Chemical Engineering April 2023 - 18

STANDARDS FINALLY COMING TOGETHER
Emerson Automation Solutions
Today's smart sensors already support bidirectional
digital communications between
the field devices and a control system or
other host. Combined with associated software,
this enables authorized operators,
maintenance technicians and process or
plant engineers to access device status,
health, and configuration information and
make needed adjustments remotely without
having to physically access the devices.
This dramatically reduces commissioning
and maintenance time and costs, improves
maintenance effectiveness, and enhances
safety. Earlier concerns about unauthorized
persons accessing these data or making
inappropriate adjustments are being addressed
through data diodes, multi-factor
authentication and other cybersecurity technologies
and approaches.
That said, multiple largely non-interoperable
standards for both wired and wireless digital
communications between field devices
and process control systems remain in effect
in many brownfield sites. This restricts
multi-vendor interoperability, limiting choices
for end users and increases complexity for
users and suppliers alike. It also means that
valuable asset-related data often remains
" stranded " in the smart instrumentation.
The situation is gradually improving with increased
global collaboration between leading
industry standards organizations. These organizations
are working to standardize data
models and device semantics, communications
protocols, security mechanisms and the
physical layers. These efforts appear to have
broad support from both the technology end
user and supplier communities.
Several announcements issued in conjunction
with the recent Achema conference and
tradeshow in Frankfurt, Germany in August
2022 addressed some key activities in this
space. The OPC Foundation (opcfoundation.
org) and FieldComm Group (www.fieldcomgroup.org),
for example, jointly announced a
collaboration to drive multi-vendor interoperability
of instrumentation devices based
on OPC UA and the OPC UA FX (Field eXchange)
extensions. The goal is to provide
an interoperable interface between control
systems and field instrumentation.
It was also announced that the ISA100 Wireless
Compliance Institute (isa100wci.org),
NAMUR (the European process industries
user's organization; www.namur.net), ODVA
(formerly Open DeviceNet Vendors Association;
www.odva.org), Profibus International
mentation suppliers offer a full line of
wireless-enabled sensors, transmitters,
and other field instrumentation
that conform to either the ISA 100
or WirelessHART wireless fieldbus
standards. Most suppliers offer wireless
tablets or other mobile devices
that enable maintenance technicians
18
(www.profibus.com), and the German trade
organizations, VDMA e.V. (www.vdma.org)
and ZVEI e.V. (www.zvei.org), plan to collaborate
with both the FieldComm Group
and OPC Foundation to complete ongoing
work on PA-DIM (process automation device-information
model). PA-DIM
will provide
standardized data access for devices
whether communicating via HART, Foundation
Fieldbus, Profibus PA or other standard
automation protocol. Once finalized, the PADIM
specification should enable protocol-agnostic
communication of common process
automation instrument parameters using
OPC UA information modeling techniques.
Significantly, PA-DIM incorporates the instrument
parameters and semantics structure
defined in the NAMUR Open Architecture
(NOA) recommendations. These have broad
support from chemical manufacturers in Europe
and elsewhere.
Finally, Pepperl+Fuchs (Mannheim, Germany;
www.pepperl+fuchs.com), which
served as the technical lead, announced the
completion of the Ethernet-APL (advanced
physical layer) Project, which has been almost
four years in the making. This collaboration
between FieldComm Group, ODVA, OPC
Foundation, Profibus & Profinet International,
and multiple industry partners aims to make
it safe and practical to use high-speed Ethernet
technology to connect field devices to
control systems in chemical and other plants
with hazardous environments. Both BASF SE
(Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com)
and Procter & Gamble Co. (Cincinnati, Ohio;
www.us.pg.com) have already completed
successful field trials of the technology.
Ethernet communications from the field systems
up to plant- and enterprise-level systems
offers the potential to eliminate many
of the network speed and data bandwidth
constraints that have previously hampered
digital transformation in the industrial space.
Power over Ethernet (PoE) sensor systems
are now also starting to be introduced for at
least some limited use in chemical and other
process plants where line power is not always
readily available. For example, Emerson's (St.
Louis, Mo.; www.emerson.com) MicroMotion
1600 Coriolis flow transmitter can deliver
power and data over a single Ethernet cable.
According to Emerson, this can save users up
to 50% in installation and maintenance costs.
Depending on wiring availability, the transmitter
can use just PoE or have a separate direct
current power input.
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to communicate wirelessly with their
field instrumentation while making
their routine rounds. When connected
to a secure network, tablets
can also be used to enable technicians
to troubleshoot and resolve
any issues remotely from an office or
even from home.
FIGURE 2. Several leading process-instrumentation
suppliers now embed short-range Bluetooth
wireless communications into their process sensors
and transmitters, enabling technicians to interact
with the devices from a mobile device while
doing their rounds. This improves safety, saves
time, and helps avoid data collection errors
New, less expensive IIoT-connected
sensors are also gradually making their
way into chemical plants and other
industrial environments, largely for
asset monitoring and asset management
applications. Yokogawa Corp.
(Tokyo, Japan; www.yokogawa.com),
for example, has introduced a family
of smaller, low-cost " Sushi sensors "
that make it relatively simple and costeffective
to continuously monitor key
equipment operating conditions, such
as vibrations, temperatures and pressures
(Figure 3). These wireless, battery-powered
sensors communicate
with the host application via the LoRaWAN
low-power, wide-area wireless
data communications protocol to
help improve asset maintenance and
prevent failures by detecting anomalies
at an early stage.
Onboard intelligence
Modern process sensors have benefited
exponentially from Moore's
Law. As microprocessors continue
to become smaller, more powerful,
and cost-effective, so have process
sensors. In addition to more accurate
Yokogawa
FIGURE 3. Yokogawa's compact, battery-powered
Sushi Sensors measure vibration, temperature,
and pressure for equipment monitoring purposes
in industrial facilities, even those with hazardous
environments
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
APRIL 2023
http://www.profibus.com http://www.vdma.org http://www.zvei.org http://www.yokogawa.com http://www.pepperl-fuchs.com http://www.basf.com https://us.pg.com/ http://www.fieldgroup.org http://www.fieldgroup.org http://www.emerson.com http://www.isa100wci.org http://www.namur.net http://www.odva.org http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering April 2023

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