June 2007 Archives

The Emerson Global Users Exchange, or Emerson Exchange for short, is coming up once again. This year it is a month earlier than normal, September 10-14. I wanted to give it a mention here so you can make your plans to attend. On-line registration is now open. Two benefits of acting early are that you can save over 25% on the conference fees through July 30th and you can reserve your room in the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center and not be in an overflow hotel near the DFW Airport.

Like in years past, I expect that late night, spirited discussions will happen around some of the Gaylord Texan watering holes. It's much better if you don't have to leave the hotel to return to your room if you join in these.

I'll have an opportunity to present for the second year in a row, this time with Deb Franke who was instrumental in helping me get this Emerson Experts blog approved and launched. Our presentation is entitled, Getting the Most Value from the Internet: How New Web 2.0 Tools and Techniques Can Help You Innovate. The synopsis:

Explore the personal impact of the internet's latest communications technologies, dubbed Web 2.0. This session includes:

• A basic overview of each technology, its benefits and steps to give them a try
• Lessons learned from individuals and organizations already using Web 2.0 applications
• How to enhance your reputation by sharing you sharing your expertise through blogs, wikis, and tools

The presentation will cover some of the ways the internet is changing the way we consume and produce information and how we can use this to our advantage. It is becoming easier than ever for us to discover expertise via search and to make our expertise available. Given there are all kinds of innovations happening on a daily basis, we'll focus our discussions on what we have personally used and find valuable. We hope you'll join us.

Please add a comment or send us a note if you are using any of the tools dubbed Web 2.0 and find them valuable. We're always looking for good ideas to improve our presentation!

Also, check out this spreadsheet of over 300 workshops, short courses, and industry business forums that will take place. There is definitely something for everyone. Later this summer as the times and rooms are set and available on the EmersonExchange.org site, you'll want to map out what would be most valuable to you to make the most of the exchange.

One of the challenges in converting the Northern Alberta oil sands into usable energy is the tremendous amounts of natural gas consumed in the process. The supply and cost of this resource is a major cost factor for Oil Sands producers.

OPTI Canada and Nexen are the first to introduce large-scale gasification into the bitumen upgrading process in the Long Lake project. This process uses the Shell Gasification Process (SGP) processes which takes the liquid asphaltenes from OPTI's OrCrude process and produces hydrogen for the distillate hydrocracking process, synthetic gas for the bitumen recovery process and fuel for power and steam generation.

The economic benefit of this process is well described in a 2004 paper, Gasification in the Canadian Oil Sands: The Long Lake Integrated Upgrading Project:

The energy balance of the project... demonstrates the elimination of virtually all of the natural gas cost exposure, which results in an operating cost advantage of about 50% over currently-configured operations.

Stephen Krause, a specialist in Emerson's Hydrocarbon and Energy Industry center based in Calgary is involved in the project engineering on this large, complex first-of-its-kind project. Much like processes found in other industries like refining, Stephen told me that gasification is an extremely complex process that requires extensive safety design to mitigate risks. I highlighted some of these safety design challenges in an earlier post. Some of the goals with respect to safety, automation and modular aspects of this project are described here.

Other Oil Sands producers are watching this project unfold as they consider including gasification as part of their upgrader project. And, the experience gained by Stephen and the Emerson project team will greatly help these producers as the future projects unfold.

Recently, a North American chemical manufacturer was having problems with their boilers tripping during startup and shutdown sequences. This problem was caused by a wide variation in the process' demand for steam. This situation caused lost production, which affected the overall plant efficiency.

Jim Dunbar, an Emerson variability management consultant was called in to provide emergency tuning services, to set the loops on the boilers to be able to handle the range in steam demand.

Jim's mission was to work with 2 boilers and about 10 loops controlling these boilers to resolve the situation.

The problem began when the plant installed a new steam-driven compressor that required a minimum steam pressure for operation. The team installed a backpressure controller to satisfy the steam requirements of the compressor. However, the boiler still had to ramp up very quickly to maintain the plant steam header pressure on process unit shutdowns. When the boiler firing-rate was increased too rapidly, the boiler would trip due to low feedwater level.

