBJMBCJMJUZBOESFEVDFTIVUdowns
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r3FJOGPSDJOH$"1&9QSPKFDUTVQQPSUXJUIBQpropriate assets in the appropriate place.
Having decided to standardize on HART and
WirelessHART as the common field device protocol, MOL is able to leverage the functions in
the protocol over the life cycle of the 30,000-plus
HART devices they already have, while adding
new devices and new uses.
2. Solid planning is essential. Your networks
can’t grow like Topsy.
One of the most significant benefits of standardizing on HART communication is the flexibility of
the protocol. Not only is it backward-compatible
to early HART devices, it is the same protocol,
whether transmitted over 4-20 mA loops or over
Modbus or Profibus or Ethernet or wirelessly.
HART has grown and developed and added new
BEST PRACTICES
With other device protocols, there may be revisions, interoperability
issues and other problems that might cause you to rip out a system you
have and put in something different. This sort of embarrassment is
completely avoided when you standardize on HART.
features expressly designed to work together
seamlessly, interoperably and interchangeably.
Through it all, HART has remained simple, reliable and secure.
MOL designed its maintenance system to integrate HART-based device alarms and maintenance
alerts all the way to the SAP system. The only way
to do that is to plan. Starting with HART makes
that planning much simpler. Bruce Power, on the
shores of Lake Ontario in Canada, the largest
nuclear power plant in North America, planned a
redesign of the feedwater heater system to eliminate steam hammer. Using a comprehensive valve
control solution based on HART, it was able to
run the plant up to full power without the heaters
causing alarms and hammer.
3. Maximize resource availability.
Shifting from preventive to predictive maintenance strategies is the clear choice for maximizing
resource availability. Shell Canada Ltd.’s Scotford
Upgrader Expansion (located near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta) has several thousand instruments,
of which about 33% are HART-enabled devices.
That’s still thousands of instruments, and, as
Andy Bahniuk, Shell’s instrumentation technologist, points out, the company is using 26 different
device types provided by several suppliers, including Emerson Process Management (Rosemount),
Endress+Hauser, Krohne, Magnetrol, K-Tek
(ABB), Fisher Valves from Emerson Process Management, Ohmart nuclear level gauges from Vega
International, and Metso valve positioners.
This alphabet soup of different devices and
vendors interoperates perfectly—because they are
all HART. Shell Canada now uses HART devices
everywhere except where a HART device simply is
not available. Bahniuk says it is because HART is
so easy and is plug and play.
Using HART to drive predictive maintenance
allows Shell to increase the availability of its instrumentation resources.
4. Choose a funding model you can live with for
a long time.
Because of the interoperability, interchangeability and backward-compatibility designed into both
wired and WirelessHART, you don’t have to ever
do a rip-and-replace. You can upgrade individual
devices and know that they will operate in your
system perfectly from the start.
With other device protocols, there may be revisions, interoperability issues and other problems that
might cause you to rip out what you have and put
in something different. That’s a hard sell to a costconscious management. It’s an embarrassment that
can be completely avoided when you standardize on
HART.
5. Establish and nurture team buy-in.
HART is easy to sell to operators and instrumentation engineers alike, because it is simple, yet powerful. Because of the preponderance of HART devices in the field, nearly every engineer and operator
already is trained to work with HART commands.
Whether it is wired HART or WirelessHART, buyin is much easier to achieve when the devices are
not running a new and different protocol. There is
no learning curve with HART. And when there is
an upgrade, the operators already know how to use
the network—because it still is HART.
6. Be objective about needs versus wants.
Sometimes, engineers are swayed by other
than technical arguments. The drive toward new
technology for its own sake often costs more and
produces less than a simple concentration on what
the plant’s goals are and what is needed to produce those results. Shell Canada found that HART
fitted its needs better than other fieldbus communication protocols because it was simpler, more
reliable and just as secure, if not more. HART,
Bahniuk feels, is more straightforward, and he was
pleased to note that he can get the same information, including diagnostics and additional PVs,
from HART as from any other type of fieldbus.
One project Bahniuk detailed in his application
to become HART Plant of the Year was installing
a valve position feedback system. Shell felt it had
to install some sort of valve feedback system until
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The fact that neither wired HART nor WirelessHART use TCP/IP means
that the field device network is inherently safe from the typical hacker.
The protocols can be a first line of defense against cyber attacks.
it realized that HART data could give them valve
position on 700 to 800 valves.
7. Leverage your communications legacy.
MOL already had a significant number of
HART-enabled devices when it began its maintenance integration in 2005. By leveraging the use of
the entire capability of HART communication, it
was able to integrate its maintenance management
system with the control system and the enterprise
data system easily and without ripping and replacing what was already in place.
