In his keynote address to the annual public seminar of the Dutch WIB process automation users’ association held recently in Den Hague, Udo Enste (LeiKon/Namur) observed that, since the introduction of process control systems, industry has been trying to standardize processes in the face of growing demands for asset management solutions, condition monitoring tools, energy efficiency and now something else … operating performance. This has its own KPI, the performance index (PI), defined as the benefit gained, over the effort required to implement a new system. Different PIs can be combined, with weights, to produce an overall performance measure. Such measures can be applied over the long term, ‘big loop,’ for plant redesign, at the medium term, for maintenance and on a daily basis to adjust set points. LeiKon’s bad actor analysis is used to analyze maintenance activity (using word counts on SAP messages) and connect the results to assets whose replacement would be costly. A LeiKon word cloud showed leaks as a major item. LeiKon’s technology is used in the EU-sponsored MORE project (more efficiency for Europe).
Enste introduced the concept of ‘context-based online data management’ (Cbodm), a new application of IT in the process industry. KPIs are easy to calculate using existing DCS, SCADA and other systems. But to do this site-wide or across multiple sites requires a standard information model along with data analysis and data context. Enter an activity that captures a holistic picture of connected resources and dependencies. Cbodm provides process-oriented context to online and historical data sources, adding generic algorithms for missing values (mass/energy balance) and adjusting KPIs when conditions change. Ineos is the poster child for the Cbodm approach. Here some 7,000 process flows and 2,000 equipment objects are connected to PI data. The goal is to model 30 Ineos plants by next year in a ‘drag and drop’ design framework.
Andreas ten Cate (ISPT.eu) observed that many things are changing in the process industry with energy transition and digitization. ISPT is working with Shell on energy optimization using Shell’s AIMMS GMOS/NETSIM network simulator and supply chain optimizer. This includes a portfolio of data-driven plant model templates. These can be populated with local plant information and run to get capex/opex and SRI reports. Agent-based modeling also ran (NorthWestern/CCL’s NetLogo got a plug here). The EU SPIRE 2030/cognitive plants project also ran.
Bert de Wilde presented ExxonMobil’s joint venture with The Open Group to develop a new standards-based, commercial replacement for today’s obsolete refining/chemical DCS fleet. This is said to be a $5 billion project that should reach maturity in 2021.
Read our previous coverage of the Exxon standard here and visit The Open Group. In the Q&A de Wilde explained that the Exxon protocol will go ‘way beyond a simple comms protocol like OPC-UA.’ It will leverage the complete Purdue horizontal architecture and enable ‘more intelligence in the field.’ The project has support ‘from the highest level in the company, the business directed us to do something different.’
More from WIB, the Werkgroup voor Instrument Beoordeling.
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