Product category:
Plant- and Machine-Wide Communications
News Release from: Emerson Process Management - Systems and Industry | Subject: Rosemount 3420 Fieldbus interface module
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 30 January 2004
Interface is easy intro to Foundation
fieldbus
BP has used the Rosemount 3420 Fieldbus interface module to realise the benefits of adding fieldbus technology to its existing plant and traditional DCS control system on its Hull chemicals plant.
BP has used the Rosemount 3420 Fieldbus interface module to realise the benefits of adding fieldbus technology to its existing plant and traditional DCS control system on its Hull chemicals plant When BP initiated the project requiring temperature monitoring of over 200 points on their ethyl acetate process reactors, in a Zone 2 hazardous area, the attractions of the reduced cabling and fewer interface modules needed with a fieldbus solution were considerable
The Emerson proposal for monitoring 200+ points using just two Foundation fieldbus segments, involved Rosemount 848T multipoint temperature transmitters on the plant, each monitoring eight RTD sensors or thermocouples.
Up to 13 of these 848T units can be looped onto a single fieldbus segment, powered by the 3420 Fieldbus interface module, allowing a single cable connection to collect data from 104 temperature sensors.
Each Foundation fieldbus segment requires just one cable pair into the control room, with one hazardous area barrier unit.
The advantages to BP were significant: on an existing plant, to run new multicore cable over the full 250m from the control room would have required erection of scaffolding, and a timescale that was unacceptable.
By using spare pairs of cables within existing multi-cores, the few cables needed were already in place.
BP saved installation cost plus time: eventually approximately 280 temperature points were monitored on the four reactors, using three fieldbus segments linked to two Rosemount 3420 units to provide redundancy.
Each 3420 Fieldbus interface module extracts the individual temperature readings from the transmitters, and uses a Modbus connection to transmit the data to the main control system, in this case a TDC3000.
This simplifies the data interface to the control system, saving expenditure on extensive I/O additions.
Project Manager for BP, Frank Wilson, is delighted with the outcome: "We have added three Foundation fieldbus segments onto a conventionally controlled plant, which has a Honeywell TDC 3000 control system, and turned a major expansion of instrumentation I/O into something as simple as adding a single Modbus interface".
Wilson continued: "Plus, we have further benefits from Foundation fieldbus interrogation and communications, allowing us to monitor each sensor using our site Ethernet connection direct to the Rosemount 3420 Fieldbus interface module".
The first project at Hull was to provide detailed monitoring of process temperature gradients during the addition of a process catalyst, on part of the ethyl acetate production, where several multipoint sensors are needed to provide the detailed overview of temperature conditions.
Process improvements have resulted, the benefits of which are still being evaluated: the best measure of success is that additional similar temperature monitoring points and fieldbus segments have been allocated to the vinyl acetate plant, and two further 3420 Fieldbus interface modules are to be installed.
Ron Migliorini, Rosemount VP for Marketing in Europe, Middle East and Africa, is delighted to see the first major European application for these units installed and commissioned so easily, despite the fast track nature of the BP project.
"The 848T and the 3420 Fieldbus interface module have provided an ideal solution for BP, providing lots of additional measurement points, and adding these simply into their existing DCS.
The Rosemount 848T and 3420 combination allow the economical retrofit of multiple sensors, to give detailed local process data, in a quickly installed and cost effective manner.
But the major spinoff is that the BP process engineers have the opportunity to use Foundation fieldbus and gain experience of the advantages of modern digital communications across the plant".
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