Hydrocarbon Processing - June 2021 - 71

Digitalization
A. RIVERO, Rajant Corp., Houston, Texas
Taking on petrochemical plant hurdles
with networking smarts
The petrochemical industry is facing one of the most significant
challenges in its history. The COVID-19 pandemic has
shrunk demand for a variety of end products that rely on petrochemicals,
polymers and specialty polymers. The petrochemicals
market has witnessed instability in pricing for naphtha, ethylene
and heavy paralysis oil, among others. These factors combined
are byproducts of the fact that our usual energy-consuming activities
have been halted. The situation is hitting the industry hard
as fewer vehicles take to the road.
The volatility in the chemicals space has triggered a chain of
events in the energy markets that will inevitably impact the industry
for years to come. As a competitive industry in standard
times, the pressure on companies to economize has been made
even more significant.
To remain competitive and profitable in a time of economic
uncertainty, one way for petrochemical operations to prosper is
by embracing new and innovative technologies to improve safety
and optimize production at their plants. For these advanced applications
to realize their full potential, they need full Industrial
Internet of Things (IIoT) connectivity in petrochemical plants.
To interact with and manage this network, companies need a
network infrastructure that is fully mobile and provides optimal
broadband connectivity across the entire organization. Reliance
on IIoT and machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity to improve
productivity, streamline operations and control costs have
created a demand for private wireless mesh networks.
Embracing Industry 4.0. Embracing Industry 4.0 and IIoT are
some of the elements to future proof your environment. Industry
4.0 is the move from traditional manufacturing and industrial
practices in combination with the latest smart technology. This
evolution represents a step towards higher productivity. However,
deploying a network to support the levels of connectivity required
in a dynamic and potentially hazardous environment can be extremely
difficult. Ensuring an equilibrium between facility and
production growth with employee safety standards is imperative.
Many petrochemical plants operate multiple networks to accomplish
separate communication needs for their employees.
This often outweighs the burden of maintaining a WiFi network
for data and a two-way radio WAN for voice, which can generate
high costs and can be a notable drain on resource demands for
daily operations.
The explosive and flammable gases-such as ethylene, propylene,
butadiene and other potential vapors-found in petrochemical
plants make maintaining safety in danger zones a top
priority. This process is even more complicated. To prevent
equipment from sparking and starting a fire, networking infrastructure
must be kept in an explosion-proof enclosure (e.g.,
ATEX 1, ATEX-2/C1D1 and C1D2 requirements).
From the initial deployment to complex day-to-day plant operations,
constant connectivity is required for the mission-critical
operations carried out in petrochemical plants. Signal loss often
equates to productivity loss and-in a worst-case scenario-can
put plant workers' safety at risk. With petrochemical plants undergoing
significant expansion, choosing the wrong industrial
network solution could mean a plant's investment is wasted due
to an unsuitable solution for connecting its operations.
A new way to enable petrochemical prosperity. A new
type of networking is necessary for petrochemical plants to embrace
Industry 4.0. An IIoT-enabling network, more dynamic
than WiFi networks or two-way radio WAN, can provide the
petrochemical industry the prerogative to take advantage of the
innovative technologies that can maximize productivity, improve
safety and help organizations survive amid increased petrochemical
competition.
A solution for petrochemical plants is to implement a mesh
network topology-a resilient architecture constructed of nodes
that allows a multitude of devices to connect wirelessly. The result
is a node network that can communicate data across the network
until it reaches its target destination. Interest in this technology
is peaking due to its capability to handle the wave of data
expected because of the proliferation of IIoT-connected devices.
A mesh network can provide real-time, site-wide communications
for the varying personnel and assets crucial to the running
of a petrochemical plant, including video cameras, smart meters,
sensors, laptops and smartphones.
However, some mesh networks can be too complex or unfeasible
to install. Some need continuous, labor-intensive maintenance.
Plants need mobile wireless broadband connectivity that
can meet their demands and is simple, instantaneous and robust
in any application-a kind of autonomous network.
Critical connectivity. Critical connectivity is possible through
a combination of wireless network nodes and networking software
that utilizes any-node to any-node capabilities. This type
of network can continuously route data via the best available
traffic path and frequency for several nodes with extremely low
overhead. More advanced mesh networks can connect with
any WiFi or Ethernet-connected device to deliver low-latency,
Hydrocarbon Processing | JUNE 2021 71
Hydrocarbon Processing - June 2021

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