New IIoT- and cloud-enabled digital tools and services give petroleum refiners new avenues to increase profitability and safety, but also require greater attention to cybersecurity By Scott Jenkins While several forces are creating conditions in which U.S. petroleum refiners can thrive in 2017 and beyond, success and profitability are not guaranteed (see U.S. refining outlook […]
Refining
DuPont’s global alarm management leader, Nick Sands, walks Stan and Greg through the elements of ANSI/ISA-18.2-2016, “Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industry.” By Greg McMillan and Stan Weiner Stan: I remember the alarm panels in the good old days of analog controllers. You had to be selective as to the type and number […]
Significant improvements can be demonstrated in updating automation in either independent machine controls or an entire facility. More and more manufacturers are upgrading control systems primarily to fight the battle of equipment obsolescence, rather than taking the opportunity to invest in upgrades, in order to gain more productive years out of major capital assets. There […]
Control Systems Engineer with twenty-five (25+) years in engineering, programming, design, construction, commissioning and start-up in the Oil/Gas production, refining, power and petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and other manufacturing industries. Experience includes: Project and construction management, Process Instrumentation, DCS, PLC, ESD and SCADA; Compressor control and anti-surge systems, GE Multilin motor protection, Variable Frequency Drive – […]
Project justification is critical to driving corporate competitiveness Clearly, any new automation project requires economic justification. Although this often involves hard “dollars and cents” quantification of cost savings from increased production, reduced raw material costs, or increased uptime, it is also about “soft” benefits, such as reducing risks and improving agility. All contribute to making […]
Distributed Control Systems (DCSs) Are Gaining New Capabilities, Such as Integrating with Safety Systems, to Match the Unique Needs of Their Process Applications You can’t just waltz into a refinery’s process control system with mainstream, IT-based computers and expect to be successful. Big process applications are unique environments—even from one to another—so they need the […]
Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) has selected Honewell to provide the Integrated Control and Safety System (ICSS) for its 615,000 barrel-a-day Al Zour refinery to be built in southern Kuwait. Honeywell will also provide the front-end engineering design (FEED) for the system. by ControlGlobal.com Dec 12, 2013
Schneider Electric SA (SU) agreed to buy the U.K.’s Invensys Plc (ISYS) for 3.4 billion pounds ($5.2 billion) to add software and control systems used by chemicals makers, oil refineries, and mining companies. The world’s biggest maker of low- and medium-voltage power gear is offering the equivalent of 502 pence a share, with shareholders able […]
from: The Industrial Ethernet Book. Highly public lapses in the guarding of industrial networks have led to a new awareness. Security is an essential element of network design and management in today’s industrial enterprise. Guidelines produced by the ODVA, and abridged here in two parts by James Hunt, introduce the concept of cyber-security for Industrial […]
The Principles of Batch Automation Are Being Used in Continuous Process to Improve Process Safety and Quality, and to Compensate for Losing Older, Highly Experienced Operators from: ControlGlobal.com by: Walt Noye The ISA S88 Standard Committee, whose work resulted in the ISA-88 Batch Standard, may never have foreseen that the principles and best practices it […]