Emerson Process Experts

Sometimes plants go through a revamp and things just don't work right. Loops that used to run fine in automatic mode now run in manual mode and require constant attention. I caught up last week with Emerson's James Beall, a principal process control consultant, whom you may recall from earlier posts.

James shared a great story with me about a recent visit he had to a refinery. Many months ago, they had gone through a crude unit revamp. They were struggling with the operations and it required quite a lot of operator intervention to keep things running. Many of the key crude unit loops were being run in manual because automatic mode was too unstable.

James described it to me as a back-to-basics visit. Working with the operations and plant engineering staff, they discovered quite a number of instrument and tuning problems. One example was a level transmitter that had been improperly configured. James used some of the control performance tools to gather and assess the process dynamics around the level loop.

While performing a bump test on the level loop, the team noticed the level signal responding in the wrong direction. A quick check revealed that the level transmitter calibration had set the transmitter to have reverse action, which prevented the level controller from working. It's no wonder the operators wisely had put the loop into manual mode to prevent this from happening.

Using a methodical one-by-one process through the critical loops, James helped the team properly tune each loop and discover problems with the surrounding control valves and instruments. All the tuning skills in the world can't help get a loop to behave properly if the valve is sticking or the transmitter is not performing well. The maintenance staff fixed what they could with their available spare parts and put a plan together for fixing the other problem assets.

Over the course of five days, the team resolved the major issues and smoothed out the operations of the crude unit. James shared with me that this approach helped the operations team regain confidence in the tuning and return the loops into automatic mode. His time spent with the team also was used to share his expertise to help them be able to work through future issues as they arise. In that sense, it was also in-the-field training on process control performance.

I like the quote he shared from one of the operators after the first two days on-site:

My goodness, you fixed more of these problems in two days than has been fixed in the past several months.

James noted that these results were really the result of a great teamwork effort with the plant personnel. Thanks for sharing this great story, James!

MP3 | iTunes

Technologies continue to be introduced, which impact our lives. In the world of process automation, wireless technologies connecting instrumentation to process automation and asset management systems are impacting the way process manufacturers can operate their plants. The Emerson European Chemical industries team will be hosting a series of webinars to show ways chemical manufacturers are using these wireless technologies to improve the way they operate their plants. The first one is coming up in a few weeks on July 6th. I'll update the post with the link to the WebEx registration once it's live.

The global economic conditions have reduced consumer spending and business investment, particularly in the automotive and housing sectors. This slowdown has directly impacted chemical manufacturers' sales and in turn production. During recessionary times, the focus of plants often shifts away from growth toward improving operational efficiency.

At lower production levels, it's important to squeeze out costs to continue to remain profitable. Areas that might have opportunity for improvement include energy efficiency, maintenance savings, water usage, environmental impact reductions, and improved safety. Also, product margins can be preserved by producing differentiated products.

You may recall Peter Cox, a key member of this team from an earlier post. Through him and the team, I got my hands on early builds of information the Chemical Industry specialists will share in the webinars. They see four key areas where wireless instrumentation can help overall efficiency through: improved reliability, increased production, increased visibility to out-of-reach areas, and leaner operations.

A reliability example they cite is any process that has rotating process units, such as reactors or kilns. Wired approaches are tricky and typically have high mechanical failure rates. For one chemical manufacturer, their rotating reactor had to be shut down 2-3 times per week to repair the instruments and/or associated wiring, which no longer was communicating with a PLC. They mounted two wireless pressure/temperature transmitters, one on each end, which communicated with a Wireless Gateway connected via MODBUS to the PLC. This approach ended the measurement reliability problems and improved the efficiency and quality of the product produced in the reactor.

One other example I'll share is in increasing visibility. A chemical manufacturer needed a way to keep up-to-date inventory on storage tanks to support their product sales. Because of the remote location of these tanks from the production plant area, wired measurement was prohibitively expensive. Using wireless differential pressure transmitters, they could send accurate tank level measurements to the inventory management system and allow operators to spot problems with the tank more quickly. It also reduced the need to send the operators into this hazardous area to perform manual tank level readings.

Peter shared with me that the webinars would get increasingly specific and more technical on the applications that chemical manufacturers are solving with wireless plant and field network technologies.

