Two plants share annual award

A Hart Communication Foundation product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Oct 19, 2004

Two plants (one US and one European) have been selected as recipients of the 2004 Hart Plant of the Year Award.

Two plants (one US and one European) have been selected as recipients of the 2004 Hart Plant of the Year Award - the BP Cooper River Plant in Wando, South Carolina, and the Clariant Antioxidants Plant in Gersthofen, Germany.

The award is given annually by to recognise success in the innovative use of Hart communications in real-time process applications around the globe.

"We congratulate both BP and Clariant for utilising the full potential of their Hart-enabled instrumentation for real-time operational improvements", says HCF Executive Director Ron Helson.

"Their success not only benefits their companies but also serves as a powerful model for industry users worldwide of how to realise far greater benefits from Hart than ever before".

The BP Cooper River plant uses Hart communication in daily operations to obtain diagnostics on critical control valves, reduce maintenance costs by predicting failures, perform online tuning and trending and eliminate extra field devices and wiring.

The Clariant antioxidants plant uses Hart in daily operations with Profibus and intrinsically safe remote I/O systems for real-time data access, preventive maintenance and troubleshooting of critical devices located in a hazardous area.

"Get control of the items that touch the product (control valves and transmitters) and you can save some big money", says AJ Lambert, BP instrument and electrical reliability specialist.

"We know of no other activity that can provide the kind of savings and plant availability that we are achieving using Hart diagnostic data".

"We are saving hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in maintenance and production costs".

"The return on investment is very high when you use the Hart technology that is already in your plant", says Ludwig Wenninger, Clariant Plant Engineer.

"Going to the device in the field took a lot of time.

Now we can access parameters from a central location in a safe area which has reduced the duration of planned shutdowns by at least 60 to 70%".

The Hart Plant of the Year is a unique award in the process automation industry.

It is the only public award presented to end user companies to recognise ingenuity in the application of Hart communication technology.

The award showcases end user companies and their suppliers who have demonstrated creativity in using the full capabilities of Hart communication technology.

"In today's economy the challenge is finding better ways to use what you have", says Helson.

"With this award, we recognise the innovators who are meeting that challenge".

Helson presented the Plant of the Year Award for BP to Lambert at the ISA Expo in Houston, Texas.

Wenninger will receive the award for Clariant during a special presentation in Mannheim, Germany, on 15th November.

The HCF encourages nominations for Hart Plant of the Year from all world areas.

Nominations are accepted until May each year.

Previous recipients are the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department in Detroit, Michigan (2003) and the DuPont DeLisle manufacturing facility in Pass Christian, Mississippi (2002).