Meeting the challenge for the first FOUNDATION fieldbus
project in Belgium
 Castrol
NV of Antwerp, Belgium, produces and delivers oils and lubricants
used in the automotive and chemical industries, as well as
other applications. Base and end products are stored in tank
farms.
The challenge
To respond quickly and efficiently to market demands, Castrol
needed accurate information about tank contents and product
transactions. They also needed to ensure compliance with a
number of environmental regulations.
Castrol therefore decided to computerize and modernize their
tank farm.They sought an automation solution that would provide:
- Rapid, trouble-free installation and startup
- An easy-to-use operator interface
- Online diagnostics
- Leak detection and overfill protection
- Density correction in the control system (to avoid repeated
re-adjustments of transmitters in the field).
The solution
PlantWeb field-based architecture with FOUNDATION fieldbus
- including a DeltaV™ automation system, 67 Rosemount pressure
transmitters and Asset Management Solutions (AMS) software
-- quickly emerged as the solution that could meet Castrol's
challenge.
Putting intelligent devices to work
 AMS
uses bi-directional communication between the intelligent
field devices and the process control system. This communication
makes it possible to change on-line parameters, to configure
transmitters, and to archive documentation and diagnostic
information. These capabilities help Castrol meet ISO certification
requirements, obtain online diagnostics, and carry out predictive
maintenance.
Due to the advanced diagnostics, the number of metering devices
could also be reduced to one at each measuring point. For
example, Castrol uses only one transmitter per tank for level
measurement as well as leakdetection and overfill protection.
The measurements are also more accurate because digital technology,
which eliminates the typical analog instrument accuracy loss
of 0.2% - 1% when converting the measurement range.
Ease of Installation and Commissioning
 The
project had a quick startup-less than 2 days! - More than
65 hydrostatic level measurements were linked to the DeltaV
system using only 5 FOUNDATION fieldbus segments - greatly
reducing wiring and labor costs. In addition, the Rosemount
transmitters on these segments are polarity insensitive and,
like the cable, were delivered complete with factory installed
fieldbus connectors. This meant that the actual transmitter
connection time was minimal.
The DeltaV system's "auto-sensing" feature also
ensured that all the connected transmitters reported automatically
to the system without any manual intervention, eliminating
duplicate addressing. Each device had its own icon and tag
so that it could be easily recognized in the system's familiar
Microsoft Explorer-like software.
Both the device and cabling were diagnosed simultaneously.
The "drag and drop" feature also allowed the technicians
to assign all transmitters automatically to the DeltaV system,
without the need for time-consuming programming or configuration.
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