One very large benefit of HART communication
is that by design it is backward-compatible. Now
that MOL, as Gábor Bereznai, head of instrumentation related in the August 2012 issue of Control,
is beginning to use wireless instrumentation, it
has found that not only can the engineers extend
their sensor reach using WirelessHART, but they
can also use WirelessHART adapters, such as the
Emerson “THUM,” to more fully integrate their
existing wired devices into the common network.
8. Integrate your network into all your systems.
As MOL discovered, HART makes it easy to integrate the entire field device network into both the
control system and the maintenance system. This
makes it easy to deliver the real-time data plant operations needs to fine tune the plant to produce the
most revenue at the highest level of productivity.
Shell’s Bahniuk related the benefit of HART to
loop testing and commissioning—the very first
steps to integration of the network. Shell had
ordered all the devices pre-configured to avoid
having to do it onsite, but only about 50% of the
devices were actually configured at the factory.
Shell was left to do the others onsite after all.
This, of course, could have produced a huge
delay in commissioning the plant. Using the full
power of HART, however, Shell created a device
database which made device configuration fast
and easy, and the engineers were able to show
management that the system was 100% accurate.
They met their very tight project time and saved a
large amount of time and money.
9. Develop a process to define and minimize risk.
All leading process industry facilities develop
risk mitigation plans. Both for operational and
maintenance risk reduction, and as an integral
part of any security risk reduction plan, HART
can serve as one of the key pillars of the plan.
Using the power of HART can produce production alarms as well as maintenance alerts automatically, that can lead to increased functional safety.
The fact that neither wired HART nor WirelessHART use TCP/IP means that the field device
network is inherently safe from the typical hacker.
The WirelessHART security scheme for joining the
system and making sure that data transmission is
not compromised means additional safety as well.
Properly used, HART communications can be a
first line of defense against device- and controllercentered attacks, as well as errors inside the plant.
10. Operate a needs-based solution.
Once you have clearly defined your needs and
produced a needs-based plan, you can use the
power of HART to help you operate your solution. You have leveraged your existing field device
legacy to its fullest extent, avoided any rip-andreplace for sensors or analyzers or final control
elements and other devices, and improved the
ability of your field device network to handle additions and changes. This built-in agility gives you
the confidence to tell management that you are
ready for 21st-century operations.
MOL believes that because of its HART-based
implementation, it is a world leader in the use of
diagnostic information and integration into the
asset management system, and thence to the SAP
CMMS system via bidirectional communications.
It is able to determine the health of the field device
system, both individually and as a system and
reduce the number of breakdown events and the
amount of downtime.
What does this mean? MOL believes that the
use of HART technology as the central pivot of
both operations and maintenance may yield as
much as €700,000 per year in “lost revenue” due
to better loop tuning and predictive maintenance.
Leaders in the process industries such as MOL,
Shell Canada and Bruce Power leverage fully the
power of HART and WirelessHART.
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T E C H N I C A L LY S P E A K I N G
Oil and Gas Leads Demand for Automation Pros
In our July 2012 cover story (“Process Automation Jobs: Help Wanted,” p. 28, www.controlglobal.com/articles/2012/hebert-process-automation-jobs.html), we wrote about
how process automation professionals could take advantage of strong demand for
SENIOR TECHNICAL EDITOR
dheber [email protected]
their services.
This begs the questions of just where and in
what specific areas of process automation that
demand is greatest. For answers, we turned to
those on the front lines. “There is a major expansion of the chemical industry, driven by the
shale gas boom, that is in the early stages of design and execution,” says Peter Lietz, a senior
process control engineer at LyondellBasell Industries (www.lyondellbasell.com ) in Clinton,
Iowa. “I believe there are far more projects under consideration right now than there are individuals to execute these projects simultaneously,” adds Lietz.
Chet Mroz, CEO of Yokogawa Corp. of
America (www.yokogawa.com/us/) expands
upon Lietz’s observations. “Onshore, in the
United States and Canada, growth is centered
on unconventional resource plays such as oil
sands and shale gas, which take advantage of
horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing,”
he says. “These growth areas are driven by the
opening of global markets, particularly Pacific
Rim via the LNG facilities, and by new pipelines, such as the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. Offshore in the Gulf of Mexico,
growth is centered on deepwater production.”
Oil and gas exploration, drilling and production directly drive demand for automation
professionals worldwide. In the United States,
a bigger driver may be the construction and ongoing operation of downstream petrochemical
plants that use oil, gas and drilling byproducts
as feedstock.
