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More Foolproo" ngfor Fieldbus
ON THE WEBEssential
Intrinsic Safety
Building Asset Management Champions
Systems Integration Key to Playing with the Big Kids
A factory in the cloud sounds like science ! ction, but we’re heading there, at least for some applications. Here’s how to clear away the mist
to get the most from this technology.
The age ofenlightenmenthas arrived.
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the Foxboro Evo process automation system can do for you at
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© Copyright 2013. All rights reserved. Invensys, the Invensys logo, Foxboro, and Foxboro Evo are trademarks of Invensys plc,its subsidiaries or affi liates.
All other brands and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
This changeseveryone
Answers for industry.
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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 Of!ces, same ad-
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N O V E M B E R / 2 0 1 3 www.controlglobal.com 5
C O V E R S T O R Y
60 / What’s Hiding in the Cloud? A factory in the cloud sounds like science fiction, but
we’re heading there, at least for some applications.
Here’s how to clear away the mist to get the most from
this technology. by Dan Hebert, PE
A S S E T M A N A G E M E N T
71 / Championship SeasonHow Potash upgraded its systems, training and instru-
mentation workforce all at the same time. by Nancy
Bartels
V A L V E S
75 / Valve Vendor Gives Value through System Integration End users bene!t when Festo plays to its strengths. by
Walt Boyes
F E AT U R E S
W E B E X C L U S I V E S
The Essentials of Safety Instrumented Systems
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The most simple choices can save a life and some of the best decisions are often the simplest. Empower yourself with the right field instrumentation partner. At Endress+Hauser, our design, manufacturing and Life Cycle Management expertise helps you reduce risk in your process. Your mission is our mission. Get in touch with our people and discover your options. www.us.endress.com/process-safety
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D E P A R T M E N T S
N O V E M B E R / 2 0 1 3 www.controlglobal.com 7
Food & Kindred Products............................................ 11,430Chemicals & Allied Products ...................................... 10,731 Systems Integrators & Engineering Design Firms ......... 9,277Primary Metal Industries ............................................... 5,073Electric, Gas & Sanitary Services .................................. 4,055Pharmaceuticals ............................................................ 3,749Paper & Allied Products ................................................ 3,623
Petroleum Refining & Related Industries ....................... 3,417Rubber & Miscellaneous Plastic Products .................... 3,372Miscellaneous Manufacturers ....................................... 2,141Stone, Clay, Glass & Concrete Products ....................... 1,758Textile Mill Products ..................................................... 1,248Tobacco Products ............................................................. 146Total Circulation .......................................................... 60,000
CIRCULATION AUDITED JUNE 2012
ROUNDUP
IN PROCESS
9 / Editor’s PageWhy Cybersecurity Still Matters
Are we going to wait for the worst to happen
before we get serious about cybersecurity?
15 / On the WebBack to Basics with Timeless Concepts
The basics of process control don’t change.
Count on ControlGlobal when you need a
quick review of those timeless principles.
17 / FeedbackAre automated cars such a good idea?
One reader doesn’t think so.
18 / Lessons LearnedHow Automation Can Prevent Oil Spills
The right controls can protect people from
their own errors.
47 / On the BusFoolproof Fieldbus II
“Fail-safe” features that cause spurious trips
may do more harm than good.
48 / Without WiresFDT Expands Its Footprint
FDT is like a ‘Swiss army knife.’ Ian Ver-
happen explains why.
50 / In ProcessNew speci!cations from the Fieldbus
Foundation, acquisitions, and more pro-
cess news.
58 / ResourcesLevel information online.
83 / Technically SpeakingProcess Apps in the Cloud
High-!delity modeling, novel sensors, real-
time control and optimization can achieve
big reductions in energy consumption.
84 / Ask the ExpertOur experts weigh in on heat detection ca-
bles and emergency valve stroke testing.
87 / RoundupPLCs and industrial computers. Not every-
thing in computers is all about tablets.
90 / ProductsEthernet-enabled I/O; #at-panel monitors
91 / Control TalkGetting the Most from Your Loops
McMillan and Weiner talk with George
Buckbee of ExperTune about managing
control loops.
93 / Ad IndexCheck these pages.
94 / Control ReportReminders of Reality
Jim Montague visits some old machines,
and re#ects on what’s lost when process
control improves applications.
Thomas Crone, the new president and
the #1 value in automation
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N O V E M B E R / 2 0 1 3 www.controlglobal.com 9
WALT BOYES
EDITOR IN CHIEF
E D I T O R ’ S P A G E
A lot can happen
in two years, and if
we’re talking about
two years without
power, most of it
isn’t good.
“maximum prejudice” and get publicity and
funding and new recruits for the cause. This
has gained recruits from Afghanistan, Iraq,
Central Africa and, apparently, the United
States, based on reports of Americans among
the terrorists in the mall in Nairobi.
Yet at the same time, we know that it would
not take a whole lot to, say, take out a re!nery
in the Houston Ship Channel, or even to bring
down the electric grid in the 11 western states.
Recently, I had a discussion with three of the
smartest cybersecurity experts I know—people
who are responsible for several large electric
utilities’ cybersecurity. I proposed to them an
exploit I came up with a long time ago to do
exactly that—shut off power to the 11 western
states (and probably western British Columbia),
and I asked them what they thought. Was it far-
fetched or plausible.
Plausible, they said immediately. Very plau-
sible. And it would keep the power off for per-
haps as long as two years. A lot can happen in
two years and, if we’re talking about two years
without power, most of it isn’t good.
Here’s another scenario. The Federal Avia-
tion Administration (FAA) maintains a series
of Traf!c Control and Route Control centers at
various places in the United States. They have
minimal security. I know because I’ve been to
several recently. They also have chillers, gen-
erators and systems to keep the FAA computer
network up and running. They’re very much
like a special-purpose data center. Because they
have rotating machinery connected to control
systems, they’re all open to the Aurora vulner-
ability or to some modi!ed descendant of the
Stuxnet exploit.
I think we may have dodged this bullet so
far because the terrorists are going through re-
gional and generational change. In Somalia, it
is still easy to hand out Kalashnikovs and high
capacity magazines to suicide terrorists. The
Somali al Qaeda af!liate is working with strong
backs and untutored troops.
This doesn’t have to be so. In the United
States, Canada and Europe, the terrorists have
shown themselves to be clearly cyber-aware,
moving money, communicating, organizing
through cyber space as easily as through the
desert in Afghanistan or Africa. The younger
leaders think immediately of cyber as a means
to destabilize the West.
It is highly unlikely that another 9/11-style at-
tack could happen here, now. It’s not likely that
we would have the kind of terrorist attack that
happened in Nairobi. What is likely is that the
terrorists will move to cyber attacks and combi-
nations of cyber and physical assaults.
We can’t prevent that kind of attack entirely.
