China petrochemical facility selects PlantWeb for world's largest installation of fieldbus digital technology
Shanghai Secco Petrochemicals has awarded a US$30 million project to Emerson Process Management, to serve as the main instrument vendor for what is expected to be the world's most highly optimised petrochemical facility.
Secco is a $2.7 billion joint venture between BP, Sinopec, and Shanghai Petrochemical Corporation (SPC).
Emerson will integrate its PlantWeb digital architecture with asset optimisation technologies and services for the new ten-plant facility, which will produce 2.3 million metric tons of chemical products annually.
The Secco site, located in the Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park, will be the world's largest installation of Foundation fieldbus technology.
PlantWeb will provide the platform for collecting, analysing, and sharing operations and diagnostics information to the 750 operations, engineering, and maintenance personnel manning the Secco site.
When operational in 2005, more than 23,000 Foundation fieldbus devices and ten DeltaV digital automation systems within the PlantWeb architecture will control the naphtha-fed ethylene cracker and nine downstream derivative plants.
"Our site is being constructed using the most advanced chemical production technologies available.
It will be the most highly optimised petrochemical facility in the world," said Secco project director Zhang Zhi Liang. "For Secco to meet that objective, we needed to select an equally advanced process control system architecture.
We have chosen Emerson and we believe that PlantWeb architecture is our best choice." Emerson will arm each of the ten plants with a DeltaV digital automation system that collectively will manage over 80,000 I/O points and communicate with over 23,000 Foundation fieldbus devices, including Rosemount and Micro Motion transmitters, and Fieldvue digital valve controllers.
AMS predictive maintenance software integrated within the DeltaV system will enable Secco to maximise up-time and plant performance, utilising a rich array of device diagnostics and software applications enabled by the intelligence of the Emerson field instrumentation.
"Emerson was also selected for its strong presence in China and local capability to fully support a project of this magnitude.
Emerson will provide engineering, integration, and project management leadership for this project from its Pudong (Shanghai) facility," Secco project director Jack Brinly said.