An article in the July 14, 2012, issue
of The Economist (www.economist.com/
node/21558459) elaborates: “Cheap gas is also
helping other parts of America’s economy. The
country’s industry uses around a third of its gas
output. The biggest winner might be the petrochemicals industry. It gobbles up gas as feedstock to make chemicals such as methanol and
DAN HEBERT
ammonia, a vital ingredient of fertilizer. Switching feedstock from naphtha, derived from oil, to
ethane, derived from gas, has kept petrochemicals cheap even as oil prices have peaked.
“Dow Chemical and others have announced
a raft of new investments in America to take advantage of low gas prices…PricewaterhouseCoopers, a large accounting firm, reckons that
lower feedstock and energy costs could result in
1 million more American factory jobs by 2025.”
Lietz says this bodes well for automation pros
in many disciplines. “Professionals with expertise in system security, safety system design
and implementation, and basic process control
system design and implementation will be in
demand for the execution of current and nearterm projects.
“An area of high long-term demand will be
advanced process control (APC) for the chemical/petrochemical industry, and these individuals must be knowledgeable in non-linear as
well as linear controls. A solid background/understanding of chemical process engineering is
also necessary to be successful within APC for
the chemical industry,” concludes Lietz.
Mroz adds his thoughts on what expertise
will be of value. “Process automation professionals are needed within the oil and gas companies, as well as main automation contractors
such as Yokogawa. Specifically, we see a growing need for SCADA and RTU experts with
knowledge of PLC languages such as IEC1131.
In addition, integration and networking experts are needed to combine instrumentation,
control and operations management requirements—while also complying with the cybersecurity requirements. Lastly, we see an increased
need for safety engineers with fire and gas and
emergency shutdown system backgrounds, and
for traditional distributed control system expertise for offshore applications.”
Oil and gas
exploration,
drilling and
production directly
drive demand
for automation
professionals
worldwide.
85
ASK THE EXPERTS
Economic Controls; Cooling Tower Optimization
This column is moderated by Béla Lipták (http://belaliptakpe.com/), automation and safety consultant and editor of the Instrument and Automation Engineers’ Handbook (IAEH). If you would like to become a contributing author of the 5th edition, or if
you have an automation related question for this column, write to: [email protected]
I just read an interesting book on economics by Steve
Keen, Debunking Economics. He berates the current
economists’ static models and instead uses dynamic
modeling. In one section, he illustrates this approach by using what look like process control diagrams. This reminded
me of one of your articles in the trade press on economic
modeling using process control concepts. If you read the
book, I’d like to get your opinion on Keen’s approach.
Q
the debt crisis? In my answer, I noted that the laws of heat
and material balance also apply to banks. Just as in a chemical reactor, we can’t increase production beyond the amount
of coolant available to remove the reaction heat. Similarly,
a bank can’t loan out more money than the deposits it has. I
know that if there were some representatives of the banking
industry in the audience, they did not like to hear this. But,
from a process control perspective, it’s obvious that you can’t
lend what you do not have!
MARIS GR AUBE
[email protected]
BÉL A LIPTÁK
[email protected]
Some years ago I gave a talk at Harvard University on
how the principles of process control can be applied to
non-industrial processes. At that time I discussed the
economy as one of these processes. I would not be surprised
if Dr. Keen heard that talk or read about it.
The dynamics of the economy (its time constants, inertia,
gain, interactions, etc.) can be determined on the basis of its
past responses to economic upsets. One can view the control of the economy as that of a multivariable control loop
which ultimately controls the speed of money circulation.
Modeling the behavior of such a loop can show that neither
the printing of money for bailouts, nor austerity to reduce
spending, can increase this speed. The printing of money
only lowers the value of the currency, but does not increase
its velocity of circulation, while austerity reduces money circulation by reducing spending.
What increases the speed of money circulation is increased demand for goods. It is this demand that the “economy controller” must increase by opening the fuel control
valves of the economy. Once these valves (the pockets of individuals and corporations) start opening, the spending increases the demand for goods, and the circulation of money
speeds up.
In the past, governments artificially increased the demand for goods by wars or by such projects as the rebuilding
of Europe (i.e. the Marshall Plan). Today, a “global Marshall
Plan” seems to be needed to increase the global demand for
goods. The Marshall Plan of the 21st century could be the
global conversion to a renewable energy economy.
At Harvard, one of the questioners asked how I would configure a safety control loop to prevent the reoccurrence of
A
86
I’m working on the conceptual design of cooling tower
fan variable-frequency drive (VFD) controls by using
temperature measurements in the cooling tower basin
to control six fans.