We can, however, make it hard to do, costly and
very dif!cult to pull off.successfully. In the !nal
analysis, it may not matter to the global !nancial
markets what happens in Afghanistan or other
places, but it matters a great deal to the global
economy if the economy of North America or
Europe was destabilized by a signi!cant terror-
ist attack, such as those I’ve been talking about.
Shutting down major portions of the electric
grid and the air traf!c control infrastructure
would very clearly be suf!cient to destabilize
the economy. It might even destabilize the po-
litical infrastructure as well.
We need to remain vigilant and continue to
upgrade our cyber and physical defenses. Oth-
erwise, the terrorists may decide that they can
afford to hit us here, and hit us as hard as they
have that shopping mall in Nairobi.
The recent terrorist attack in Kenya, which left at least 67 people dead, including Ko!
Awoonor, celebrated Ghanaian diplomat, poet and ambassador, appears to be typi-
cal of the terrorist operation in the second decade of the 21st century. Get a bunch of
dedicated people together, plan an operation, and execute it with, as they used to say,
Cybersecurity Still Matters
800 453 6202
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WALT BOYES
EDITOR IN CHIEF
N O V E M B E R / 2 0 1 3 www.controlglobal.com 15
Updated every business day, the Control Global online magazine is available at no charge.
Go to www.controlglobal.com and follow instructions to register for our free weekly e-newsletters.
C O N T R O L O N L I N E
www.controlglobal.com/thismonth
Search this site | Tips
Over the past 10 years, we’ve posted many articles that focus on basic tech-
niques and technologies used in process automation, from the big four sensor
technologies (! ow, level, pressure, temperature) to analytical techniques and
many more. When you’re looking for the basic tools of your trade, you can # nd
many of them here. A simple search of ControlGlobal.com for the search string
“Back to Basics” returns over 300 items. They include white papers, articles,
multimedia, blog posts and more. They cover the entire spectrum of tools you
will use as a process automation professional.
Let’s look at a few of them.
Back to Basics: Calibration. In this edition of the Back to Basic video se-
ries, executive editor Jim Montague studies calibration
of # eld instruments. Knowing what # eld instrument
calibration is and what the pitfalls are can save you and
your plant time and money. Visit http://bit.ly/HjfUjl .
Back to Basics: DP Flow Measurement. This video
gives you the straight scoop on using differential pres-
sure to measure ! ow in pipes. Since differential pres-
sure ! owmeters are still the most commonly used ! ow measurement tech-
nology, this is real “need to know” information. Visit http://bit.ly/1eN4X5z.
Back to Basics: Termination Technologies. One of the most common single
points of failure in control systems is the wiring, especially the connections. This
Back to Basics on termination technologies will help you avoid common mistakes
in design and operation of terminal connections. Visit http://bit.ly/1akB4bP.
Back to Basics: Loop Tuning. Here I explain the basics of this fundamen-
tal control operation. Learn about dead band, lag time, PID control, manual
and adaptive loop tuning, and why your loop tuning problems can’t always
be # xed by software. Visit http://bit.ly/1akBnUa.
Back to Basics: Magnetic Flowmeters. In this article, I explain how mag-
meters work, where to apply them and, even more importantly, where not to
apply them, and how to deal with them when they don’t work. Visit http://
bit.ly/1dn2kcV.
Back to Basics: Ultrasonic Continuous Level Measurement. Ultrasonic
Level is one of the # ve non-contacting continuous level measurement tech-
nologies, and the one that is most often misused or misapplied. Here I show
you how to do it right. Visit http://bit.ly/1a2JikH.
There are many more Back to Basics topics at ControlGlobal.com. Enjoy
reading, watching and listening.
ControlGlobal E-News
Multimedia Alerts
White Paper Alerts
Go to www.controlglobal.com and
follow instructions to register for our
free weekly e-newsletters.
Lambda Tuning
Lambda tuning gives non-oscillatory
response with the response time
(Lambda) required by the plant. http://
bit.ly/H4p978.
Wireless Security for
Water/Wastewater Networks
This paper discusses industrial wire-
less network security issues and the
ways in which these networks can be
designed for more security and reliabil-
ity. http://bit.ly/16xNEAd.
Getting the Most from
a HART Handheld Device
Which HART handheld should you get
and how to get the most from it. http://
bit.ly/1d2aIvI.
From Intern to Engineer
Video story of one engineer’s path to
success. http://bit.ly/HdEHWw.
What Will the Schneider/Invensys Merger
Mean for Invensys’ Brands?
Walt Boyes analyzes two possible sce-
narios. Will the acquisiton be good or
bad for the Invensys stable? http://bit.
ly/1ig6dhE.
Disturbance Dynamics Recommendations
Greg McMillan says the prevalence of the
PID is explained by these kinds of loop
disturbances. http://bit.ly/H4spiS.
Back to Basics With
Timeless Content
break through
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While transmit pulse amplitude (signal size) has helped to make
guided wave radar technology the standard for accurate, reliable level
measurement, the fact is signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) represents a far
more critical indicator of level control performance. For superior SNR in
all process conditions, no other GWR device beats the Eclipse® Model
706 transmitter from Magnetrol®.
The ECLIPSE Model 706 transmitter has a signal-to-noise ratio nearly 3 times higher
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N O V E M B E R / 2 0 1 3 www.controlglobal.com 17
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING F E E D B A C KIN MEMORY OF JULIE CAPPELLETTI-LANGE,
VICE PRESIDENT 1984-2012
executive team
President & CEO: JOHN M. CAPPELLETTIVP, Circulation: JERRY CLARK
publishing team
Group Publisher/VP Content: KEITH LARSON
Midwest/Southeast Regional Sales Manager: GREG ZAMIN
Western Regional Sales Manager: LAURA MARTINEZ
lmar t [email protected] t
Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Regional Sales Manager: DAVE FISHER
df [email protected] t
Inside Accounts Manager: POLLY DICKSON
Subscriptions/Circulation: JERRY CLARK, JACK JONES
foster reprints
JILL KALETHA
j i l lk@ fos terpr in t ing.com
editorial team
Editor in Chief: WALT BOYES
Senior Managing Editor, Digital Media: KATHERINE BONFANTE
Managing Editor: NANCY BARTELS
nbar [email protected] t
Senior Technical Editor: DAN HEBERT
dheber [email protected] t
Contributing Editor: JOHN REZABEKColumnists: BÉLA LIPTÁK, GREG MCMILLAN, IAN VERHAPPEN, STAN WEINER Editorial Assistant: LORI GOLDBERG
design & production team
STEVE HERNER
Art Director: BRIAN HERTELbher [email protected] t
Senior Production Manager: ANETTA GAUTHIER
FINALIST JESSE H. NEAL AWARD, 2013 JESSE H. NEAL AWARD WINNER ELEVEN ASBPE EDITORIAL EXCELLENCE AWARDSTWENTY-FIVE ASBPE EXCELLENCE IN GRAPHICS AWARDSASBPE 2009 MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR FINALISTFOUR OZZIE AWARDS FOR GRAPHICS EXCELLENCE
SE
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There are lots of mobile worker tools, and they’re allowing even the smallest companies to have all the bene! ts of mobility.
