Natural gas processing plant goes digital

Emerson Process Management has been awarded a contract to apply its PlantWeb digital plant architecture to automate EnCana's new Steeprock natural gas processing plant in Canada.

Emerson Process Management has been awarded a contract by EnCana Corporation, one of North America's leading natural gas producers, to apply its PlantWeb digital plant architecture to automate EnCana's new Steeprock natural gas processing plant, located in NE British Columbia, Canada.

The digital PlantWeb approach will integrate basic process control and a smart Safety Instrumented System.

EnCana's Steeprock facility will be designed to process 5,380,000m3/day of raw gas and will consist of two main components.

The first will comprise two amine plants, one to remove CO2 from the raw sweet feed gas, and the second to remove CO2 and H2S from the raw sour feed gas.

The second component will be a Claus Process facility to extract elemental sulphur from the H2S removed through an Amine process.

The construction goal for plant start up and commissioning is winter 2006-07.

"We selected Emerson based on the combination of expertise and support offered by the company, plus the advantages of its comprehensive digital PlantWeb approach", commented Rajesh Udipi, Senior Facilities Engineer, of EnCana.

"We see advantages to the smart Safety Instrumented System technologies, and to the predictive nature of the basic control system".

Emerson's PlantWeb will integrate process control and smart safety instrumented system (SIS) solutions based on the architecture's DeltaV digital automation system, AMS Suite predictive maintenance software, and intelligent HART field instruments that include Emerson's Fisher valves with Fieldvue digital valve controllers and Rosemount transmitters.

Emerson's smart SIS integrates use of digital intelligence to enable customer implementation of safer process plants.

The smart SIS automates proof testing, including partial valve stroking, to enable continuous and on-demand diagnosing of safety loop sensors, logic solvers and final control elements to ensure they perform on demand.

The resulting high reliability of safety systems reduces the risk of plant trips, which keeps plants up and running.

At the same time, the approach minimises costly and risky practices of ongoing manual proof tests.

Emerson will supply a variety of services for system design, configuration, and commissioning, including local system support provided by Emerson's local business partner, Spartan Controls.

PlantWeb Services are key to helping customers derive full value from state-of-the-art control, automation and asset management solutions, both at the installation and operational phases of the project.

The PlantWeb digital approach is installed worldwide and has demonstrated substantial project cost savings.

Additionally, the architecture's built-in predictive intelligence can improve throughput and availability by delivering diagnostic data to personnel who can repair problems before they interfere with operations.

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