Chemical Engineering June 2018 - 20

GUIDING THE WAY TO MODULAR AUTOMATION
The User Association of Automation Technology in the Process
Industries, (NAMUR; Leverkusen, Germany; www.namur.net) is an
international association of user companies with interests concerning
automation technology. With over 140 member companies, the
organization conducts dialogue with manufacturers, creates working
groups in the areas of measurement, controls, automation, communications,
process management and electrical engineering and
publishes recommendations.
The Automation of Modular Plants working group is involved in national
and international standardization. As such, NAMUR published
recommendation NE 148, " Automation Requirements Relating to
Modularization of Process Plants. "
The recommendation aims to reduce time between idea and
product launch via process engineering new designs, using
modular components. According to the recommendation, " plugvendors,
explains Gordon Bordelon,
chemical industry lead, with Rockwell
Automation (Milwaukee, Wis.;
www.rockwellautomation.com).
" One of the biggest issues is that it
creates project risk, " he says. " When
implementing a project, there are
often different systems with different
automation technologies, so you
have to make sure upfront that they
are going to be consistent. If you get
to the startup and commissioning
stage and then realize that one system
can't communicate with another
or that the skid can't be integrated,
the costs are much higher as the remediation
occurs on site, delaying
startup and ultimately missing production
schedules. "
Operational readiness can also be
negatively impacted. " Whether you
have one module or an entire moduand-produce "
plant components increase flexibility and shorten
project duration.
The group states, " During the last decades, a lot of standards for
traditionally designed plants were created. Within the process industry,
modular plant design and its standardization have just started.
The introduction of modular-composed process plants must not be
slowed down by insufficient automation technology. Instead, automation
is supposed to be a driver and innovator. Furthermore, many
of the required developments can become a competitive advantage
in traditional installation. NE 148 provides a respective frame for automation
in modular designed plants. "
The main concepts included in NE 148 are decentralized automation,
with individual modules being fully automated, as well as
flexible integration into higher-level, plant-wide control systems and
vendor-independent integration of modules.
❑
lar facility, it is a problem if the automation
is inconsistent, " says Bordelon.
" The operations staff at the
facility must know how to operate
all the systems, which is problematic
if the automation is inconsistent. " In
addition, the modules usually need
to be tied into business systems
such as laboratory information-management
systems (LIMS), enterprise
resource-planning
systems
(ERP)
and computerized maintenancemanagement
systems (CMMS).
" These modular plants not only have
to be able to operate, but they also
require the ability to share data and
communicate with other business
systems in order to be operationalready, "
notes Bordelon.
And, information sharing is more
important than ever in the current
data-centric environment, says Greg
Turner, global OEM process segment
business leader, with Rockwell
Automation. " Not only are we
changing how we build plants, but
at the same time, we are increasingly
relying on automation to accommodate
Industry 4.0 principles,
big data and the industrial internet
of things, so plants and processes
are becoming more complex and
interconnected. " Proper integration
of the automation system permits
situational awareness for the
people running the plant and allows
them to use data to plan predictive
maintenance, examine alarm conditions
and understand the health
and efficiency of the equipment and
processes. " This type of situational
awareness falls under asset utilization
and can be adversely affected
if automation is inconsistent in a
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Chemical Engineering June 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering June 2018