THE MOBILE WORKER
Picking Low-Hanging DAQ Fruit
How to Get Drives and Motors to Dance Together
More Cross-Generational Conversation
ON THE WEBSecure WirelessHART
CT1309_01_CVR.indd 9 9/3/13 3:18 PM
When to Trust the Operators
I enjoyed the “50 Years” article in the Sep-
tember issue of Control (www.control-
global.com/articles/2013/process-automa-
tion-through-50-years-in-history/), and I
almost agree with everything Mr. Lipták
said. My concern is that the conclusions
are being drawn from looking backward to
events that have occurred. It’s easy to say
what automation would have done had it
been in place.
As I see it, the process (and automation)
designer’s challenge is to foresee abnormal
situations that might occur in the future,
and make provisions for them. Granted,
not every abnormal situation can be fore-
seen, so the question becomes where do
you draw the line? For those unforeseen
abnormal situations that are on the other
side of the line, there must be provisions
for human (operator) intervention.
Now I’ll move on to a slightly different
topic, which is automated, driverless auto-
mobiles. Some manufacturers predict that
they will be available by 2018. However, I
predict that this will result in mayhem on
the highways.
There have been stages of driver auto-
mation appearing for years, starting with
elimination of the crank-to-start, auto-
matic transmissions, cruise control, anti-
lock brakes, etc. But none of these have
removed the ultimate responsibility from
the drivers. They must pay attention, so
they can take over in event of an abormal
situation. However, complete driver auto-
mation goes beyond this.
I was with a group of 20-somethings
recently, and this subject came up. The
concensus among them was was that this
couldn’t come soon enough. Now they
would be able to set their destination on
a GPS, and the automobile would do the
rest, leaving them free to do other things.
They assume that if a ball suddenly rolls
out into the street, the automated car will
anticipate that a small child will likely fol-
low and will take the proper action.
Balderdash! If they were in command
of the vehicle, they would have only sec-
onds or fractions thereof to make an intel-
ligent decision as to what action to take.
I doubt if the National Highway Traf$ c
Safety Administration has even begun to
consider this problem, nor have any of our
state regulatory agencies. Should we, as a
group of automation and safety experts,
be expressing our opinion on this subject
now? Or are we going to wait for the inevi-
table ‘arms race’ among vehicle manufac-
turers to add more
and more levels of
automation, consid-
ering only the addi-
tional pro$ ts to be
earned, and in the
absence of any intel-
ligent (?) regulation?
I say, if you like
Microsoft Word,
which is always trying to guess what you
want to do next and do it for you, and al-
most invariably guesses wrong, then you
will love automated driving.
HAROLD WADEHlwade@aol .com
[Béla Lipták responds.]
I completely agree that there should be no
interference with the operator’s ability to
respond to unforeseen events, including
those that are coming which will be caused
by cyber and other forms of terrorism. How-
ever, what about the situation when the op-
erator is the terrorist or just stupid or asleep?
I said that safety automation is the air-
bag of industry. Airbags do not interfere
with the operator’s actions, but respond
automatically to evolving disasters and
can’t be turned off by anybody. From BP,
Fukushima, etc. accidents, we learned
what are some of these essential airbags
for those processes, and we should use
that knowledge to prevent anybody from
repeating them and prevent anybody from
turning them off.
As to self-driving cars, I see nothing
wrong with adding more “airbags” to our
vehicles. I see nothing wrong with pre-
venting the driver from going through red
lights, exceeding safe speed limits or com-
ing too close to the car in front of the ve-
hicle, etc. Automatic parking and the rest
can come later.
18 www.controlglobal.com N O V E M B E R / 2 0 1 3
BÉLA LIPTÁKl ip takbela@aol .com
L E S S O N S L E A R N E D
Automation Can Prevent the Next BP Spill
After the BP accident in 2010, I described the reasons why the manual operation con-
tributed to the accident and how automatic safety controls could have prevented it. In
other words, I focused on what BP did wrong. In this article, I will concentrate on how to
do it right. Because of space limitations, I will skip discussing the drilling and product-
In an automated
operation, balancing
pressure required
to exceed formation
pressure would have
been automatically
calculated and
applied.
ion phases of the operation (at BP there was no
production, only drilling and sealing), and will
focus only on the phase when the accident oc-
curred, which took place during the closing of
the well.
Closing serves to plug the casing pipe with a
concrete plug strong enough to hold against the
highest formation pressure. To control that, we
must keep the plug pressure higher than that of
the formation. Unfortunately, BP did not do that.
Blowout and the Methane “Kick”
A blowout occurs if the formation pressure (Pf)
suddenly rises because the methane hydrate or
methane ice (MI) in the formation developed
a “kick.” The MI crystal is a solid similar to ice,
except that it traps large amounts of methane
within its crystal structure. The extreme cold and
crushing pressure (2200 psig at 5000 feet at the
ocean bottom and about 8000 psig at the depth of
the oil deposits at 15,000 feet) keeps this crystal in
the solid state. If the pressure drops or the temper-
ature rises to the point of phase transition (PhT),
it triggers the MI to suddenly vaporize.
The temperature of both the continental
shelf and of the oceanic crust increases with
depth, reaching values in the range from about
200 °C (392 ºF) to 400 °C (752 ºF), and the
rate of temperature rise is about 30 ºC (about
50 ºF) for every kilometer.
Each cubic foot of MI crystals explodes into
164 cubic feet of gas. Therefore, it is wise to
avoid drilling through MI deposits and, if it is
done accidentally, to keep the pressure inside
the well above and the temperature below the
PhT point. Naturally, to know where you are
during this process requires measurements.
Now, let us look at the sequence of events,
which started with the cementing of the well, a
process which BP completed only 20 hours be-
fore the temporary “killing” of the well started.
Cementing
Cementing of the well serves to # rmly position
the production casing pipe inside the drill hole,
and to seal the walls of the drill hole, so that oil
or gas can enter the pipe only from the bottom of
the well, but not through the walls. The wellhead
at the Deepwater Horizon well sat on the ocean
$ oor, nearly a mile from the surface. The drill
hole itself went another 13,000 feet into the rock.
When the drilling is over, the well is full of
drilling mud, which was circulating during the
drilling phase. As shown in Figure 1 (page 20),
the cementing process starts with lowering a
steel pipe (casing) into the well. After that, the
pumping of concrete prepares the concrete cas-
ings, and when that is done, the well can start
production or can be sealed by pumping in the
killing $ uid (cement slurry) through the kill-
ing line, followed by the pumping of displace-
ment $ uid (see Figure 2, www.controlglobal.
com/1311-LessonsLearned). During this opera-
tion, two plugs are inserted, called bottom or
wiper and top or cementing plugs.