Jim worked with the plant staff to perform open loop bump tests on the feedwater flow and drum-level control loops. This data was collected in the PI historian and analyzed with the EnTech Tuner. Lambda tuning constants were calculated resulting in much faster and stable drum level control. Next, the boiler master controls were tuned to coordinate the speed of response with the level control. It was important that the firing response was fast enough to meet the requirements of the steam header, but not so fast as to cause an unrecoverable upset to the drum level resulting in a boiler trip.

Since his visit to the site, the manufacturer has not had a boiler trip in over four weeks, despite numerous simultaneous unit shutdowns.

Beyond the improved reliability of the process, Jim provided the operations staff some key insights on what to watch for if instability creeps back into the process.

Emerson's Pete Sharpe, an advanced automation consultant, was recently interviewed for a magazine article on the subject of process manufacturers' aging workforce. Manufacturers primarily in North America and Western Europe are feeling this loss of experience due to retirement.

Pete indicated that the reoccurring theme he hears is the loss of deep process knowledge. This knowledge, possessed by experienced operators, maintenance technicians and senior automation engineers is knowing when something in the process is not quite right, like when a measurement reading looks off, or when the process behavior is not the same. As seasoned operators retire, manufacturers feel this loss of experience most during non-normal conditions like startup, shutdown, or emergency situations.

Problems take longer to diagnose and resolve which can lead to less stable, more dangerous conditions. A recent refinery accident is one example where the problem diagnosis did not occur soon enough. You don't ever hear about most incidents but they certainly cost manufacturers money and often result in close calls that don't actually shut down a unit.

Pete discussed a couple of things automation suppliers are doing to address these issues. The first is improved operator training simulators, which I have written about in earlier blog posts. In this environment, less experienced operators can be challenged with operating problem situations so that they can improve their ability to diagnose the process and respond more quickly to abnormal situations.

As technologies continue to advance, more diagnostic capabilities are available in smart field devices and other plant assets. These devices can provide early warning about their own health and about the surrounding process. These predictive capabilities improve the ability of the maintenance organization to prioritize and respond to critical equipment alerts. Emerson's Abnormal Situation Prevention (ASP) algorithm uses process statistical signature data to give less experienced operators more time to react to abnormal situations and more diagnostic information to point to the root cause of the abnormal situation.

The final advancements that help to close the experience gap are advanced control technologies. As the technology has gotten increasingly scalable and easier to deploy in control systems like the DeltaV system, more and more processes can be operated as units and not as collections of loops. These APC technologies operate a process unit within its equipment constraints, at its most economical point. The operator's role changes from constantly adjusting individual loops to setting targets and constraint limits. APC applications are especially useful for process units that are tricky to run by less experienced operators--where many of the loops interact with one another or the process is highly constrained.

These advancements help ease the learning curve for future operators, maintenance technicians and automation engineers. On the positive side, today's engineers and young operators are nearly all computer-literate, so they can make good use of the modern tools and work processes that come with today's control infrastructure. This computer-savvy generation is more likely to adapt to computer-based control systems and modern fieldbus architectures. In addition, automation suppliers like Emerson are helping to ease this knowledge gap by having people like Pete and the other advanced automation consultants available to work with process manufacturers.

As reported in the Sound OFF! Editors' Blog, the ISA issued a press release announced that the ISA-SP104 committee has completed adoption of EDDL as an ANSI standard specified by IEC 61804. It is now: ANSI/ISA-61804-3 (1004.00.01)-2007, Function Blocks (FB) for Process Control - Part 3: Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL).

So if you are an automation engineer you might ask... so what? I have attempted to address this "so what?" question in prior posts, but it is something I will try again in my quest to simplify in my mind--if not yours.

The best way I can think of it is a text-based file that is associated with your smart Foundation fieldbus, HART, or some of your PROFIBUS devices in your plant. This text-based file presents its operation, diagnostic, performance analysis, operating statistics, calibration and other information in a standard, globally agreed upon way. Applications like your control system, asset management software and handheld devices that support this standard can present the information to you in a standard, intuitive way.

