Evonik Uses HART Communication to Cut Loop-check CostsPROJECT OBJECTIVES |
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SOLUTION
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RESULTS
- Troubleshooting of instruments is performed daily from the control room
- Remote control room access cut loop check time and costs by 25 percent
- Instant access to asset data led to more efficient methods in compliance with electrical and instrumentation loop check standard IEC 62382
Evonik Degussa Specialty Chemicals Company in Shanghai, P.R. China, demonstrates the pervasive power of real-time HART technology connections from field to control room. On-demand data enhance configuration and calibration management through online monitoring, diagnostics and documentation.
Evonik Degussa Specialty Chemicals Company, with approximately 20 companies in China, is taking advantage of the high growth rate of methacrylates and downstream products in Asia and particularly in China. Engineers at the company’s production complex in Shanghaidecided that HART technology would be used to connect field instruments to the distributed control system (DCS) as well as asset management and safety systems.
The methacrylates complex at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park began operation in 2008. The asset management system was used from the beginning of the operation, and was in use even before start up, for loop checking during the commissioning phase.
The decision to reap benefits with HART Communication came from “brainstorming sessions” based on technical reports regarding the use of HART in asset management systems, says Luc Sterck, Project Manager Instrumentation, Evonik Engineering-Automation and Process Management.
“As a direct result of this implementation, we cut loop check time and costs by 25 percent,” he adds, comparing remote loop-checking to traditional handheld checking in the field. In fact, Sterck says, “daily troubleshooting of instruments are now mainly performed from the safety and convenience of the control room.”
The automation platform’s connection to the field allows users to upload and download field device configuration via the HART Protocol over a central database, which simplifies data visibility and control. With HART technology, the intelligent device manager software gives engineers the ability to continuously monitor operating conditions and the health of valves and instruments.
The HART-enabled connections are pervasive extending from the distributed control system (DCS) to asset management and safety systems that are part of the integrated DCS platform.
At the plant today, more than 2,000 instruments transmit their data using HART Communication with the central DCS and asset management software that monitors the condition of all of the field instruments. Additionally, the logic solvers of the platform’s integrated safety instrumented system (SIS) use HART technology to connect with sensors for loop check and safety instrumented function interlock validation.
One critical aspect of this connection is that some of the SIS logic solvers are used in complex online flammability calculation (SIL3) to ensure safe working conditions of the reactors against the product flammability limits. For safety related instruments, vendor calibration certificates, detailed calibration test schemes, calibration schedule intervals and safety and cleanup instructions are accessed via the asset management database.
Using this data helped engineers prevent expensive bottlenecks, which are common during the commissioning phase. This led to a more efficient methodology in compliance with the international standard IEC 62382 for electrical and instrumentation loop check.
HART technology brings a long-term advantage to safety-related applications with its potential to help users recognize when a device is under-performing or about to fail. Predictive maintenance based on actual device performance improves safety and increases plant up-time. The intelligence of the field device itself helps to ensure that potential problems will be caught before they become a threat to safety or productivity.
The plant’s predictive maintenance program is expected to reduce the total number of hours spent by maintenance teams. According to Sterck: “We strongly believe that our plant’s commitment to implement predictive device diagnostics on all HART instruments will bring comprehensive and pertinent operating information to key personnel and therefore assure better plant availability by predicting unexpected failures and avoiding associated downtimes.”
Continuous and on-demand diagnosis with HART technology and intelligent field devices led the plant to save costs on plant trips as well as ease data retrieval such as the automatic archiving of instrument test reports and all other maintenance information.
The ability to do this type of long-term system monitoring works because of the plant engineers’ early decision to use the power of HART technology from the beginning of their project. Automatic uploading of instrument parameters to control room applications is useful throughout the life of the plant.
The “asset connection” helped during construction because it automatically identified and alerted the electrical disconnection of field devices. Defective positioners on control valves were easily replaced by transferring the configuration of the failed device into the replacement. HART Communication, used for automatic and accurate instrument database creation, helped in commissioning as well as ongoing monitoring and maintenance. The system can, for example, monitor and report on any unauthorized parameter change done by a handheld communicator.
HART Communication connected to the asset management system has helped Evonik with an early warning system for its instruments. Some specific examples include: valves where the air supply failed; and transmitters which had been insulated and therefore suffered temperature rises in their housings. The challenge is to learn to interpret the early warnings and make informed decisions to replace or repair. So, setting up an adequate alarm management system can be a difficult task.
Sterck has seen growing acceptance for the use of HART technology among engineers and maintenance people at the plant as they recognize the value of the advanced field device functionality inherent in the remote connection to control room applications.
“Using the diagnostic data provided via the HART Protocol allowed us to predict the life of bellow seals of valves and we could use the early warning alerts to initiate proactive maintenance. Without the integrated functions provided by HART, we would need to spend many more man-hours to maintain a plant of this size,” he says.
The overall benefits realized through the real-time use of HART technology include:
- easy configuration of field instruments from the control room;
- easy calibration management of instruments;
- online diagnostics and status monitoring of devices;
- automated documentation of calibration and configuration data into the asset management database;
- fewer people needed for maintenance; and
- easy checking/ adjusting of device parameters for better control loop tuning.
“To take full advantage of the diagnostic data from HART-based devices, we realize that we need to rethink, streamline and adjust maintenance work processes, which will make them more efficient and cost effective,” says Sterck. “We are still learning and implementing new ideas on how to use the full capabilities of HART Communication.”
The Evonik Degussa Specialty Chemicals Company has been recognized with the HART Innovative Achievement Award for exceptional achievement, ingenuity and innovation in using the Power of HART Communication in real-time applications to improve operations and maintenance and to realize greater benefits from intelligent instrumentation and automation system investments. In photo above, the Evonik Automation and Process Management team receives the award at the methacrylates production facility in Shanghai, P.R. China.