During cementing, # rst the bottom plug is
inserted, and the pumped cement slurry breaks
the burst diaphragm (rupture disk) in the bot-
tom plug. As it rises, it displaces the drilling
mud, pushing it up and out of the annulus be-
tween the casing pipe and the drill hole.
Once the displacing of the drilling mud is
done, and the annulus is full of the cement
slurry, the “top plug” is inserted, and it is
pushed down by a displacement $ uid that is
pumped in behind it. When it reaches the bot-
tom plug, the job is done, and the check valve
below the bottom $ oat prevents $ ow reversal
(see detail on the right of Figure 1, page 20).
In case of the BP accident, the check valve
failed, and because the methane pressure in
the rock formation exceeded the pressure in-
side the badly cemented annulus (the cement
HHiigghheerr
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20 www.controlglobal.com N O V E M B E R / 2 0 1 3
L E S S O N S L E A R N E D
had cracks in it), the methane broke through, and the “blow-
out” of methane and oil followed.
The amount of time it takes for the cement to harden is called
thickening or “pumpability time.” For setting and temporarily
sealing wells at depths such as that of the BP well, under high
temperature and pressure, strong cements are required, and the
low-density cement slurry was not of suf! cient quality and prob-
ably contributed to the BP accident. The cement was of low den-
sity because the contractor mixed in nitrogen to make the cement
slurry more “elastic” and set faster.
Sealing the Wells
Shortly after the cementing was done, workers started sealing
the well by pumping the “killing # uid” down into the casing
pipe through the kill line. Until the concrete sets, the main-
taining of the killing # uid pressure high enough to always ex-
ceed the formation pressure is essential. This pressure can be
controlled by keeping the concrete mix density high enough to
provide the required hydrostatic pressure that prevents blowout.
Instead, the following occurred at BP:
Cementing was completed on April 19, 2010. The next day,
on April 20 at 7 a.m., BP cancelled the test required to deter-
mine if the bonding of the cement was strong enough in the
annulus (nor did workers check the BOP), and just started seal-
ing the well.
Between that time and the time of the blowout, some 10
hours passed, during which no corrective action was taken. At
around 9:40 p.m., a jolt was felt on the bridge followed by the
rig shaking, and alarms activated because the most dangerous
level of combustible gas intrusion was detected. Yet electricity
was not turned off, and at 9:45 p.m., the gas exploded. Oil and
concrete was blown out of the well onto the deck and ignited.
So what happened? Obviously, the cement plug was not
strong enough to stop the oil and gas from blowing out. So
was that predictable, and would automation have prevented it?
The answer is a de! nite yes! Testing indicated the presence
of a leak somewhere in the well. In spite of that, because the
workers were in a hurry, BP decided to use a low-density ce-
ment plug and seawater behind it, instead of keeping the con-
crete mix density high enough to provide the required hydro-
static pressure that would have prevented the blowout.
If this operation were automated, the balancing pressure re-
quired to exceed the formation pressure would have been au-
tomatically calculated and applied. In other words, the control
system would have kept the hydrostatic pressure high enough to
prevent the gas from entering the well, and would have prevented
the use of low-density cement or sealing # uid.
Therefore, in order to protect against the repetition of the BP
accident, it is essential to have reliable (redundant) sensors and
fully automatic response to unsafe conditions and mistakes made
by either untrained operators or by ones willing to cut corners.
This requires using reliable sensors and “smart annunciators,”
which not only inform the operators about the existence of unsafe
conditions, but also give them either instructions on what to do
about them or, preferably, automatically does it.
In the case of the BP accident, this would have not only pre-
vented the application of the weak concrete plug that allowed the
blowout, but would have stopped the whole operation until the
blow-out protectors were tested, and would have automatically
disengaged the rig from the well as soon as ! re was detected.
[For more on this subject, go to www.controlglobal.com/1311-
LessonsLearned.]
Figure 1. The cementing process involves pumping cement, slurry and
displacement ! uid into the well.
Cement
Displacement uid
Pumps
Rig
RiserpipeOcean
Bop
Centerer(only 6)
Burstdiaphragm
Check valvewith oat
Oil and gas zone
Rock
Bottom plug
Drilling mud
Casingpipe
Cementslurry
Drillhole
~ 13,000 ft
~ 5,000 ft
Displacement uid
Top plug
CEMENTING THE WELL
© Allied Electronics, Inc 2013. ‘Allied Electronics’ and the Allied Electronics logo are trademarks of Allied Electronics, Inc. An Electrocomponents Company.
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My system architecture shouldn’t stop me from having a modern safety system. I need the best technology available today.
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3
What Could YOU Dowith I/O on Demand? . .4Already deployed at more than 300 sites around the
world, Electronic Marshalling is delivering outsized
bene!ts for the process industries.
Put Time on Your Side . .8Whether modernizing or building new, Electronic
Marshalling can buy time when you need it most.
Shrink Your System Footprint . . . . .12Cut your control room I/O cabinet commitments in
half. Or better yet, move them all into the !eld.
Streamline Engineering Tasks . . . .16Human-centered design approach yields everyday
engineering ef!ciencies.
Be Ready for What’s Next . . . . . . . .20DeltaV with Electronic Marshalling sets new standard
for operational #exibility.
Contents
4
With its October 2009 launch of the
DeltaV automation system with “I/O
on Demand,” Emerson Process Man-
agement set out to revolutionize one of process
automation’s most onerous and time-consuming
activities: the engineering and management of
input/output (I/O) subsystems.
I/O on Demand proposes to eliminate broad
swaths of time and effort over a process automa-
tion system’s lifecycle, to shorten project schedules
and minimize system footprint, even while increas-
ing future !exibility. In so doing, I/O on Demand
promises to deliver for its users “the greatest
degree of !exibility with the least amount of effort
and risk,” Chief Strategic Of#cer Peter Zornio told
Control at the time.
After just four years, Electronic Marshal-
ling with CHARMs (characterization modules)
technology, the cornerstone of I/O on Demand,
already has logged more than a billion hours of
operation at 300 sites worldwide. How these
users—throughout the process industries and
around the globe—are using Electronic Mar-
shalling to deliver previously unthinkable results
is the focus of this special report. First up,
though, Control visits with Claudio Fayad, Em-
erson marketing director, DeltaV platform, for
the big picture view of what’s made Electronic
Already Deployed at More than 300 Sites around the
World, Electronic Marshalling Is Delivering Outsized
Bene"ts for the Process Industries.
What CouldYOU Do with I/O on Demand?
“Users can literally
create new time and
space where there was
none before.”
5
Marshalling such a game-changer for how auto-
mation is done in the process industries.
Q. Electronic Marshalling technology
has really taken off since it was "rst
introduced. Why do you think so many
users have opted for this approach?