The analogy I have used in the past is the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) standard for publishing and consuming information across the web. Like the smart field devices, web news feeds, blogs, and other RSS-enabled content provide their information in this agreed upon global data standard. You can use RSS readers like my favorite, Google Reader, to read the information to which you choose to subscribe.

Continuing the analogy, your RSS reader presents this information to you in a common way--the look, the fonts, the shortcut keys, etc. The content can come from different suppliers' web servers, be on different operating systems, and even run with different software applications that create these standards-based RSS files.

Likewise, your application that understands the global EDDL standard (like Emerson's AMS Device Manager and 375 Field Communicator) can present the information from various smart field devices, from different suppliers, and even running different digital communications protocols. As ISA-SP104 Committee Chair (and fellow blogger), Terry Blevins said in the release:

Using tools based on EDDL can mean faster device commissioning and loop checkout, as well as reduced field trips and the elimination of unnecessary maintenance.

In an earlier post, I had mentioned the ISA-SP104 committee had established an EDDL.ORG site as an educational site. The committee has been hard at work creating educational information including basic information, participating organizations in this standard, and other news, events, and technical resources.

And, as reported this past April, the EDDL team and another smart device-based standard, FDT Group, agreed to combine efforts and work toward a unified solution for device integration that is compatible with both technologies. ARC Advisory Group sums up this collaborative effort well:

ARC applauds the collaboration efforts of the parties involved. The actions of this group will be remembered as the tipping point where practical common standards for field device integration were founded. Working toward the singular goal of easy equipment configuration and management will provide more value than anyone could have imagined.

Recently, Flow Control magazine published an article by Gerry Berry, a metallurgical engineer working with Emerson's Micro Motion Coriolis flowmeters. The article, Strategies for Proper Material Selection--Lessons Learned from 30 Years of Application Experience, shares considerations in selecting materials suitable for reliable fluid handling systems.

The article gleans a few key nuggets from the comprehensive Micro Motion Corrosion Guide and describes this guide as:

a repository of test data that has been accumulating over decades of testing and field experience with customers on hundreds of thousands of applications.

Over the years, Gerry and the team have used tools such as x-ray equipment, positive material identification (PMI), scanning electron microscopes, ultrasonic thickness measuring devices, Hall-Effect gauges, potententiostats, and hardness and microhardness testers to accumulate this valuable test data. The team also takes advantage of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers' (NACE) body of knowledge.

For those like me who may not be versed on the subject of corrosion, the article provides an excellent overview on corrosion and its causes and begins with a good definition:

Corrosion is the degradation of a metal or alloy caused by its reaction with an environment. Metals and alloys rely on the formation of an oxide layer for protection. The integrity of the oxide layer is dependent upon both the metal and the environment. For reliable protection, the oxide layer must be uniform.

Gerry provides several fundamental questions you need to ask to assess material compatibility:

• What corrosive agents are in the process and in what concentration range?
• What is the process temperature range?
• What material is being used for the piping?
• What cleaning cycles exist, and what fluids are used in these cycles?
• What is the velocity (particularly important when handling sulfuric acid)?

After addressing these questions, there are process-specific considerations like erosion caused by solids, liquid slurry, or even gaseous steam moving through a pipe at high velocity. Also, as I can attest from my earlier years on the oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, humidity, salt water and other ambient environmental conditions must be considered. For processes requiring sterilization between batches, the clean-in-place/sterilize-in-place operations, the draining capabilities of the piping, and dwell time between batches should be considered.

Gerry provides some other scenarios like processes with chlorine, fluorine, changing chemical mixtures, and large temperature swings and the challenges they bring from a corrosion standpoint.

If your responsibilities include the selection of materials for your instrumentation, I highly recommend the article and the wealth of great information in the Corrosion Guide.

Recently, a press release announced Emerson's selection on a $2.6 billion (USD) oil sands project in Northern Alberta, Canada.

The project team includes Emerson's Hydrocarbon and Energy Industry Center and Emerson's local business partner, Spartan Controls, both based in Calgary. Spartan Controls also has an office closer to the oil sands region in Edmonton. This team will supply engineering and project management, automation commissioning, and ongoing support services. Over the past several years, they have had experience with several other oil sands projects.