1. Would it be possible to control the VFDs of the individual fans using a common temperature measurement on
the cooling water outflow channel? How could load sharing
between the fan VFDs be accomplished in such a scenario?
2. How could changes in ambient temperature, seasonal
changes in humidity, etc. be accounted for automatically?
Q
NISHANTH N.
[email protected]
This is the perfect question for me because for some
five years my job as the energy consultant to IBM’s
Real Estate and Construction Division was to minimize the energy consumption of all heating, cooling, pumping and HVAC systems. Figure 1 (facing page) shows the
total optimized cooling system I implemented at the various
sites. On a yearly basis, this optimization strategy cut the total cost of cooling at the site in half. Naturally, the fan drives
were variable-frequency drives (SC-1 in Figure 1), and the
optimized setpoint (SP-1) of the approach controller (TDIC1) was selected to correspond to the minimum of the operating cost curve at the upper right of Figure 1. You will find a
detailed description of the total system in the 2nd volume,
Chapter 8.17, of my handbook.
A
BÉL A LIPTÁK
[email protected]
ASK THE EXPERTS
SC
1
FC
M1
Total
operating
cost ($)
Range
controller
Ao
DA
SP
TDIC
SP1
1
Optimized
set point
DA
Optimized
set point
SP
TDIC
2
FB
SP2
Ro
FB
FB
Integral
only
Pumping cost (M2)
Set point
= 90%
VPC
4
Optimized
set point
DA
SP
Approach
controller
RA
Feedback
PSH
5
(ER)
PDIC
3
SC
2
Stop
Load
FB controller
M2
CV
4
TY
4
Ro
SP2
From all
other user
valves
FC
FSL
6
CTWP
Abbreviations
HLL: High and low limit
SIC: Speed indincating controller
SP: Set point
VPC: Valve position controller
10
(5.6)
14
(7.8)
Other
users
RA
Fan cost (M1)
Approach
°F (°C)
SP1
4
6
8
10 12 14 16 18
(2.2) (3.3) (4.4) (5.6) (6.7) (7.8) (8.9) (10)
SP
Start
Ao
TIC
4
Approach
°F (°C)
18
(10.0)
22
(12.2)
26
(14.4)
Range °F (°C)
Typical
process
cooler
OPTIMIZE PUMP AND FAN SPEED
Figure 1: The unit cost of cooling is minimized by simultaneously optimizing the speeds of both the fans and the pumps.
I recommend using a digital network to drive the
VFDs. You will probably want to use a PLC to do the
PID loop control. Bring the cooling water temperature
into the PLC via an analog input point. The output of the
PID should be sent to each of the six VFD speed control setpoints. The VFD must be configured to accept the PID output as a speed setpoint. Each VFD is a node on the network,
so the same output should be sent to all six VFDs at the
same time. Which digital network is used depends on the
networks supported by the VFDs and the PLCs; they must
be the same. For example, if Rockwell Automation drives
are used, then the network should be EtherNet/IP.
It would also be possible to use a 4-20 mA output from
the PLC, and route that to all six VFDs at their analog input
port configured to be the speed setpoint for the drives. The
resistance of all six drives on the same analog output may
exceed the allowed circuit loading for the PLC AO point, so
some creative distribution of more than one AO and repeating may be necessary in PLC logic.
Finally, it may be possible to do this control network without
A
a PLC by using the PID capability of the VFD. In that case, the
analog input of the VFD would be configured to be the PV of
its internal PID. The PID setpoint would be entered at a command console of the HMI, and sent by digital network to the
network port of all 6 VFDs, which have been configured to accept the network input as the VFD speed setpoint.
RICHARD H. CARO
[email protected]
A DCS can do this work. A common temperature control can have load sharing configuration done on the
DCS. Configure sequence selection buttons and bias
option. Also, include available and unavailable options in
the configuration. Since our aim is to control the measured
temperature, I am not sure why ambient temperature and
humidity should be taken into account.
A
H S GAMBHIR
Har [email protected]
87
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24-VDC TEMPERATURE CONTROLLERS
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Jofra PTC-125 Cooler and
RTC-159 Ultra Cooler calibrators are designed for applications that require either extreme cooling or high
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SMART TEMPERATURE TRANSMITTERS
SIL-RATED TRANSMITTERS
STT250 smart temperature
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controls the temperature of
critical rotating and static assets. It converts low-level inputs from temperature sensors, such as RTDs/TCs, into
current output, and works
well over long distances through noisy plant environments.
It comes with communication options including 4-20mA
analog output, HART Versions 5/6 and DE Protocol.