A. The great thing about Electronic Mar-
shalling is that people make their own
conclusions about the bene!ts of the
technology very, very quickly. Its ability to com-
press project engineering schedules has clear ad-
vantages in both green!eld plants and in retro!ts.
In the !rst case, reducing time to !rst production
for a manufacturer—or, for example, time to !rst
oil for an energy company—can mean millions of
dollars in revenue gained. And in the second case,
Electronic Marshalling allows users to reduce or
even eliminate the turnaround time associated with
commissioning a new system, again restoring what
otherwise would be lost production and revenue.
And because of its smaller footprint, the new system
can be installed in fewer enclosures—sometimes right
alongside the old system in existing enclosures. This
both reduces costs and allows even faster switchover
to the new system.
With Electronic Marshalling, users can literally
create new time and space where there was none be-
fore. The sheer amount of bene!t is simply that big.
Q. How is it that Electronic Marshalling
has eliminated so much time and
effort?
A. If you think of the old way of doing
things, a project engineer had to have a
pretty !rm handle on the number and type
of I/O points that would be needed before he could
start doing his hardware design. Each type of I/O
6
required its own type of I/O card, typically in groups
of eight. Further limiting system !exibility, each I/O
card was tied to its respective controller. And when
those inevitable late changes in process design trick-
led through, he may or may not have allowed for an
appropriate number of the right type of I/O. The end
result of all this in!exibility was to incur expensive
change-orders late in the project cycle, or to push
hardware design back later in the timeline, potentially
delaying overall project delivery.
But with Electronic Marshalling, all our project
engineer needs to get started is an approximate total
I/O count. Each and every channel is fully character-
ized by its respective CHARM plug-in, which can be
added or changed even up to the last minute without
impacting the overall hardware design. Each I/O
channel is mapped in turn to its appropriate control-
ler automatically through the DeltaV system soft-
ware, and can be logically reassigned even on the !y.
And, in the rare case of a CHARM failure, annun-
ciation is instantaneous and replacement of a single
CHARM is much easier than that of an entire board,
signi#cantly reducing mean-time-to-repair.
The decades-old practice of landing wires in a
marshalling cabinet, then wiring each landed pair to
an I/O channel on the right kind of card connected
to the right controller, is eliminated—along with the
marshalling cabinets themselves. All of this greatly
streamlines system engineering and documentation.
Plus, you can begin building—or just order—the
cabinets you need before you’ve even #nished the
process design. Automation is no longer a project
bottleneck and is off the critical path. And the ben-
e#ts don’t stop when a project is completed. Because
each I/O channel can be re-characterized at any time
by simply changing its CHARM, !exibility for the
future is preserved as well.
Q. So, the need for physical marshalling
cabinets essentially disappears. Have
some traditional work processes
disappeared as well?
A. When you think of the traditional
hardware factory acceptance test, or
hardware FAT, it’s really all about the
I/O. You’re not testing the controllers them-
selves; you’re testing all the wires that were
pulled, the screws that were turned, and the
cabinets that were built over perhaps the past
10 months on a big project. But if all of that
custom panel-building and cross-wiring goes
away, you can cut much of the FAT as well.
With Electronic Marshalling we’re seeing an
extreme reduction in FAT and commissioning
time. One large oil company, for example, is go-
ing as far as creating a new “no hardware” FAT
methodology that acknowledges this new reality.
“Automation
is no longer a
project bottleneck
and is off the
critical path.” — Claudio Fayad,
Marketing Director, DeltaV Platform,
Emerson Process Management
7
Q. Is there more to I/O on Demand than
just Electronic Marshalling?
A. While Electronic Marshalling is at its
heart, I/O on Demand also describes
a broader human-centered design
(HCD) effort at Emerson Process Management
that includes both WirelessHART and FOUNDA-
TION fieldbus networks. Emerson Smart Wire-
less networks, which are approaching 2 billion
hours of operation across more than 10,000
wireless systems, provide an easy, seamless way
to add “wireless I/O” wherever and whenever
the need for a new measurement point arises.
FOUNDATION !eldbus technology normally re-
quires third-party power supplies and power condi-
tioners—along with the necessary engineering and
wiring and cabinet space. But with DeltaV S-series
and I/O on Demand, we’ve integrated the power
circuitry within the FOUNDATION !eldbus H1
card itself. The additional cabinet footprint associ-
ated with use of external segment power supplies
is eliminated, along with segment power design,
installation and troubleshooting tasks. In short,
the third-party power conditioners and dedicated
power supplies—and all the engineering and testing
that went with them—also are a thing of the past.
Another way in which we allow users to
further leverage their I/O investment is in the
seamless communication of the DeltaV SIS
process safety system information to the basic
process control system. In this way, information
from safety I/O can be used to allow the control
system to make more informed decisions.
Q. How else has HCD driven changes in
the original I/O on Demand offering
to meet other user needs?
A. Key technology extensions over the
past few years include the launch of
the modern DeltaV SIS with Electronic
Marshalling, which delivers all the same time,
space and #exibility bene!ts to the engineer-
ing of safety system I/O. And, just as Electronic
Marshalling eliminated marshalling cabinets, in-
trinsically safe CHARMs have eliminated stand-
alone safety barriers—and the need to engineer,
install and enclose those components as well.
The beauty of HCD is that it provides a
powerful way of helping change the way we do
things. It can help us to transcend work pro-
cesses that as an industry we’ve long believed
were unavoidable. Electronic Marshalling is
representative of the ways in which Emerson is
striving to remove complexity where we can,
eliminate work where possible, and embed
knowledge where practical.
“HCD helps us
transcend work
processes that as
an industry we
long believed were
unavoidable.”
8
Daniel Santos Monasterios Morales
knows what it’s like to be on a project’s
critical path. He’s been there.
Automation manager for Braskem’s petrochemi-
cal facilities in southeastern Brazil, Morales over-
saw a recent control system modernization project
for one of the company’s polypropylene produc-
tion facilities. Two factors weighed heavily on the
company’s modernization plan: the desire to re-use
existing !eld wiring, and the need to fully execute
the transition to a new control platform within
a narrow 15-day turnaround—only a fraction of
which could be used for automation activities.
“In the limited time available, it would have
been impossible to migrate this system using
traditional methods,” Morales says. Enter Em-
erson Process Management and its Electronic
Marshalling technology. The migration team
tested everything on the new DeltaV system
out beforehand, and when it came time for the
switch, “We just moved the old FTAs [field ter-
mination assemblies] out, and the CHARM I/O
cards in. This was straightforward because we
didn’t have to concern ourselves with rearrang-
ing cables from the field,” Morales says.
Morales estimates that the flexibility of the
Whether Modernizing or Building New, Electronic Marshalling Can Buy Time When You Need it Most.
Put Time on
Your Side
“In the limited time available,
it would have been impossible
to migrate this system using
traditional methods.”— Daniel Morales,
Automation Manager, Braskem
9
Electronic Marshalling solution allowed them
to design and install the new system in 50%
less time compared with conventional I/O
approaches. The team met their “impossible”
project deadline, and the plant was back up and
running on schedule. Further, Morales credits
this approach with a 19% installation cost sav-
ings and a 15% design cost savings.