MP3 | iTunes

Update and Bump: The Chemical webinar page with registration is now open.

I've got another great example of an email question I received and answer on which I was cc'ed. It needs to be lifted out of the depths of email inboxes and sent items folders into the spotlight in the hopes it helps others who may have similar questions.

The question:

We are working on a project where the water overflow from a hot lime softener needs to be measured for pH (typically about 9.5) and we also need to take a sample. The sample needs to be cooled to 50 degC which we can do with a heat exchanger. Do you have any information as to the longevity of pH probes if the sample were cooled to 50 degC as opposed to cooling it further to 25 degC?

I checked with Emerson's Dave Joseph, a senior industry manager in the Rosemount Analytical Liquid business. Dave responded:

Your question about pH sensor lifetime is actually quite complicated. pH sensors can fail due to glass breakage, glass coating, glass depletion, reference depletion, reference poisoning, and reference plugging, and that's just to start. Each of these effects are aggravated by temperature to one degree or another, so depending on the expected failure mode, temperature can be more or less of a factor.

Our general rule of thumb is that for every 25 degree C you can expect to half the ideal lifetime of a pH sensor. For instance, if a sensor lasts 2 years at 25 degree C, it might last 1 year at 50 degree C. Note, however, that getting your sensor really cold also tends to decrease lifetime so don't cool the sensor down to freezing expecting a 4 year lifetime.

Although we have sensors that can operate at temperatures exceeding 120 degree C, it is generally good practice to cool samples down to around 50-60 degree C to prolong their lifetime (by a rough factor of 4-6). This is especially true for high pH samples (over 12) that deplete the glass very quickly. In your case, I would not expect that further cooling the sample much below 50 degree C would justify the added piping complexity.

Thanks for letting me pass on your wisdom to others, Dave! Also, for those who may have come upon this post looking for answers to their pH control challenges, make sure to visit the pH category on the ModelingAndControl.com blog.

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In an earlier post, I discussed thought leadership as a reason you might consider using the people-to-people connecting social media applications like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, etc. This topic is one of the items Deb Franke and I will be sharing in our Thriving in Chaos presentation at the Emerson Exchange.

Another topic will be ways to more effectively find the information you need to solve the issues in front of you. As we all know, there is absolutely no shortage of information. Our email inboxes overflow. The World Wide Web contains at least 25.45 billion pages of information as of June 23, 2009. If your desk looks anything like mine, well, it's not a pretty picture.

So how do you deal with this ever-growing flood of information to find what you need to solve the issues at hand? Of course, we all know about Google and the other search engines and have become well trained on the proper selection and amount of keywords and phrases to use. Sometimes this works great, sometimes not.

One big issue is that there's a lot of wisdom trapped in email inboxes and sent items folders. Desktop indexing and search software like Windows Search, Google Desktop, and many others can help to some extent. But what about the information others have that doesn't reach your email inbox?

Different approaches from content management systems to blogs, wikis, and forum software have been and are being tried with varying degrees of success. The key element to success seems to be the number of people willing to participate and the community that naturally forms from this participation. Metcalf's Law states, "the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n2)." He also offers:

...a more insightful and, I think, important contribution to the conversation -- that to understand the value of a social network we need to consider not just the number of users but also the affinity between the members of the network.

My take away? Your fastest path to the information you need to solve the issue at hand, if a Google search does not get a quick answer, is to try your social network--if you've built this network to sufficient size to realize the exponential effects described by Metcalf's Law.

Why is that? Beyond the social bonds you establish, with each connection you make, you are adding another human brain:

...containing about 10 billion nerve cells, or neurons. On average, each neuron is connected to other neurons through about 10 000 synapses. (The actual figures vary greatly, depending on the local neuroanatomy.) The brain's network of neurons forms a massively parallel information processing system. This contrasts with conventional computers, in which a single processor executes a single series of instructions.

If you use LinkedIn, use the Answers area to ask questions. You might also try answering some and building expertise credibility if your answer is selected as the best answer or a good answer. LinkedIn also has groups such as Automation Engineers Technical Group and Automation Engineers. Several automation suppliers have LinkedIn groups, such as Emerson's DeltaV group.