Honeywell Process Solutions
800/343-0228; www.honeywellprocess.com
Krohne-Inor’s 520 series temperature transmitters feature
0.05% of span accuracy and
a five-year stability—four
times better than comparable
transmitters. They’re SIL2rated for safety-related applications. The C520 is truly
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Emerson Process Management
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TCS Temperature Concentrator System transmits
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measurements by concentrating up to 32 signals onto
a single twisted-wire pair.
It accepts any combination
of RTD, T/C, mV and resistance/potentiometer signal inputs, converts the inputs to the
HART digital communications protocol, and transmits the
data from the field to the control room.
Moore Industries
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transmitters features an analog output that eliminates the
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Turck
800/544-7769; www.turck.us
Modline 7 Series of infrared
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response times. The thermometer’s sensing head can operate as a standalone sensor,
providing simultaneous analog and digital outputs of process temperatures.
Ircon
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SMART TEMPERATURE TRANSMITTER AND SWITCH
TEMPERATURE CALIBRATION
One Series SIL 2-suitable
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Controls include programmable, solid-state relays for local and PLC input switching.
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monitor vital functions with
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The scalable 4-20 mA output and switch provide remote diagnostics capability.
United Electric Controls
617/321-1231; www.UEonline.com
Beamex offers two dry block
series: FB Series are lightweight, high-accuracy temperature dry blocks for industrial use, while MB Series
deliver bath-level accuracy
for industrial applications.
They communicate with
Beamex MC5 multifunction calibrators. The calibration results can then be uploaded from the MC5 to Beamex CMX
calibration software.
Beamex
800/888-9892; www.beamex.com
89
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90
NO MORE NOISY SIGNALS
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versatility to solve various
interface problems between
an incremental encoder signal and a PLC, servo drive
or other input devices. Ideal
for use with single-ended or
differential line driver encoder signals, the modules feature
three complementary inputs rated for 4.5-7.5 and 12-26 V dc
and frequency response up to 1 MHz. Both have a slim-line
plastic housing with an integral 35-mm DIN-rail mounting
adapter, and are UL508 listed and CE-marked.
Automation Direct
800/633-0405; www.automationdirect.com
GE Intelligent Platforms goes
mobile with iPad extensions
for the Proficy HMI/SCADA
iFix and Cimplicity applications. The app enables either
iFix WebSpace or Cimplicity
GlobalView users to instantly
access their HMI/SCADA
runtime projects. It delivers full HMI/SCADA functionality, including third-party application support with no screen
conversions required. It’s downloadable free from the iTunes
store for use with iFix WebSpace and/or Cimplicity GlobalView configurations.
GE Intelligent Platforms
www.ge.com
MINI MULTI-LOOP PID CONTROLLER
TRACE YOUR HYDROCARBONS
Eurotherm Mini8 multi-loop
PID controller is an ideal
partner to a PLC in multiloop PID applications such
as plastics extrusion and
multi-zone furnaces. It supports serial, fieldbus and Ethernet protocols, including
EtherNet/IP. It reduces engineering costs through using a
dedicated PID device that enables quick and easy set-up of
multi-loop and complex control strategies using pre-defined
function blocks; input accuracy is ±0.1% or better; and it’s
suitable for use in regulated industry applications.
Invensys Eurotherm
703/724-7300: www.eurotherm.com
Servomex Servopro FID is
the ideal analyzer for CO2
recovery operators who need
accurate trace hydrocarbon
measurement from one versatile, easy-to-operate unit.
It offers accurate CO2 measurement with a guaranteed
100 ppb resolution, Ethernet and Internet connectivity, and
monitoring options via a standard 4-20 mA output. Operators can fix the unit within a desired range, or use an automatic ranging feature that changes the measurement parameters according to the impurities it detects.
Servomex
281/295-5800; www.servomex.com
PRODUCT INTRODUCTIONS
ACCURATE, PORTABLE DRY-BLOCK CALIBRATOR
HYBRID WIRELESS BRIDGE
The affordable, new TCS
650 is a highly accurate and
portable dry- block calibrator.
It is designed to verify and
calibrate sensors, thermometers and process transmitters both in the field and the
laboratory. It has a 35 °C to
650 °C temperature range; stability of ±0.03 °C at 650 °C;
radial uniformity of ±0.02 °C; heating speed of 50 °C to 600
°C in 30 minutes; and an optional black body insert for IR
pyrometers.
E Instruments International
215/750-1212; www.E-Inst.com
The Cellular Bridge enables
customers to deploy hybrid
wireless networks that combine a FreeWave radio with
a cellular modem to reduce
infrastructure costs and connection fees. It combines
CDMA- and GSM-based
technologies for SIM- and non-SIM-based cellular systems
and proprietary radios at 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz. It can act
as a tower replacement module or be used as an alternative
to repeater locations or higher antenna heights.
