Chemical Engineering August 2022 - 35

TIGRON ACTUATORS
ment. If you adopt a star topology,
you can connect several APL field
switches in line and add APL devices
up to the limit of a controller. This
limit can be further extended by adding
another Ethernet interface within
the controller.
Ethernet-APL is based on the
Fieldbus Intrinsically Safe Concept
(FISCO) for two-wire fieldbus solutions,
which is already known in process
plants. For Ethernet-APL, the
same electrical parameters are used
and specified in 2-WISE (two-wire intrinsically
safe Ethernet). In this way,
it does not require any Ex calculations,
which significantly reduces the
engineering effort when implementing
intrinsic safe solutions.
The volume and speed of data
transfer available using Ethernet-APL
is making possible some higherlevel
applications that the industry
has been demanding for some time.
Condition monitoring and predictive
maintenance are prime examples
where the comprehensive data
available from smart devices can be
monitored, analyzed and used to
determine equipment health. Predictive
maintenance techniques enable
users to identify issues before they
affect device performance so that
equipment can be repaired before it
has a negative impact on production
(Figure 3).
BASF case study
Historically, new product development
happened in secret and with
a small group of researchers and
developers. However, a modern
approach includes pilot customers,
product managers, market specialists
and salespeople. It is with
this approach in mind that BASF
implemented an APL laboratory to
participate in the development of
Ethernet-APL. This APL evaluation
laboratory is led by the electrical,
instrumentation
and
automation
specialists Mathias Koch and Philip
Kling, under the supervision of one
of the authors (Niedermayer).
BASF started the digital communication
journey for field instrumentation
in 2005, with Foundation
Fieldbus and Profibus PA. But it was
only in 2016 that Ethernet was first
proposed as a realistic alternative for
digital field connectivity through the
development of Ethernet-APL. By
2019, BASF had established a test
laboratory for Ethernet-APL using
prototype equipment from several
vendors (Figure 4). The purpose of
the laboratory was to evaluate Ethernet-APL
technology for communication
between distributed control
systems and field transmitters and
valves. These tests were very successful
and many benefits with Ethernet-based
communication could
be identified.
Laboratory tests show that Ethernet-APL
offers substantial improvements
compared to analog technology
and Profibus PA or Foundation
Fieldbus. It is possible to upload and
download sensor information in a variety
of formats, including PDF, with
a speed which is 300 times greater
than what BASF could achieve with
fieldbus technologies.
Using the two-wire technology
of Ethernet-APL simplifies installation
and maintenance activities for
field technicians. There is no difference
between connecting an analog
transmitter and an Ethernet-APL
device. Polarity is irrelevant, so the
wires can be connected to either
terminal without affecting the reading.
Motor controllers and frequency
converters can also connect to the
same (or to a separate Ethernet
ring), meaning that
all instrument
and electrical devices use the same
network technology.
Profinet as the industrial Ethernet
protocol over Ethernet-APL, including
PA Profile 4, offers many advantages
to fulfill the requirements of
standardization and high availability.
Changing a faulty device on an
Ethernet-APL network with Profinet
protocol is simply a matter of disconnecting
the old device and connecting
the new device. The DCS will
write the configuration to the device,
allowing it to communicate with the
DCS directly after booting up. This
even works for a device exchange
across vendors.
Profinet
systems
automatically
compensate for wire breaks using
media redundancy. If a wire breaks
in the field, the device will still have
a path to transfer the information to
the DCS. Controller redundancy is
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Chemical Engineering August 2022

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