For Braskem, the truly critical-path time sav-
ings afforded by Electronic Marshalling was
in the system installation and commissioning.
With this approach, once the new CIOCs are
in place field technicians can quickly land the
existing field wiring on any available I/O chan-
nel without regard to type. Subsequently, each
channel is given its appropriate character by
simply plugging in the appropriate type of
characterization module, or CHARM. The map-
ping of each I/O point to the appropriate con-
troller in the system is done through the DeltaV
system software with very little effort. In the
end, Electronic Marshalling can save time and
prevent mistakes just when the migration team
is under the most pressure to get the plant back
up and running.
HCD in the Details
While Electronic Marshalling represents a con-
ceptually different approach to doing automation
projects, Emerson’s focus on human-centered
design (HCD) also is apparent in the smallest
implementation details that can streamline system
installation and commissioning tasks. For example,
the DeltaV CIOC itself has been designed for ease
10
of use, both in physical installation and its software
tools. Components snap together with secure DIN-
rail latches and interlocking carrier connectors;
a series of 96 I/O channels can be connected to a
DIN-rail in a matter of minutes.
No tools are needed to remove a CHARM
or CHARM terminal block from the baseplate.
Upon initial insertion, CHARMs are sensed
by the system, automatically creating the I/O
definition in the DeltaV configuration database.
Also, upon initial insertion of a CHARM, each
terminal block is “self-keyed” such that the
wrong type of CHARM cannot be mistakenly
inserted without removing and manually reset-
ting its terminal block (again, without tools).
CHARMs also can be partially ejected to
a stand-by position, disconnecting the field
wiring from the system to perform field main-
tenance actions or to remove power to a field
device. Activating the CHARM latch ejects the
CHARM to the stand-by position. Closing the
latch locks the CHARM in place and isolates
the field wiring for field work.
For Glen Pfeifer, controls specialist for chemi-
cals manufacturer E.R. Carpenter LP, a recent
control system retrofit at its Pasadena, Texas,
facility “worked out wonderfully” with Elec-
tronic Marshalling technology. The moderniza-
tion project involved new DeltaV control and
safety instrumented systems for two units, each
consisting of 550 I/O points.
They reused the old systems’ remote I/O cabi-
nets, landing new wires from newly installed re-
mote CIOC !eld enclosures on new terminations
installed on stand-off brackets in the old remote
I/O cabinets. “We were able to completely com-
mission the new controls, the network and the
CIOCs all the way to the new termination points
in the old cabinets,” Pfeifer says. When it came
time for the cut-over, “we just lifted the wires off
the old I/O card, landed them on the new termi-
nals, and—boom—it was talking.”
Commissioning definitely went faster than
with traditional approaches, Pfeifer adds, citing
the ability of each I/O channel to self-identify
and self-configure. “The simultaneous enabling
and downloading of multiple I/O channels was
helpful; the system software worked just as I
expected it to, and for the most part I couldn’t
think of a better way to do it.”
“We just lifted
the wires off the
old I/O card,
landed them on
the new terminals,
and—boom—
it was talking.”— Glen Pfeifer,
Controls Specialist, E.R. Carpenter
11
An Earlier Start
While Electronic Marshalling shines under the
pressure of a retrofit cut-over, its ability to save
time and associated expenses is perhaps even
more apparent in greenfield projects. Here, time
can certainly be saved in installation and com-
missioning, but the real game-changer is in the
ability to start automation system design earlier
in the overall design process.
Classical marshalling, the old way of doing
I/O, is at the heart of a labor-intensive, relative-
ly inflexible work practice that also is subject to
the whims of late-stage process design modifica-
tions. Changes in process design drive changes
in control system inputs and outputs required,
and proceed to cascade through all that detailed
engineering work—from reworking drawings
to control system partitioning to building new
cabinets. Late design changes are inevitable, but
they add cost, time, and most importantly risk
to any project. The practice of wired marshal-
ling only intensifies these problems.
But what if the nature of any single I/O chan-
nel could be changed at will, at any time during
a project? What if all marshalling cabinets and
junction boxes were of a “standard” design,
and need not be engineered beyond knowing an
approximate total I/O count? That’s precisely
what Electronic Marshalling brings to the table.
As a result, it effectively removes I/O from the
critical path of many projects—decoupling pro-
cess design from I/O architecture decisions as
well as eliminating the rework costs and project
delays that were once the inevitable conse-
quence of late-stage design modifications.
While important to owner-operators, the
technology also has proven popular among
innovative engineering and procurement con-
tractors like WorleyParsons, which engineers,
designs and builds plants and platforms and
works with Emerson to provide the automation
systems. “As our customers ask us to take on in-
creasingly large, complex projects -- often with
fast-track schedules—changes late in the design
process are inevitable,” says Robert Armstrong,
chief instruments and controls engineer, Wor-
leyParsons. “Electronic Marshalling stream-
lines how projects are designed and engineered
and as a result, has helped control the cost and
schedule impact of last-minute changes.”
“Electronic
Marshalling
streamlines how
projects are
designed and
engineered. It has
helped control
the cost and
schedule impact
of last-minute
changes.” — Robert Armstrong, Chief Instruments and
Controls Engineer, WorleyParsons
12
Even in the cheapest real estate markets,
control room space comes at a premium.
But what if your plant has run out of elbow
room, and company planners are itching to put your
control room !oor space to more productive use?
Such was the situation described by Eric Phares,
automation engineer at Johnson Matthey’s West
Deptford, N.J., facility, where a range of active
pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are produced. The
company is in the process of migrating older Emer-
son PROVOX control systems over to the DeltaV
system. And for the unit in question, they chose to go
with Electronic Marshalling in no small part because
it would allow them to readily move the system I/O
out of the control room and into cabinets distributed
throughout the production environment.
“Electronic Marshalling allowed us to distrib-
ute that I/O out to the process,” Phares explains.
“It gave us the opportunity to use that space for
operations instead of a place to hang computers.
And for a small facility like ours, even a hundred
square feet is a big deal,” he says.
The control room that was once the home-
run destination of hundreds of instrument wires
Cut Your Control Room I/O Cabinet Commitments in Half. Or Better Yet, Move them all into the Field.
Shrink Your System Footprint
“Electronic Marshalling
gave us the opportunity to
use that space for operations
instead of as a place to
hang computers.”— Eric Phares,
Automation Engineer, Johnson Matthey
13
now holds only a single DeltaV workstation—
and that’s likely to go, too, in anticipation of the
control room’s eventual demise. Now, instead
of bundles of copper running back to the old
control room, the 17 !eld enclosures feed six
CHARM I/O card (CIOC) enclosures !ber
optically linked to a DeltaV controller cabinet
and six DeltaV workstations, all of which are
situated in the Class I Div 2 production #oor
environment.