Freewave Technologies
866/399-4930; www.freewave.com
DON’T BE INSECURE
FLEXIBLE NETWORKING
New versions of the FL
mGuard industrial security
devices, mGuard RS2000
and RS4000, have upgraded
hardware and advanced configuration options that can
provide defense-in-depth cybersecurity in more critical
applications. They feature an all-in-one firewall, virtual private network (VPN) and routing capability. Thanks to the
new metal housing, the new mGuards can operate between
-20 °C and +60 °C. The RS4000 is currently awaiting UL
Class I, Div. 2 approval.
Phoenix Contact
800/322-3225; www.phoenixcontact.com/mguard
NetJack network interface
modules quickly and easily
add or change fieldbus and
industrial Ethernet protocols
in automation devices. Thirteen different protocols are
supported, including fieldbuses, such as DeviceNet and
Profibus, and industrial Ethernet protocols, such as EtherCat, EtherNet/IP and Profinet, in both master and slave versions. Configuring an automaton product to use a particular
protocol is just a matter of inserting the appropriate NetJack
module.
Hilscher North America
630/505-5301; www.hilscher.com/usa
HYBRID MOTOR STARTER
WIRELESS MONITORING AND ALERTING
Motus ContactronControl
hybrid motor starter is a compact and highly reliable motor controller that can be installed in less than half the
time of motor starters currently available. Targeted at
industries using motor-controlled motion, Motus is used in place of traditional motor
starting components. It is perfectly suited for system or machine designs that require motor loads of up to 5 hp. It offers three mounting options and short-circuit protection in
the housing.
Woehner
603/433-2121; www.woehner.com
Quick Talk RQT is an industrial-grade radio transmitter with sensor inputs and
voice recording storage that
automatically alerts radioequipped personnel when
plant conditions change. It
accepts inputs from up to
four switches or sensors. The gasketed and sealed, polycarbonate enclosure offers built-in mounting flanges. The RQT
radio can operate standalone on 6 AA batteries, or it can
be powered externally by an optional 110V AC adaptor. It is
available with a 2-Watt or a 120 mWatt transmitter.
Ritron Inc.
800/872-1872; www.ritron.com
91
©COPYRIGHT 2012 OMEGA ENGINEERING, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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C O N T R O L TA L K
Control Loop Improvement
Greg McMillan and Stan Weiner bring their wits and more than 66 years of process control experience to bear on your questions, comments, and problems.
Write to them at [email protected].
Greg: I had the pleasure of interviewing
Jacques Smuts on improving control loops, a
subject near and dear to my heart. Jacques is
the president of OptiControls Inc. (www.opticontrols.com), and is the author of the book,
Process Control for Practitioners, which provides a very understandable and practical approach to control loop optimization.
Stan: What do you do for plants?
Jacques: I do process control consulting and
training to improve the performance of control
loops. You would think after 20 years it would
become old hat, but I am constantly surprised
at how key fundamentals are not understood by
people responsible for tuning.
Greg: As I lead the ISA Mentor Program, I am
astonished how little time my protégés have to
work on control loops.
band and stiction or the importance of valve
problems in general.
Stan: What has been the impact of digital po-
GREG MCMILL AN
STAN WEINER, PE
[email protected]
sitioners on positioner tuning?
Jacques: Nowadays, I find a lot less dead band,
but also some erratic behavior from weird positioner tuning. I’m amazed at how many tuning
settings are on a modern positioner. Each manufacturer has a proprietary algorithm and tuning parameters. Tuning guidelines are slim to
none. It helps to know the positioner is a closedloop controller that could have overshoot and
limit cycles. One also needs to be aware that
the response time depends on step size. I have
seen a response time increase from 2 seconds
for a 2% change to 30 seconds for 0.5% change.
I look at past history to see the size of increments in the PID output to determine what the
controller will have to deal with. I have also
Jacques: I am lucky that I can focus on tuning loops. This has unfortunately been reduced to a small fraction of what practitioners
at plants are responsible for today. Tuning is a
skill that requires practice. Many don’t appreciate how much you really have to know beyond the basic tuning relationships. You need
to know if the valve works properly. You need
to understand if a process needs to be tuned
fast or slow, and whether you need to schedule
tuning. I enjoy the depth of the field. We lose
sight of what the user needs to know and what
the user does know. Increasingly, the user has
more responsibility and less time for tuning
and learning.
