While in Qingdao, China last week, I had the opportunity to meet Emerson’s Major Chu, who has a highly successful Emerson Flow blog written in the Mandarin language. As social media does so well, it felt like I already knew Major well, before we met face-to-face for the first time.

The team in China has recently opened a Chinese-language community inside the Emerson Exchange 365 community. We hope to see additional languages come online over the next year.

This week, I’m visiting several of the Emerson offices in India.

I hope everyone has a great week and I’ll return to a normal posting schedule next week.

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In several previous posts, we’ve discussed the challenges facing solar panel manufacturers due to both declining panel prices and the uncertainties of government subsidies (usually in the form of feed in tariffs, or above market rates paid for excess solar power supplied to the electrical grid). They are not unrelated issues: as cheaper solar panels become available, more people install them, which leads to greater than expected demand for the subsidies. Given the current state of economies around the world, these subsidies are coming under increasing pressure.

The latest example of this interaction comes from the UK which has offered generous feed in tariffs for installers of small (<4kW) solar panel systems.

As the price for panels has dropped…

From: www.comparemysolar.co.uk/price-of-solar/

…installed capacity of Solar PV has accelerated resulting in demand for subsidies above original projections…

From: www.fitariffs.co.uk/statistics/monthly/spend/

Requiring a reduction in subsidies and sending the industry into another “bust”:

From: www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/01/solar-panel-demand-subsidy-cut

As highlighted recently in The Guardian article on this subject, solar PV installations have dropped nearly 90% since the government halved the subsidy offered for solar power on April 1st.

This lack of consistent policy is one of the major factors affecting development throughout the alternative energy industry. Policies (mandates, subsidies, etc) which are adjusted as administrations change, or even year to year as economic conditions dictate, make it very difficult to attract investment capital or create long term business plans.

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In the article, Tom notes the unrelenting drive to simplify, given the ever-increasing body of knowledge that plant engineers must master. Automation suppliers can help by embracing human centered design principles to remove steps, required training, and complexity in their products. As technology advances, the ability of the products to do more increases. This means that there is more to learn and understand to take advantage of the increased amount of information/capabilities in all parts of the process automation system.

Dashboard Overview of Rosemount 3144 Temperature Transmitter

In a well-functioning design, the work to be performed is guided with feedback so that the person always knows what to do next, and if the prior step was successful. Also, data provided in a graphical view is easier to understand that data presented in tabular fashion. Tom highlights some statistics that by optimizing the user interface through these design principles, users can increase productivity up to eight times, and reduce human error up to 40 times.

One of the guiding principles around human-centered design is to reduce unnecessary information and steps around the task at hand. This makes the technology subservient to its intended user, rather than the user being subservient to the technology.

I’ve only scratched the surface of the great points Tom makes in the article. I’ll post a link to it once it is published and available online which is expected to be in the July timeframe.

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Kevin notes that maximizing tank capacity, while minimizing the risk of hazardous spillage and overfill, can be achieved with a combination of level measurement devices and level switches. Top-down radar transmitters offer a precise level measurement that is independent of the fluid properties.

Non-contacting radar and guided wave radar are two technologies that are effective in storage tank level measurement applications. In an earlier post, Radar Level Measurement Beginnings, Types, and Applications, I described these two radar technologies. They are a good fit because they have no moving parts, not dependent on the density of the liquid being measured, and not impacted by high turbulence or vibrations. The signal from these radar level measurement devices can be used by the control system to generate alarms based upon high level, low level, and deviation conditions.

From a process safety management perspective, if the liquid levels being measured require risk mitigation, levels of redundancy can be added. The safety integrity level (SIL), the level of safety required, is determined by carrying out a full safety assessment and review of the process. The protection system should then be designed to satisfy the SIL level determined by the safety review.

Installing level switches adds another layer of protection. Often independent high-level switch devices are fitted to the tanks. This provides a secondary method of overspill protection. Alarms are derived from fixed position switches or probes within the tank, which operate when the liquid makes contact with them. These are used in addition to the measurement-derived high-level alarms.

Displacers and floats have been commonly used in tank level switch applications. These provide a very basic indication of when the contents of the tank have reached a specific level and trip a high level or extra high-level alarm. Their downside is the possibility of build-up on the displacer element impacting accuracy and their mechanical nature making them prone to wear and failure. With a simple on/off signal from a hardwired displacer level switch, it is not possible to tell the difference between a stuck switch and an actual high-level condition, nor if the switch is damaged or failed. Technicians periodically have to go to the field to perform checks just to be sure, often to find nothing wrong.

An alternative to displacers and floats is vibrating fork devices. These level switches operate on the principle of a tuning fork, whereby an internal piezo-electric crystal oscillates an external fork at its natural frequency. The frequency changes depending on the medium in which it is immersed—the denser the liquid, the lower the frequency. Thus, the frequency is different depending on whether the fork is immersed or dry. These devices also have no moving parts other than the vibrating fork so they require little maintenance and have high reliability.

Diagnostics can alert operators if there is media build-up on the fork, external damage to the fork, internal damage to the piezo, or excessive corrosion. Build-up of material on the vibrating fork is detected in the early stages and flagged as an advisory alarm. This alarm enables operations to schedule cleaning of the forks before build-up accumulates to the point where it causes a false process state indication.

Kevin notes that in cases where risk needs to be managed using a safety instrumented system (SIS), level transmitters such as the Rosemount 5300 radar and 2130 vibrating fork are suitable for SIL 2 rated applications.

Kevin also highlighted the fact that many storage tank locations, due to economic considerations, lack the infrastructure for wired runs back to the control system. Wireless vibrating fork devices, such as the Rosemount 2160, enable automated overspill protection to be applied. Radar devices coupled with wireless adapters, which provide wireless connectivity for conventional wired devices, can transmit the level values back to the control system.

To follow level instrumentation-related discussions and ask questions of peers in the community, visit and join the Emerson Exchange 365 Level track.

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At first look, the 30% tax that the Australian government is about to impose looks bad. In fact, my first thought was, “What is the Aussie Government doing? They are going to bring the Australian economy to a screeching halt! After all, it was the mining industry that minimized the effects of the global recession in Australia, right?” A more in depth look revealed another point of view and some concern, depending upon if you were in the Australian mining industry or not. Here are a few of the views.

View of Australian Coal Association:

The mining tax is only going to make Australian companies less competitive against foreign-owned opposition and ultimately it will threaten many Australian jobs.

A viewpoint from outside the mining industry:

• A tax break for Australia’s 2.7 million small businesses to begin this year, which allows businesses with a turnover under $2 million to instantly write off a purchase of a new asset up to $6500.
• A 1% cut to the company tax rate for all businesses, with small businesses getting a one-year head-start with the cut applied from July 1
• Investment in roads, bridges and other infrastructure, particularly in mining regions

So, it looks as though the Aussie Government is trying to spread the wealth. Whenever that happens, the side that the wealth is taken from is the one that is complaining. On the other hand, mining businesses will have less revenue to reinvest in themselves, potentially costing mining jobs. It is almost as though the Aussie Government instituted this tax so that they can determine where the investment goes and that is for all businesses, especially small businesses.

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