Top 10: Control & Automation

Honeywell has unveiled “the process industry’s first vendor-neutral process control suite.” This, it said, allows plant operators to centrally monitor and control both Honeywell and non-Honeywell process control systems within their plants. The process control suite lets operators and management break out of the information silos that can often occur with APC systems. The suite is said to enhance performance monitoring due to its ability to span not only multiple APC technologies, but also multiple processing facilities. HPS said its own studies have shown the solution can increase service factor and application utilisation by 25% while reducing troubleshooting time by up to 50%, allowing proactive maintenance practices to improve utilization and increase application service factors.

Products4Automation claims the new PILOT OEE-Lite, from Felten, can enable companies on limited budgets to monitor their production performance without the cost of a full MES solution. The OEE module, it said, allows users to benchmark and record production data, analyse it, and then use the resulting information to achieve improvements. It is said to interface to MES, SCADA and PLC systems, plus databases, the Internet, sensors and HMI. Parameters such as downtime, productivity, trends, energy usage, output levels, and efficiency can be measured and displayed on standard PCs. Companies, adds P4A, can start small in their OEE activity, prove the benefits to senior management and then expand the system incrementally and seamlessly to full TPM.

Invensys is to supply automation systems and services to TNK-BP’s Saratov oil refinery in western Russia. The 7,000ktpa unit supplies products, including gasoline, low-sulphur diesel, naphtha, vacuum gas oil, fuel oil and bitumen. The deal covers Invensys’ Foxboro I/A Series DCS and Triconex emergency shutdown and critical control systems, plus measurement, instrumentation and control devices for the hydrofining and isomerisation units.

Total Lindsey Oil Refinery (LOR) has engaged ABB’s fast-track modular packaged substation service to provide a new 11kV substation for a programme to upgrade the power distribution infrastructure at the site in North Lincolnshire. At LOR, ABB will design, manufacture, deliver and commission a complete containerised substation, based on its compact UniGear ZS1 medium-voltage switchgear.

FH Tank Storage AB is using Emerson’s Rosemount wireless level and pressure transmitters to provide overspill protection at its Kalmar storage terminal on the east coast of Sweden. The company has installed a plant-wide Smart Wireless network, DeltaV digital automation system, and AMS Suite predictive maintenance software to automate tank storage level monitoring. (More on Process Engineering)

Hima-Sella and independent control and automation systems provider Capelrig have entered a teaming agreement to serve the Oil & Gas sector. Under the agreement the companies will design, engineer, install and service integrated control and safety systems.

Metso has won a Euro20-million order to supply Heizkraftwerk Zwickau Süd GmbH & Co. KG with a modularised biomass power plant for combined heat and power production (CHP) in the municipality of Zwickau. The CHP plant will be delivered by the Metso-Wärtsilä joint venture MW Power. (More on Process Engineering)

Shell and Emerson have signed a five-year enterprise framework agreement that makes Emerson the single-source supplier of on/off valve actuators to Shell and its affiliates. Emerson will provide products from its range of valve automation technologies, including Bettis pneumatic and hydraulic actuators and EIM electric and electro-hydraulic actuators. Emerson will also provide ongoing support of Shell’s previously installed actuators. Shell has previously appointed Emerson as a main automation contractor for its capital projects and as a global strategic supplier of pressure, temperature and flow field instruments.

ABB control systems are helping Tata Steel to cut the cost of iron production at its Scunthorpe plant in the UK by allowing it to use medium-pressure oxygen in the blast furnaces. The company, in partnership with BOC, has built a medium-pressure oxygen plant on the site, together with a 4.5km pipeline to serve the three blast furnaces. Each furnace can take up to 20,000 m³ per hour of oxygen to enrich its air supply at up to 11% by volume. (More on Process Engineering)

Capula has commissioned control systems – based on Siemens S7 PLCs and WinCC SCADA – at Global Renewables Lancashire’s two mechanical/biological waste-processing facilities in Farington and Thornton. As well as providing a graphical overview of the whole waste treatment process, all plant data is logged and stored for retrieval and analysis.”This is a real flagship waste management project for Europe,” said Capula business development director Simon Coombs, “Our control system … enables effective control of the plant whilst facilitating ease of maintenance.” Capula is also providing support to ensure the effective running of the plant.