Greg: I was impressed with your chapter on
valve problems, where you describe tests for
the various sources of limit cycling. Most other
books don’t make a distinction between dead
93
C O N T R O L TA L K
seen a positioner develop a limit cycle
with a flow loop in manual.
Greg: The problem may be caused by
the combination of stiction in the valve
and integral action in the positioner.
Stan: Are auto tuners the complete solution to the problem?
Jacques: People expect the software
to be an engineer rather than a tool.
Most people try, fail, get frustrated and
stop using tuning software. Many try
to tune from bad data, not realizing
that more than minimal knowledge is
needed. Loop tuning and performance
monitoring software requires human
skills to get the most out of them.
Greg: Do you see operators tuning loops?
Jacques: Some plants have operators
tuning loops. Some operators have had
a class on tuning, but when I ask, they
tell me the math was too much. If the
Zeigler-Nichols tuning relationships are
over their heads, you have problems.
We do need to take advantage of their
first-hand knowledge. Operators know
important aspects of equipment performance, but sometimes have their own
interpretations of the causes for poor
control. You need to get operator observations rather than conclusions and explore the cause-and-effect relationships.
In a liquid-gas separator, operators said
you needed to close the outlet valve
first, and then open it to lower the level,
otherwise the level would keep going
up. I was tempted to discount this requirement, but found out under certain
conditions a vortex formed. Closing the
valve broke the vortex.
Stan: Is there a considerable amount
of hand-holding needed?
Jacques: Patience, explanations and
time are essential, particularly for systems with significant dead time. Many
years ago, I worked at a production plant
94
for whiskey. The dry distiller grain solids
(DDGS) is a valuable by-product for cattle feed, and was dried in a kiln with a
dead time of about 9 minutes. The main
disturbance came from the level control of a syrup tank that fed into the wet
grain, and was manually set by the operators because level control was deemed
not possible. I tuned the level controller
and added feed-forward control to the
kiln. Operators said it wouldn’t work. I
had a difficult time getting the operators to leave the moisture controller in
automatic because the control was not
smooth because of clumps. I sat with the
operators, and showed them the controller had taken all the action they would
take (e.g. 40%), and there was nothing
more to do than wait 9 minutes.
Greg: Looks like what the operators
needed was a moisture calculation one
dead time into the future on a trend
chart described in Control Talk Blog
post “Future PV Values Are the Future” (http://community.controlglobal.
com/content/future-pv-values-are-future). Dead time is the most difficult
thing for humans for deal with. Tuning
can take the dead time into account.
Does tuning ever become boring?
Jacques: After working on thousands
of loops, you would think you have
seen everything, but almost every plant
I work at I see something new. I found
a controller with a derivative time of
300 minutes. The low output limit
was 75%, and the high output limit
was 78%, so the loop was essentially in
manual. Recently, I found loops on an
oil rig that had never been tuned since
they were commissioned in 2004. No
attempt was made to rectify severely
oscillating loops. They just lived with
them unless they caused a shutdown.
Greg: What do you do about configuration problems?
Jacques: Configuration can prevent
a loop from ever performing properly.
Configuration engineers often haven’t
had time to learn tuning. I had an override control system that was not working. The initialization was done in the
wrong blocks. I had to wait till shutdown to have it fixed. I don’t need to
know how to do configuration for each
of the many types of DCS, but I do
need to recognize when the configuration is a problem.
Stan: What do you see happening
with training for your customers?
Jacques: One technical training
company says they can’t fill their
classes in the United States. Yet the
need is greater than ever. Jobs are so
spread out. The question is how do you
make tuning a hot topic? If I can just
get into a plant and tune a problematic
loop or two, the results often convince
the customer of the need for a consulting/training program.
Greg: What do you recommend as the
best training program?
Jacques: The best results are gained
from a class covering topics in my
book and containing a hands-on component. A program must include users working hands-on with the loops
because, if the training is just a class,
them the attendees go back to work
and may not try out what they have
learned for weeks or ever.
Stan: What do you say about the use
of derivative?
Jacques: The benefit of derivative diminishes as the total loop dead time
becomes greater than the open loop
time constant. For derivative to be effective, the process response must predictably be in the same direction for at
least as long as the derivative time.
[Editor’s Note: A Top 10 list and more
on loop tuning is at www.controlglobal.
com/ConTalk1209.html.]
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Allied Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28, 29
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CONTROL REPORT
Safety Stories–So What?
Don’t try to cheer me up. Someone foolishly asked me to give a Sept. 26 presentation
on process safety at ISA Automation Week 2012 in Orlando, and I even more foolishly
JIM MONTAGUE
E XECUTIVE EDITOR
[email protected]
Maybe everyone is
doing a great job,
and this seemingly
unending series of
accidents is just
statistics catching
up with us.