If you use Twitter, try posing your questions to those who choose to follow you. You'll grow your list of followers as you share interesting things about yourself and/or your expertise. Or if Twitter is not for you, try using some of the well-established email lists from ISA and Control.com.

As good as it is having more than 25 billion things at your fingertips, having trillions of massively parallel neural connections working with you is something you want to foster, strengthen, and grow.

MP3 | iTunes

For many industrial plants and mills, energy costs can be 10 to 20% of their overall business costs. Given these significant costs, leaders in the industrial process industries establish and maintain continuous energy optimization programs to minimize energy cost impact. According to an ARC Report, Best Practices for Energy Management:

Energy can be the largest component of a manufacturer's cost structure. Despite a recent drop in energy prices, costs are still trending upward over the long term...

I caught up with Emerson's Bob Sabin, whom you may recall from earlier posts. Bob is an industrial energy consulting engineer who helps process manufacturers establish this continuous improvement process. It starts and carries on with measuring how much energy is being purchased, produced, and used throughout the plant/mill site. It's important to establish a baseline for steam, electricity, fresh water, air, and process water usage. The perspective should be how much is being consumed by each site area/process. As time goes on, the baseline can be monitored for changes due to equipment issues, energy use can be compared to known industry benchmarks, and projects to improve energy performance can be justified with hard data.

After the survey and measurement phase, it's important to complete basic tasks such as fixing steam devices, maintaining measurement and final control devices, and addressing control loops that contribute to process variability. This variability directly correlates with higher energy consumption. From there, owners are in position to move on to unit process energy optimization and unit coordination for energy savings.

Often key measurements required to monitor energy consumption are not in place because of capital cost barriers. These barriers have been made higher in the past due to the difficulties in running cable infrastructure to the wired instruments. Bob shared how some industrial manufacturers are using WirelessHART measurement devices to significantly reduce the capital cost barriers associated with installation. Bob noted that energy measurement projects today could be completed at one-third the cost as compared to traditional implementations.

He shared an example where one mill added about 70 wireless transmitters measuring steam flows, condensate returns, water and warm water flows, airflows, and air pressures. Given the old adage, "You can't control what you can't measure", these measurements helped identify inefficiencies in the process and give a true energy usage picture to properly assign the costs. Having this energy monitoring information can also help make better profitability decisions by helping to determine product or grade costs during peak and off-peak hours.

Bob described a case where the site's steam use had spiked at a heat exchanger during a condensate flood. This helped the operations team more quickly resolve the situation and save considerable energy waste. Another example is how these wireless measuring devices helped spot air, steam, and water leaks that were not being quickly noticed during maintenance rounds.

I got fired up when Bob closed his thoughts to me with a Vince Lombardi quote, "If you don't keep score [measure], you're only practicing." Game, on!

Update: Podcast added.

MP3 | iTunes

As wireless instrumentation based on the WirelessHART standard continues to move into the mainstream, I get great questions about it by email from time to time. Here's one that came in this week that I thought I'd share:

Do you guys know of a wireless alarm system that we could purchase that would accept an input from a level switch and output a wireless signal to a receiver which is 1500ft away to activate a light/horn. The level switch is in a Class 1, div 2 area. We are just looking a for a stand alone system.

One on the common plant situations that leads automation engineers to think about wireless is distance. Many times, infrastructure like cable tray or conduit paths are not in place. Or as in this case, the annunciator (light/horn) is a great distance from where the measurement takes place and where the automation system is located. In most cases like this one with long distances involved, it's not economically feasible to add the cable infrastructure to solve the problem at hand.

I'm not sure about a standalone solution, but know it could be coupled with a small PLC or to an existing automation system. I checked with Emerson's Wireless Manager, Dan Carlson, about how Emerson might address this application. Dan responded:

The end-user could implement a network of 702 discrete transmitters made by Rosemount that take discrete inputs from any type of switch, including level switches. The signals can then be sent to a Smart Wireless Gateway with either Modbus or OPC outputs routed into a PLC-type device [or natively into an automation system like the DeltaV system] to provide signal response.

Once the wireless gateway is in place and communicating with the automation system or PLC, you can add new wireless measurements or final control elements to the wireless network to provide an answer to wide range of applications.

