ApplicationSolution

Summary

The Foxboro Plug-

in Migration solution

designed for Honeywell

TDC 2000 and TDC 3000

systems enables you

to take advantage of

today’s latest technology

- the Foxboro I/A Series

system – with no rewiring,

no extra footprint and

minimal cost, risk and

impact to your operations.

Business Value•Improvedsafety

performance

•Increasedoperator

efficiency

•Improvedsystem

performance & reliability

•Reduceddowntime

•Lowesttotalcostof

ownership

INTRODUCTIONThe client is an oil and gas manufacturing complex. Since its origins in the early 1900s, the refinery has grown in size and sophistication with the addition of a number of units designed to extract the maximum value from crude oil. These additions have included a fluid catalytic cracker, alkylation unit, platformer, and hydro-desulphurization plant. The complex now has a refining capacity of more than 10 million tpa.

PROJECT SCOPEHealth, safety, and the environment are at the top of this client’s agenda and is exemplified by a significant investment to construct a new control room at the manufacturing complex. This was a major commitment to the continuous improvement in safety performance. A project was defined to build a state-of-the-art central control room in the non-hazardous area of the industrial site. This involved the sequential relocation of five smaller, autonomous control rooms and all the associated workstations to this new facility, as well as the upgrading of the control systems of five production units.

Invensys, a key supplier to the client for a number of years, has been involved in upgrading the chemical plant’s control systems to Foxboro® equipment. The previous area of the complex was a traditional Honeywell® user. Consequently, for the new control room project both Invensys and Honeywell were asked to submit bids.

Based on a sound technical solution, the presence of strong engineering resources (includ-ing a dedicated client project team), and the excellent results obtained in improving opera-tions at the chemicals site, Invensys was awarded the contract for the upgrade project.

CLIENT CHALLENGEThe initial project scope involved upgrading two Foxboro Spectrum and three Honeywell TDC 3000 control systems at the manufacturing complex to new Foxboro I/A Series® process control systems. The planned migration would need to be completed quickly and be conducted without requiring the systems to be shut down. This would minimize cost, risk, and process downtime.

INVENSYS SOLUTIONTwo elements in Invensys’ strategy that were key in the successful implementation of this solution. First, the planned migration would be fast and easy, as I/A Series I/O modules provide plug-in replacements for end-of-life systems. Second, migration where feasible, would be conducted on-line, without having to shut down the relevant process units, hence leading to significant financial savings due to reduced downtime. This was a particular issue for the Crude Distillation Unit, which if shut down would take virtually a week to get up and running. Aside from these financial benefits, on-line migration would also improve safety, by avoiding unnecessary risks during plant shutdowns and startups.

Large Oil & Gas complex migrates multiple legacy systems to the latest Foxboro I/A Series platform for improved operator efficiency

Invensys, the Invensys logo, ArchestrA, Avantis, Eurotherm, Foxboro, IMServ, InFusion, SimSci-Esscor, Skelta, Triconex, and Wonderware are trademarks of Invensys plc, its subsidiaries or affiliates. All other brands and product names may be the trademarks or service marks of their representative owners.

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Rel. 07/11 PN FX -0192

RESULTSThe new blast-resilient central control room is located opposite the site’s fire station. With a total floor area of approximately 3,000 m2, the building houses a main panel room of around 950 m2. Office accommodation is provided by a single upper floor area, which provides a full view of the main control area. The design incorporates three staircases, which provide occupants with access to the nearest fire exit during an emergency. Invensys consulted the operators during the design phase and their comments were incorporated into the final plan. They now enjoy ultra-modern working conditions under the single roof of a control center.

The migration project proceeded smoothly as planned. On-line migration was performed on one Honeywell and two Foxboro systems. The other two systems were migrated during scheduled plant shutdowns at the customer’s request. The migration project involved a team of 8-10 engineers, plus an Invensys project manager and migration experts.

A minor setback was experienced when switching over one of the old Foxboro Spectrum controllers to a new Foxboro I/A Series controller. A software problem was identified that could have seriously delayed the process. Invensys’ migration philosophy is to be able to revert back to the existing control system if a problem arises. Invensys engineers were quickly able to switch back to the original Foxboro Spectrum system. This enabled Invensys to analyze the software fault, correct it, and repeat the cutover successfully, preventing the process unit from having to be shut down.

Aside from the enhanced safety aspects, a modern and unified control room offers major benefits in the area of operator communication. Previously, the operators of the five control rooms rarely communicated with each other face to face. As the site is a large, integrated complex with numerous inter-dependencies between products and feedstocks, process operators can now easily communicate with each other and when problems arise within the complex, operators can immediately notify their colleagues so that the appropriate actions are immediately taken.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTSThe successful implementation of this project led directly to Invensys being awarded a further migration project. This was for the migration of off-site dual blending applications, including tanker movement and storage. Invensys is also involved at the site with dynamic simulation on a higher olefins plant, which for many years experienced serious startup problems after shutdown. Dynamic simulation modeling of the plant was a great success, and led to significant improvements in terms of faster, smoother startup, and the associated financial benefits. The next stage is to expand that model to build an operator training simulator that is based on Invensys’ FSIM Plus™ simulation tool powered by Invensys’ SIM4ME® common modeling environment. The comprehensive control system checkout and simulation tool will further improve safety, enhance the skills of operators, and enable changes to be verified and validated prior to implementing on the live plant.

To further ensure safe production at the site, Invensys is helping the client with their asset management initiative. The Invensys team helped install, test, and implement a variety of solutions such as alarm management and advanced process control, and interface them with the client’s management information systems. Invensys has also been invited to update obsolescent safety systems for a biofuels plant at the facility.