Chemical Engineering June 2017 - 20

Photographer: Frank Preuss/Evonik
FIGURE 2. Rainer Gimbel (left) and Jeff Landau (right) are digital strategists in Evonik's newly formed
digitalization subsidiary, Evonik Digital GmbH
interchangeably by some, and defined
more rigorously by others, but
in general they all refer to the same
trend that goes beyond connecting
things, and often refers, in a broader
sense, to connecting the process to
the business as well (Figure 1).
Advances in sensors, data analytics,
computing networks (the
" cloud " ), software, additive manufacturing,
unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs or drones) and more, are enabling
this fourth industrial revolution.
While the chemical process industries
(CPI) may be slower to adopt
some of these technologies than the
consumer market, the CPI are very
familiar with the use of sensors and
automation and are well poised to
take advantage of the newer technologies.
As Billy Bardin, Global Operations
Technology Center director
for The Dow Chemical Company
(Midland, Michigan; www.dow.com)
states, " In general, the process industries
have been slower to adopt these
new technologies than the consumer
and service sectors, but the process
industries do have an advantage with
the installed instrumentation base
that has been a mainstay of our technology
for decades. We have significant
amounts of data from our instrumentation
and process sensors to
use with the new analytics and deeplearning
technologies. "
Insights from industry leaders
A key driver for the digital transformation
in the CPI is maintaining a
competitive edge. Global competition,
immediate communications and
technological advances are creating
20
an environment where businesses
need to respond with increasing
speed. Aligning production and business
through the tools available with
digitalization offers new possibilities
for business models.
John Cate, commercial director for
Surface Chemistry at Akzo Nobel N.V.
(Amsterdam, the Netherlands; www.
akzonobel.com) says, " We've been
driving digitalization across our entire
business. It's all about efficiency
and optimization. The digital world
delivers more comprehensible and
actionable data than we have ever
had before. By replacing gut-feeling
with comprehensive, realtime data,
we are able to make better decisions.
Whether this is about plant utilization,
selecting R&D projects to fund,
or sales accounts to focus on, we
now have data work for us instead
of the other way around. " He further
explains that IIoT can help combine
supply and demand intelligence and
that it is essential in today's environment,
" Forget about getting ahead
- just to ensure survival in today's
chemical industry, this [IIoT] should
be high up on top management's
agenda. And the earlier you start understanding
the IIoT and implementing
digitalization, the more effective
you'll be in execution over time. "
Dow's Bardin also expects digitalization
to affect all aspects of business
and production. " We are connecting
data streams from R&D,
marketing, supply chain and manufacturing
to better serve our markets, "
he says. And he also sees applications
in safety and sustainability,
" We can use robotics, augmented
reality, big data, the digital twins and
other aspects of Industry 4.0 to help
achieve Dow's 2025 sustainability
goals and to continue to improve our
safety performance. Safety, as well
as cybersecurity, remain paramount
as our industry continues to evolve. "
Earlier this year, Evonik Industries
AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.
com) confirmed its commitment to
the digital transformation by establishing
a digitalization subsidiary,
Evonik Digital GmbH (Figure 2). The
group is building digital expertise and
developing digital business models
under the guidance of Henrik Hahn,
who holds the newly created position
of chief digital officer (CDO). Evonik
is also the first chemical company to
join the Industrial Internet Consortium
(IIC; www.iiconsortium.com), which is
a global organization formed to promote
the growth of the IIoT. Hahn
says that it will become more and
more common to realize truly personalized
customer experiences, and in
the future, there may be more competition
between business models
rather than between products or process
technology. " Therefore we believe
strategy, not technology, drives
digital transformation, " he says.
Technological advances
Technology, however, is an enabler for
digital transformation. There is much
going on in this area, and new developments
are occurring quickly. Several
key developing areas are the following:
Sensors have been ubiquitous in
the CPI for decades. In recent years,
however, advances in smart sensor
technology and implementation
have helped to make sensors one
of the powerful enablers of the IIoT.
Automation vendors, such as Siemens
AG (Munich, Germany; www.
siemens.com), Endress+Hauser
(Greenwood, Ind.; www.us.endress.
com), Honeywell Process Solutions
(HPS;
Houston; www.honeywell
process.com), Emerson and many
others offer a wide variety of sensors.
Regarding sensors, Jeroen Pul, marketing
manager and digital lead for
AkzoNobel Surface Chemistry says,
" More sensors equals more data.
More data equals better decisions.
In general, and at AkzoNobel, we're
employing more creative use of senCHEMICAL
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JUNE 2017

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Chemical Engineering June 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering June 2017