Wireless-Question-How-To-Connect-Level-Switch-To-Light-Or-Horn.mp3 | iTunes

Attention 2009 Emerson Exchange (Sept 28-Oct 2) presenters--your presentations are due for review in a mere two weeks (June 26). This fact jolted me more than my typical few cups of coffee this morning.

I huddled with Emerson's Deb Franke to flesh out our Thriving in Chaos presentation. Given the trying economic times in which most businesses find themselves, it seems this chaos is not abating.

The presentations we've given in the past (2007, 2008) have focused more on the social media (a.k.a. Web 2.0) applications and the benefits of their use. This year we want to lift the focus to the results of what you may be trying to accomplish in your work and career, and how these applications can amplify your efforts.

One example is to better establish thought leadership around your expertise. ModelingAndControl.com's Greg McMillan wrote about this in his What Have I Learned? - Writing post. He shared:

I would guess 100 or more automation professionals are retiring each year who have published at best an infinitesimally small portion of their expertise for posterity.

It does not require a blog to build thought leadership around your area of expertise. It can be through email lists like ISA's Technical and Industry Discussion Lists, supplier product sites like our DeltaV LinkedIn and Facebook groups, comments on industry and automation blogs, or aggregated sites you might create such as the Process Safety Room in FriendFeed. In turn, this can lead to articles, mentions in books, podcasts, business press, and others who turn to you for your expertise.

Two short weeks and much thought baking to do--I'd better get going. If you're also presenting, best of luck in pulling yours together too!

MP3 | iTunes

At the upcoming June 10-12, 2009 Automatic Control Conference, Emerson's Greg McMillan and Terry Blevins will be presenting, Bridging the Gap between Academia and Industry. Describing this session, Greg wrote on the ModelingAndControl.com blog:

The first semester I taught the Chemical Engineering course "Introduction to Process Dynamics and Control" at Washington University in Saint Louis as an adjunct professor, the students could not relate to my attempt to introduce practical plant applications and considerations in the normal course of Laplace transforms and bode plots. The second semester I added a virtual plant that consisted of a DeltaV DCS running in the Simulate mode integrated with HYSYS dynamic process simulations for each student. I later configured most of the process simulations directly in control studio. I was amazed how fast the students learned how to work in the graphical configuration environment and operator interface. All they needed was a few screen prints on navigation to get them started. Several of the students subsequently got intern or permanent positions doing configuration at the local DCS industry center. I had these students with experience in the automation industry come back to speak to the next class. The result was a dramatic turnaround in appreciation and understanding of what they would face in industry. The students decided on their own to go online to find and buy tee-shirts with Duncan, the DCS mascot, windsurfing. I ended up buying tee-shirts too and we all posed for a group photo by one of the students.

This got me thinking how technology has impacted the way we learn. For most of us mid-career and later, learning involved the journey Greg attempted in his first round with the class. We'd patiently learn parts and pieces with the hope that it would all be tied together in the end and become understandable.

He realized that this method was not effective in the world where answers to anything seem but a Google search away. The students he was teaching also had used near life-like video games for the better part of their teenage years. The effective way was to show with near life-like process simulations the big picture first and start the hands on process early. In the presentation, the authors describe this learning process: Explore ∗ Discover ∗ Prototype ∗ Demo ∗ Improve ∗ Deploy ∗ Educate

In the paper that accompanies their presentation, Greg and Terry describe this virtual plant:

The "virtual DCS" is not an emulation or translation but is a virtual replication of a complete DCS with all of the standard and optional advanced tools. Control system trend charts, displays, configurations are exchanged between a "hardware DCS" and "virtual DCS" by standard copy, import, export, and download functions. The incorporation of process models in a "virtual DCS" creates a "virtual plant", which offers an opportunity to integrate and build process knowledge with the "state of the art" advanced tools for Process Analytical Technology (PAT) and Advanced Process Control (APC)...

The entire lineup of Bridging the Gap presentations looks quite impressive and includes professors from the University of Texas at Austin, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Purdue University, and Washington University in St. Louis. Last month, I covered the Rose-Hulman unit operations presentation.

If you're responsible or involved in the process of educating tomorrow's process manufacturing engineers, this might be a conference for you.