These Canadian oil sands (a.k.a. tar sands) hold known oil reserves second only to Saudi Arabia. Unlike those reserves, it is quite a bit more difficult to process bitumen, a molasses-like viscous oil into feedstocks for refineries to turn into gasoline, diesel and other sources of usable energy. With this project and many others, total Canadian oil production is projected to double from 2.5 million barrels per day (MBPD) to 4.9 MBPD by 2020

The process revolves around an upgrader, which changes the bitumen into synthetic crude oil. The Oil Sands Discover Centre describes the process well in this Upgrading Fact Sheet. It opens with this nice summary:

Upgrading is the process that changes bitumen into synthetic crude oil. Bitumen, like crude oil, is a very complex mixture of chemicals (a hydrocarbon with chains in excess of 2,000 molecules). It also has a lot of carbon in relation to hydrogen. Some upgrading processes remove carbon, while others add hydrogen or change molecular structures. Upgrading also involves sorting bitumen into its component parts and then using them to produce a range of additional products and byproducts.

The large oil sands projects require quite a team effort among the energy companies, Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractors, automation suppliers and their local sales and service organizations to execute these large projects as efficiently as possible. And, in the words the energy company's president a "consistent and durable process" is the goal once the upgrader process is in full operation. This is especially important in the cold, harsh winter climate of Northern Alberta. For this project, the upgrader has a total processing capability of 231,000 BPD and construction expected to begin after regulatory approval this fall.

With higher crude oil prices, more projects like these become economically viable to do, to help the supply catch up with the global demand.

There is plenty of work to be done and many career opportunities in Calgary, Alberta if you want to join in all this fun!

Last October, I featured one of Emerson's advanced automation service consultants, Lou Heavner, and how he worked with Lukoil to create virtual sensors based on neural networks.

Their efforts were told in more detail in the March 2007 issue of InTech magazine. The article, entitled, Crude gets smart, described the Russian refiner's challenge to keep their refined products within specification. They had been relying on lab samples that came back from the lab to the operators only once or twice a day.

To get feedback on product quality and composition more frequently, Lou and the team used neural network blocks in their DeltaV system's controllers to create property estimators. As the article states:

The goal of a property estimator is to provide an accurate gauge of product quality, especially after lab results have become stale, which is most of the time. Property estimators are not intended to eliminate lab analyses, although the frequency of analyses may lessen once estimators are proven. Even though estimators may not be as accurate as lab analyses, they can be worthwhile calculated variables to help engineering and operations personnel monitor, troubleshoot, or understand and control the process.

The article describes the steps the team took to collect the data to train the neural network models. It offers guidance for those looking to implement property estimators. Some examples of their recommendations include:

• The time stamp should reflect the time of data extraction from the process--not when it was scheduled for sampling, or when the lab technician performed the analysis, or when they reported the lab results.
• Avoid filtering or manipulating the process data. Raw snapshot data usually makes for the best models.
• If the process does not vary much, the model will not be reliable if the process wanders into a range with no collected data... the model will be changed to "Uncertain" and the operator can be alerted.

The team believes they may have one of the world's largest installations in terms of neural network models. Currently operating models include ones measuring boiling points, flash points and viscosity on the pre-flash, atmospheric, and vacuum towers.

If operators at your plant are waiting on lab information to make quality adjustments to the process, you may have a business case for creating property estimators to augment the lab sampling process.

A few weeks back, there was a conversation going in the automation-related blogs comparing HART and Foundation fieldbus. I joined the conversation in this post which included a whitepaper written by Emerson's Tom Wallace.

The post caused a few comments and a several email exchanges internally within Emerson among the digital communications protocol research and development teams, and with some of the respective foundations.

Tom has synthesized this feedback and updated the whitepaper. The changes are primarily in the order of the compared Foundation fieldbus and HART capabilities as well as the overall tone of the piece.

For process manufacturers making decisions about the automation technologies they will use to run their plants, I hope that this whitepaper along with other sources help to clarify some of aspects and differences of these important digital communications protocols.

Both Tom and I welcome your comments to further the conversation.