96
agreed. Talk about opening a can of worms in my head. Sheesh. Of course, we’ve been
covering process safety in Control for many years, so my task is to boil down and
regurgitate some of our recent coverage and
lessons learned. I’m also supposed to present it
from a journalist’s perspective. The main lesson from my old reporter days is that cops and
firefighters appreciate preventive and proactive
process safety as much as process engineers.
However, the best part of this presentation
will be that I get to channel—or at least be a
ventriloquist’s dummy—for our legendary columnist and consultant Béla Lipták, and present
a bunch of his excellent solutions for applying
complete and thorough control and automation. Because we don’t seem to want to take
his initial advice and jump into solar with both
feet, his recent columns explain that carefully
implemented and maintained process controls
could have prevented the Deepwater Horizon
and Fukushma Daiichi disasters, and can alleviate the potential environmental damage of
many “bottom of the barrel” applications such
as fracking and ultra-deep offshore and Artic
drilling. Just a little, relatively inexpensive prevention can prevent a world of damage, injury
and expense. Forethought and action is always
a tall order, but this is still good news.
So why am I gloomy? Because even during
the short time I was pulling together materials
for this presentation, some more process facilities exploded and/or caught fire.
One of the most recent accidents was the
Aug. 6 fire at Chevron’s refinery in Richmond,
Calif., which one source just recently told me is
a paragon of innovative simulation. No deaths
were reported in that incident. The other catastrophe was the huge Aug. 25 explosion and fire
in three tanks at the Amuay refinery in Venezuela, which killed 48 people, injured about
84 more, leveled 500 nearby homes and businesses, and took 222 firefighters about four days
to extinguish. So far, both incidents have been
traced to leaking gas lines, which resulted in
huge vapor clouds that ignited.
For several of us here at Control, this was just
like the time in 2010 when we were putting together some process safety stories and columns,
and we heard about the Deepwater Horizon accident. Sure, we’re not affected directly, but it’s
frustrating and mentally wearing to be covering process safety even as more disasters happen. It’s like not being able to finish a sentence
about not being able to finish a sentence.
And, it sort of feels like what good is writing
stories and making presentations about process
safety going to accomplish? What good has it
ever done? We don’t get a lot of people telling
us about accidents that were prevented.
Still, maybe I’m worrying too much. Maybe
everyone is doing a great job, and this continuous, unending series of accidents is just statistics inevitably catching up with the simple fact
of running so many inherently volatile process
applications. That’s a good rationalization, but
I’m still suspicious. I’m pretty certain there are
many applications, facilities, engineers and
managers that can do a lot more to improve
their processes and protect the lives of their
people and communities.
However, since bad actors don’t read preachy
columns or attend ISA presentations, how
can they be reached out to and encouraged to
change? Logically, whoever knows what’s right
is obligated to go and find them. Like to missionaries and apostles, we just have to be brave
and go after them, even if it means upsetting
powerful interests, our own organizations or
ourselves. Personally, I just have to hope that
continuing to nag and annoy readers about process safety does have a positive effect—even if
I don’t hear about it. As the lyric from the rock
band Dada’s “Dizz Knee Land” song goes, “I
just saw a good man die, now I’m going to dizz
knee land. Come on.”
Take a break from a week filled with questions,
by attending a week filled with answers.
Learn about the latest smart, safe, sustainable solutions to optimize
production. Improve machine performance. Get all the answers at
Automation Fair® in Philadelphia, Nov. 7–8. Visit www.AutomationFair.com.
For the truly inquisitive, attend the Safety Automation Forum or
Process Solutions User Group. Learn more at www.SafetyAutomationForum.com and
http://psug.rockwellautomation.com.
Copyright © 2012 Rockwell Automation. All Rights Reserved. AD RS2290-R1P
Our safety experts talk safety.
Our operators talk control. But when it
comes to keeping our people and plant safe,
we all need to speak the same language.
YOU CAN DO THAT
Eliminate uncertainty, reduce your risk with DeltaV SIS.
Emerson’s smart safety instrumented system provides an integrated, intuitive set of engineering
tools and software that enables your team to handle configuration, alarms and device health
monitoring–while maintaining the systems separation required by IEC 61511 and 61508
standards. The DeltaV SIS system reduces your training and lifecycle costs by eliminating complex data-mapping and
multiple databases while helping to ensure that you’re meeting safety compliance. Learn more about safety processes
and best practices by downloading the Safety Lifecycle Workbook at: www.DeltaVSIS.com/workbook