MP3 | iTunes

A colleague pointed me to this provocatively titled article, Social media: Why engineers should be anti-social, on the Control Engineering website. It reports:

A recent survey says that IT departments are having arms twisted to relax cyber security rules and allow access to social media sites, such as Twitter or GoogleApps.

I hope some of my gentle prods, such as, "I know that some have written me to say that their IT department blocks these videos. I think the case must be made that there are significant business uses from training videos, to application videos, to even capabilities videos like these", aren't contributing to this undue pressure... OK, I confess. I do hope they are.

The title of this article seems to be the polar opposite of an article Deb Franke and I wrote for a sister publication, Control Engineering Asia. The article, The World of Web 2.0, describes our strong beliefs how these social media technologies can increase the effectiveness of engineers and other process manufacturing professionals.

Upon closer inspection of the article, it was not a call for engineers to be anti-social all the time, just when they happen to be on computers sharing bandwidth with the control system network connected to social media applications out on the web. The article cites applications such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, GoogleApps, etc.

At least, that was my takeaway from ISA SP99 co-chairman Brian Singer's quote:

Taking 300-500 ms extra to receive e-mail or a Webpage is largely unnoticeable; 300-500 ms for control messages or safety messages could be disastrous. Often, what is an acceptable level of saturation or utilization from an IT perspective can spell disaster for controls.

In the article, Emerson's cyber-security expert Bob Huba added:

"Using the control system for non-control communications, says Bob Huba, DeltaV product manager for Emerson Process Management, "regardless of how much 'extra' bandwidth appears to be available, can only lead to problems getting the mission-critical control information distributed as quickly as possible."

On these points, I can't disagree. I believe engineers, on their plant intranet networks, outside the firewalls and DMZ, which separates this network from the plant's control network, should have access to these social media applications--for the reasons we cite in the Web 2.0 article.

I also believe there is benefit in experience sharing with some of these social media applications like wikis, blogs, and microblogs hosted internally, inside the firewall, but also not connected to the control network.

Where once the operator and maintenance workstations were the only way to view information, we now live in a world with phones, hardened portable devices, and other handheld devices that can connect people to the information they need without piping this information through the control network.

My thoughts in summary... keep that pressure on the IT folks to open up the plant networks to social media applications, but not the plant control networks.

MP3 | iTunes

Update: Welcome Feed Forward readers! Paraphrasing the words of Get Smart's Maxwell Smart, "I hope I wasn't out of line with that crack about engineers." As an engineer, I mean it only in the most endearing way!

I received an email notice from the Emerson Global Users Exchange (a.k.a. Emerson Exchange) board, letting me know that on-line registration is now open. You have until August 17^th of this year to save 25% on your registration fee.

The Emerson Exchange will be September 28^th through October 2^nd at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. This year's conference theme Engaging Minds. Amazing Results. is described in the email:

In these challenging economic times, as our companies press for increased productivity, energy efficiency, and lower production costs, automation professionals can truly shine by Engaging their Minds to achieve Amazing Results! There's no better place to discover a new idea, discuss solutions with subject matter experts, and prepare for the upcoming technological advances in process control.

The conference will include over 300 sessions offering best practices, implementation successes, tips and tricks, and proven project methodologies. Tracks include Business Operations & System Integration, Asset Optimization / Maintenance & Reliability, System Applications, Project Management & Engineering Tools, Control System Modernization, Instrumentation Applications, Process Optimization, Valves Applications, Emerson Product/Services Updates, Safety Systems & Instrumentation, Education Services Training Courses, and Wireless.

Within these tracks, here's a preliminary agenda of the presentations, short courses, and workshops. More details of the individual sessions will be added over the coming months.

As I mentioned in a prior post, Deb Franke and I are again teaming up for a presentation, Gamechangers: How to Thrive in Chaos. This is a fitting topic for these interesting economic times in which we all find ourselves. If you have some thoughts on how you're dealing with this chaos, add a comment or shoot me an email.

Our presentation continues on our series of Emerson Exchange presentations on the benefits of applying social media applications to what you do.

I really look forward to seeing you in Orlando for great conversation and fun.

MP3 | iTunes