Johnson Matthey also is reaping performance
and functionality bene!ts with the new system.
“Instrument techs have remarked that the Elec-
tronically Marshalled instrument loops are per-
forming more precisely,” Phares says. And, now
that the new system is in place, they’re adding
new functionality starting with the automating
of reactor inertion and pressure testing sequences
that weren’t readily doable with the old system.
“Now we can, so we do! We have the ability to
make a lot of good things happen now,” Phares
says.
Built for Offshore Demands
From the very start, Electronic Marshalling was
intended not only to collapse project schedules
and reduce engineering and installation effort,
but also to address the often extreme space
and weight limitations of offshore production
platforms. The effective elimination of mar-
shalling cabinets was a huge !rst step toward
smaller I/O cabinet footprint. Further, with the
14
introduction of intrinsically safe CHARMs, the
need for separate third-party barriers—and all
the engineering that went with them—has disap-
peared as well.
The ability to install Emerson’s CIOCs in
standardized field enclosures with standard
wiring out to the instruments and a fiber optic
network link to the rest of the system reduces
control room I/O cabinet requirements to es-
sentially zero, as well as reducing the amount of
copper wiring required, an added weight savings
bonus for offshore installations.
BG Rashpetco, an Egyptian natural gas pro-
ducer, took advantage of these new system fea-
tures recently when it modernized the controls
on a gas metering skid. They chose the DeltaV
platform to improve connectivity with other
process control systems, but Electronic Marshal-
ling also paid off in saved space and installa-
tion time. “We used intrinsically safe CHARMs,
which significantly reduced the cabinet size
because we didn’t have to include separate bar-
riers and terminations,” says Mostafa Lakosha,
instrumentation and control engineer. “This also
reduced the time required for installation.”
Another big advantage is that can we can
use just the number of I/O necessary,” Lakosha
adds, “instead of buying extra cards to accom-
modate the I/O mix we needed.”
Reduce and Reuse
Meanwhile in South Africa, AEL Mining Servic-
es, a manufacturer of mining-related chemicals
and explosives, was able to both reduce system
footprint and reuse its existing marshalling
cabinets during a recent control system modern-
ization project, according to Leon Clulee, senior
project manager for AEL.
Fortunately, the AEL team had room to install
the new CIOCs inside the existing system mar-
shalling cabinets. “We got the new system up
and running in parallel,” Clulee explains, “and
were able to shutdown and switch over quite
seamlessly. Some loops were even switched over
while the plant was running.”
The old marshalling cabinets—which now
double as the new I/O cabinets—are connected
via Ethernet to the now sparsely populated con-
troller cabinets. “The DeltaV controller now sits
in one corner of the cabinet,” Clulee says. “We
saved four square meters of floor space, and are
going to move other servers in there now.”
“Intrinsically
safe CHARMs
signi"cantly
reduced the
cabinet size
because we
didn’t have to
include separate
barriers and
terminations.”— Mostafa Lakosha, Instrumentation and Control
Engineer, BG Rashpetco
15
“The DeltaV
controller now
sits in one corner
of the cabinet...
We saved four
square meters of
"oor space.”— Leon Clulee, Senior Project Manager,
AEL Mining Services
With the modernization to the DeltaV system,
the company also saw control performance im-
provements. For example, a boiler that had been
run in manual for decades now runs consistent-
ly and predictably in automatic mode. “We’re
running more efficiently, and operators are freed
up to do other tasks,” Clulee says. “Operators
can walk the floor to see what needs attention,
rather than just staring at a screen. They have
more time to look at what can be improved
instead of doing mundane tasks.”
“We’re currently rolling out the same ap-
proach to the rest of our chemical plants, install-
ing the CIOCs inside existing cabinets while the
plant is running, ‘dry-commissioning’ the system
while the plant is online, and then taking the
opportunity during a plant shutdown to change-
over the control to DeltaV. The installation and
con!guration process is quite painless.”
These plants will all be linked together via a
redundant fiber optic network, putting all of
the plants on the same control platform. Plant
operators who once controlled the units in iso-
lation will now have better visibility upstream
and downstream, and into how the performance
of their unit impacts the bigger system.
16
17
Human-Centered Design Approach Yields Everyday Engineering Ef"ciencies.
Streamline Engineering Tasks
“The DeltaV engineering
tools are as important as the
Electronic Marshalling. The
combination of technologies
is very powerful.”— Bob Crawford,
Staff Engineer, TPC Group
While Emerson Process Management’s
DeltaV with Electronic Marshalling
technology particularly shines in the
face of looming project deadlines, it can also re-
duce effort and streamline engineering tasks when
you’re not quite so crunched for time.
Indeed, the effective elimination of marshalling
cabinets—as well as separate intrinsically safe bar-
riers if you need them—also eliminates much of the
engineering effort that goes into them. And because
with Electronic Marshalling each uncharacterized
I/O channel is much the same as the next, the only
remaining variable associated with the cards, cabi-
nets and !eld enclosures is: How many of each do
you need? Electronic Marshalling technology also
comes with all the power of DeltaV’s engineering
tools, which can help streamline and manage what
con!guration and programming tasks remain.
18
TPC Group, for example, is in the midst of a
staged modernization of the control systems at
one its Gulf Coast petrochemical facilities. They’re
transitioning a few process units at a time over
to the DeltaV system, and ultimately will Elec-
tronically Marshal all of their I/O. “And we’re
not taking any of our processes down,” notes Bob
Crawford, staff engineer in the company’s process
automation group. “It’ll be hot cut-over on more
than 5,000 I/O when all’s said and done.”
In helping to manage this systematic transition,
“the DeltaV engineering tools are as important as
the Electronic Marshalling,” Crawford adds. “For
example, the ability to download Excel spread-
sheets of con!guration data allows us to do things
more quickly and easily. And with DeltaV and
AMS, we have a lot more diagnostics and con!gu-
ration power than before,” Crawford says. “The
combination of technologies is very powerful.”
Crawford also appreciates the single channel
#exibility afforded by Electronic Marshalling,
which allows them to logically group I/O together
on the same CHARM I/O card (CIOC), rather
than, for example, having the I/O associated with a
single pump wired to several traditional I/O cards
of different types. “Because you can put those I/O
together, it’s much easier for the technician to man-
age and troubleshoot. It’s a whole new concept
compared to the old days. Open space and spares
can go anywhere. The possibilities are endless.”
Scalable for Small Projects, TooWhile Electronic Marshalling was designed with
industry’s most demanding and complex process
automation applications in mind, it can also
make relatively small modernization projects
easier to manage and execute than previously
thought possible.
For example, in researching this article we spoke
to a research engineer who recently moved into a
role that includes supporting the water treatment
facilities for the company’s research and develop-
ment labs. He confessed to having had limited
controls or instrumentation experience up until
two years ago, but nevertheless was able to rec-
ognize the potential for Electronic Marshalling to
help modernize operation of the water treatment
facility’s holding tank area.
