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FOUNDATION Fieldbus, the Enabler for New Value in Plant Automation
John Berra, Chairman Fieldbus Foundation & Sr. Vice President and Process Group Business Leader
Emerson Electric, USA

Mr. John Berra, one of the key initiators of the presently de-facto global standard for field communications foundation, HART, and Chairman of the Board of the Fieldbus Foundation, will describe the state of the new-generation Plant Automation System architecture - both today and going forward. He will discuss how FOUNDATION™ Fieldbus enables simplified automation architecture and provides significant new value by improving plant performance, uptime, efficiency, and reduced plant healthcare cost.

Product Development and Project Design Experiences
Gordon Ellwood, Head Engineer, Instrument & Control Systems
Shell Canada Ltd, Calgary, Canada

Shell Canada has been assessing the benefits and risks of FOUNDATION™ Fieldbus since 1997. The paper will discuss the business drivers for its implementation on the Athabasca Oil Sands project, the initiatives with a supplier to make partial H1 functionality realizable and an acceptable project risk, design considerations and support/risk mitigation plans.

Implementing Fieldbus - A Staged Approach, A View to the Future
Ian Verhappen, Manager Process Control Department
Syncrude Canada Ltd. Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada

Syncrude has been investigating and implementing FOUNDATION™ Fieldbus since 1996. This presentation will discuss why Syncrude started investigating FOUNDATION™ Fieldbus, the implementation strategy to date, then concludes with a vision and development plan for the future.

FOUNDATION Fieldbus & Safety
Tom Nobes, Sr. Systems Engineer, Radiometric & Special Instruments Group
BNFL Engineering, UK

BNFL gives the highest priority to safety. Whilst FOUNDATION™ Fieldbus has many benefits its impact in the safety of plants is still uncertain. Suitable methods must be developed to ensure that FOUNDATION™ Fieldbus control systems are not less safe, reliable, predictable and available than their conventional ancestors are.

FOUNDATION Fieldbus testing at SRTCA
Bindert Douma, Researcher Instrumentation
Shell Global Solutions International, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

FOUNDATION Fieldbus technology has been monitored and evaluated by Shell Global Solutions International as part of the new developments program for the last 4 years. A wide range of field devices and three hosts systems have been installed and tested in a hydrocraking pilot plant at SRTCA in Amsterdam. Results have been used as input to the FOUNDATION™ and to vendors involved in the tests to realise improvements. The experience gained in this trial is available for a successful support of future FF applications.

The Common File Format: "Why is it important to end-users"
Chuji Akiyama, Manager Fieldbus Group, IA Systems Business Division
Yokogawa Electric Corporation, Japan

Emerging fieldbus technology will revolutionise most control technologies in the process industries. One area to see change will be engineering of instrumentation. Traditionally, control loop design has been done inside a Distributed Control System (DCS). Now however, it is possible to distribute control functions to the field. A standardised format for transferring data amongst system builders, device vendors and end-users is mandatory to enable smooth design, construction and maintenance of fieldbus systems.

Integrating FOUNDATION^TM Fieldbus into a Distributed Control System
Mr. James O. Gray Jr., Director, SEVA Advanced Development
The Foxboro Company, Foxboro, Massachusetts, USA

The advent of digital protocols have opened the door to new opportunities in the expansion and distribution of functionality and capability to field devices. FOUNDATION™ Fieldbus is an enabling technology that will address the user needs for reduced capital investment, improved information quality, predictive maintenance and tight integration of the field devices into plant automation system. This paper describes the use of FOUNDATION™ technology to achieve these goals.

How FOUNDATION Fieldbus Technology changes Project Procedures and Project Execution
Teun Hooftman, Corporate Functional Discipline Head Control & Automation
Petroleum Development Oman LLC, Sultanate of Oman

Petroleum Development Oman has undergone a technology step change with setting the strategy to apply only Fieldbus technologies in new projects. The implementation of FOUNDATION™ Fieldbus technology at PDO has brought-out the necessity to review and change the current project execution definitions and stages, which are originally, based on conventional systems. The challenge is to minimize the scope of the detailed Design Consultant while maximizing the scope of the Main Automation Contractors (MAC's). Appropriate project management from both the user and MAC is critical in order to make FF implementation a success. Design Consultants are now confronted with the requirement for highly skilled engineers to warrant future business. At the same time it also challenges the prolongation of established conventional DCS markets.

Fieldbus technology, a change of paradigm in the real project execution world
Peter ter Woort, Consultant European Project Organization
Honeywell , Europe

Within the conventional project execution we recognize several stages such as Design, Implementation and Commissioning. Mostly a FAT is the end of the implementation stage and a SAT is the end of a project. Payment conditions are attached to these activities. After the execution of the first projects with Fieldbus instrumentation and DCS configuration, we evaluated the impact of this new technology in project execution. We recognized the impact of this new technology, understood the challenges and the learning curve for both the end user and vendors involved and analyzed the results.

Application of FOUNDATION Fieldbus
John D. Rezabek, BP Amoco Chemicals
BDO Manufacturing

In the middle of 1998, then-BP Chemicals was in the early phases of detailed design for a new 70KTY 1-4 Butanediol plant. Having experienced the benefits of digital integration of field devices with Honeywell TDC-3000, we couldn't envisage ourselves commissioning a plant in 2000, that was shackled virtually forever to legacy 4-20mA technology. How could we convince conservative project, manufacturing and commercial management that a technology as new as Fieldbus was a good choice for our project?

This paper examines the challenges involved in implementing this technology in a grass-roots chemical plant. This includes justifying it with manufacturing, commercial and project management, design issues that are unique to the technology, cost issues, construction issues and the extent to which the benefits of the technology can be realized.

Interoperability Testing of FOUNDATION^TM Fieldbus
Kurt Zech, Manager Technical Services
Fieldbus Foundation, Austin Texas, USA

A short description of the role and update on the activities of the Foundation. What is Interoperability Testing, a short introduction into Host System Interoperability Testing, what is the purpose of the tests and why it is important for users. Finally, a short discussion on High Speed Ethernet. What is HSE? Where the project stands to date and how it will benefit users.

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