Four major trends in the development of petrochemical automation technology

Summary of content: World-scale plants require integrated automation systems. The MAV strategy, that is, the implementation of the integration strategy of the entire plant instrumentation and control system in the mode of the main automation system supplier (MainAutomationVendor), is an emerging model of automation system construction in the petrochemical industry in recent years.

Trend 1: The level of integrated automation systems Continuously increasing world-scale plants requires integrated automation systems. For the current large-scale integrated refining and chemical companies, in order to cope with global competition and attach great importance to the construction of enterprise informatization systems, this requires the DCS system to break the situation in which it was only a single device control to form an “information isolated island” through the system. Integration enables true plant-wide centralized control, operation and management. At the same time, the current large-scale petrochemical enterprises have large-scale and synchronous production facilities, and the control system scales up to several tens of thousands of points, involving distributed control systems/fieldbus control systems (DCS/FCS), safety instrumented systems (SIS), Fire and Gas Detection System (FGS), Compressor Control System (CCS), Rotating Equipment Monitoring System (MMS), Equipment Package Control System (PECS), Analytical Data Acquisition System (ADAS), Tank Area Data Acquisition System (TDAS), MAS, AMS, ODS, Advanced Control (APC), RT-OPT, OTS, and other automated control systems In order to achieve integration between the control systems of the whole plant, higher requirements are placed on the integration level of the automation system. The Tianjin Refining and Chemical Integration Project that has just been put into commercial operation includes 10 sets of oil refinery equipment, 9 sets of chemical equipment, public works and auxiliary facilities, and off-site engineering. The scale of automation system integration reached about 143,900 points for DCSI/O, and about 44,300 points for SISI/O. With the in-depth application of computer network technology in automation systems, the era of automatic control systems only as "information isolated islands" has passed, and large-scale, integrated automation systems are the inevitable trend of historical development!

Trend 2: MAV becomes a new model of MAV strategy, which is to implement the integrated strategy of instrument and control system of the whole plant in the mode of main automation supplier (MainAutomationVendor). It is an emerging automation system in the petrochemical industry in recent years. Construction mode. The ultimate goal of using the MAV model is to provide owners with an automated system that is cost-effective, has a long life cycle, and has a low overall cost. In this model, MAV serves as the partner of the project's overall planning and design unit, providing the user with the overall plan, network structure, hardware/software configuration, project management and operating procedures, functional design specification standards, engineering design, configuration, generation, and debugging. Third-party system integration, debugging, operation and maintenance support services and other services. Practice has proved that this model has a variety of advantages, including on the one hand conducive to the overall coordination of the project, on the other hand conducive to the standardization of various interfaces, man-machine interface, thereby achieving multiple production devices, public engineering integrated automation system synchronization; Formulate functional design specifications to ensure the standardization of integrated automation systems; help to manage multiple EPCs at home and abroad; ensure high quality and high level of integrated automation system engineering; facilitate centralized operations management, optimize resources, and reduce life cycle costs. It can meet the challenges and demands of the construction and operation of modern large-scale petrochemical projects.

Of course, for large-scale petrochemical projects, MAV's choice is crucial. It is a multiple test of suppliers' products, engineering, services, and overall coordination capabilities. For now, the petrochemical industry MAV is still abroad. Well-known companies, such as Emerson, Honeywell, Siemens, Yokogawa, ABB, etc., have already started this attempt for domestic automation companies, but they still need engineering experience to become truly competitive MAVs. There is still a long way to go for the accumulation.

Trend 3: Network Architecture Information Security Issues Modern modern petrochemical companies typically use ERP/MES/PCS three-tier network architectures in their network architectures. The integrated network structure urges us to consider from the perspective of hardware, software, and maintenance from the beginning of planning. With the continuous extension of digital technologies such as smart HART technology, fieldbus technology and wireless technology to control systems and field instruments, information on data bus processing will continue to increase, and the safe transmission and rational use of information will be an important aspect of automatic control systems. test. At the same time, a large number of computer and network technologies are gradually used to replace the hardware and software devices inherent in automatic control systems. How to ensure the safety and reliability of the DCS system will be an important issue faced by engineering companies and manufacturers! At present, the issue of network security in petrochemical companies has attracted extensive attention from industry experts, researching security functions and strategies such as network hardware, software, engineering and maintenance, and responding to risks. Faced with the information security problems that accompany the application of new network technologies, everyone is actively exploring solutions, strengthening management, and constantly improving.

Trend 4: The application of fieldbus technology is moving forward With the continuous development of fieldbus technologies and products and the continuous enrichment of application experience, the application of fieldbus technology in the process industry and manufacturing industry is also constantly being explored. In the field of petrochemicals, a series of major projects such as the CNOOC Huizhou Ethylene Project and the Fujian Refining and Chemical Integration Project have successfully used field bus technologies such as FF and Profibus since the start of the Shanghai Secco Ethylene Project that began operation in 2005. Fieldbus technology continues to advance with the implementation of these large projects. From the point of view of effectiveness, it can be said that fieldbus technology is feasible in large-scale petrochemical projects and can achieve predictive maintenance and remote maintenance. However, there are still changes in the concept of users, and the technical level of on-site maintenance personnel is required to be higher. And the technology itself needs to be further improved, making the application of fieldbus technology slow in the petrochemical industry.