Tanks with existing standalone controllers
and sump pumps were scattered several hundred
feet from a central control room, “and we didn’t
have a good way of marshalling that wire to one
“We helped
out for two weeks
on the "rst two
reactors, but now
they’re doing it on
their own.”— Donald Bockman,
Account Manager, Proconex
19
location,” he explained. Further, the pilot plants
run continuously so a shutdown was out of the
question. In the end, four CIOCs were installed in
remote !eld enclosures, with network cables back
to a controller in the control room.
Despite his inexperience with controls in general
and the DeltaV system in particular, our researcher
was able to develop the sump pump logic on his
own and bring it online !rst before tackling the
other sections in turn. “Electronic Marshalling
allowed us to wire one area at a time, then plug
in that network card. We were able to transition
without shutting down.” Today, they’re using
DeltaV to implement new strategies previously un-
achievable, for example, to automatically reroute
#ow among the holding tanks to avoid over#ow
conditions. “But the real beauty was when some-
one wanted to add another measurement as an af-
terthought,” he said. “We just wired up the device,
put in a spare CHARM, and it was done.”
DIY ResurgentOur researcher is only one of a growing class
of process automation do-it-yourselfers !nding
that Emerson’s focus on human-centered design
(HCD) has made a big difference in what types
of projects they can comfortably execute without
turning to outside expertise. Indeed, both AEL
Mining Services and Johnson Matthey, whose
Electronic Marshalling implementation experi-
ences are detailed elsewhere in this special report
are proceeding—and succeeding—largely under
their own steam.
Drugmaker Johnson Matthey enlisted the help of
Emerson local business partner (LBP) Proconex to
modernize the control systems for the !rst two of
18 similar reactors at its West Deptford, N.J. facil-
ity (see p12 for more project details). “We helped
out for two weeks on the !rst two reactors,” says
Donald Bockman, Proconex account manager,
“but now they’re doing it on their own.”
And at South Africa’s AEL, “they just bought
the hardware, installed and configured it them-
selves,” according to Alan Windram, engineering
manager for process systems and solutions for
Emerson LBP Automation and Control Solu-
tions. “Our LBP helped guide us in what to
buy,” says Leon Clulee, senior project manager
for AEL (see p14 for more project details). “But
we wanted to do the work ourselves so that the
guys who are here understand the system and
know what to do in the middle of the night.”
“They just
bought the
hardware,
installed and
con"gured it
themselves.”— Alan Windram,
Engineering Manager, Automation and Control Solutions
20
21
For Sasol Technology’s Dr. Andre Joubert,
!exibility for the future means a whole lot
more than just spare I/O capacity.
Joubert is manager of control systems and
instrumentation for the research and develop-
ment arm of the international energy and chemi-
cal company, which not only builds and operates
world-scale production facilities, but also develops
and commercializes process technologies. At its
main R&D center near Johannesburg, South Africa,
myriad manufacturing processes are tested and
optimized in pilot-scale facilities—including a 40-m
tall tetramerization unit with 3,800 intrinsically safe
I/O that is being used to determine optimal operating
strategies for the company’s new chemicals complex
under development in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Be Ready forWhat’s NextDeltaV with Electronic Marshalling Sets New Standard for Operational Flexibility in the Face of Unrelenting Change.
“Electronic Marshalling means
faster commissioning, faster loop
checks and faster modi"cations.
Within Sasol, it’s a new
way of thinking.”— Dr. Andre Joubert, Manager of Control Systems
and Instrumentation, Sasol Technology
22
At the Sasol R&D site, pilot plants are routinely
switched from one con!guration to another, en-
tailing perhaps 40 to 80 instrumentation changes
during a 30-day turnaround.
‘Change Is Always Happening’“We have an extremely complex management
of change process, and the ability to do rapid
modi!cations is key,” Joubert says, “but to turn
around more quickly, we had to move away from
the conventional way of doing things.” They had
already been using DeltaV process automation
systems with M-series I/O, but are now mov-
ing to S-series I/O with Electronic Marshalling
because of its greater #exibility.
Because each I/O channel can be individually
characterized to be an analog or digital input or
output with its plug-in CHARM module, a chan-
nel that served as an analog input in the last run
can easily be changed to a digital output for the
next. Just swap out the CHARM, run the wiring
to the card, “and away you go,” Joubert says.
The company also has settled on installing the
CHARM I/O cards (CIOCs) in !eld-mounted
enclosures. This approach minimizes size of their
equipment rooms, where only the DeltaV con-
trollers are housed, and allows the company to
“save a ton of money” by running the control
system’s !ber optic network cables together with
the electrical power infrastructure.
“Our documentation has gone down by 90%,”
Joubert adds, “and the systems are far easier
to maintain as well.” Joubert also cites a recent
factory acceptance test (FAT) that was scheduled
for three weeks but completed in just one. “It’s so
much easier to check,” Joubert says. “We’re cut-
ting out some of the normal problem areas. We
can now turn around a large, semi-commercial
unit in eight weeks, and now we’re targeting six.
This new technology will allow us to do that.”
“Electronic
Marshalling is
very "exible to any
changes, including
recon#guring some
I/O connections
at late stage of the
project.”— Chan Jeong Park, Manufacturing Technology
Team Leader, Hanwha Chemical
23
Flexibility for the FuturePilot plants aren’t the only type of facility to
benefit from the high degree of built-in flexibil-
ity afforded by Electronic Marshalling. Hanwha
Chemical is a leader in South Korea’s growing
market for biosimilar pharmaceuticals, and
the use of Electronic Marshalling helped the
company to quickly ramp up production of re-
combinant monoclonal antibody and antibody-
based protein drugs at its recently completed
Osong plant.
Chan Jeong Park, manufacturing technology
team leader, credits Electronic Marshalling with
easier project management during the plant’s
design and construction phases. It not only
reduced the site construction time and cost,
but also provides a foundation for future I/O
expansion and plant management because the
I/O cards themselves are installed in the prox-
imity of devices in the process area. “Moreover,
it is very flexible to any changes,” Park adds,
“including reconfiguring some I/O connections
at late stages of the project.”
For both Hanwha and Sasol, the agility of
their Electronically Marshalled systems to
gracefully accommodate changing process
requirements only reinforces other key system
benefits: speed of project delivery, smaller
system footprint and engineering ease. Taken
together, they represent an overwhelming value
proposition compared with traditional mar-
shalling.
“Electronic Marshalling is the future for us,”
Sasol’s Joubert says. “It means faster commission-
ing, faster loop checks and faster modi!cations. In
the past, we had problems justifying new technol-
ogy investments because of the cost, but once we
started delivering on the shorter turnarounds, ev-
eryone’s attitudes started to change. Within Sasol,
it’s a new way of thinking.”