In 1997, ZENECA chose a DeltaV digital automation system to control raw materials
at the site of Saint Clair-du-Rhone, south of Lyon, France.
The key challenge of the project was a very quick installation
and commissioning timeframe.
ZENECA is a leading British-based international group in the
bioscience sector, formed during the separation of the ICI
Group in 1993. It comprises four divisions: Pharmaceuticals,
Agrochemicals, Science, and Specialities.
Within Specialities, ZENECA Limited, at the site of Saint
Clair-du-Rhone (France), is a production and development plant
with approximately 300 chemical products in the fine organic
chemicals field, mainly ranges of colorants for:
- leather
- paper and inks
- inkjet printers and reprography additives in a fast-growing
market
ZENECA is internationally oriented and exports 85 percent
of its production; ZENECA is also innovative, with the introduction
of technology such as the membrane liquefaction technique
and adopting the environmental approach with colour removal/detoxification
by electroflocculation. When modernizing its production facilities,
ZENECA chose DeltaV to manage the bulk liquid raw materials,
solvents, and utilities of one of its active ingredient synthesis
units, which comprises 45 reactors between 1 and 75 m3, one
third of which are greater than 25 m3.
The project consisted of replacing a raw materials management
and distribution system that was no longer capable of meeting
production requirements. The ultimate objective of the project was to attain a new
target: 99.9 percent availability.
The project was under the direction of Louis Chanal, ZENECA¹s
manager of the Electricity/Instrumentation department of the
Maintenance operation.
Two solutions were considered:
- a programmable, controller-based solution with one PLC
per product (15), with overall supervision.
- an integrated scalable system solution.
Two studies were launched to evaluate the two approaches. A key decision
factor was the implementation time since ZENECA
had only four weeks, corresponding to the annual shutdown
of the site to install and commission one of the two approaches.
Another key decision factor that influenced ZENECA's investigation
was that the standard chosen for supervision at St Clair-du-Rhône
was FIX, from Intellution. The first solution meant having to program the 15 PLCs AND
the supervision (mapping tables), which is quite engineering-intensive.
The second solution, the DeltaV system, proposed by Emerson Process Management,
simplified ZENECA's task and saved time, because of its single
object-oriented database, IEC 1131-3 standard, ISA 88, and
drag-and-drop SFC development.
Since the production unit operates on a batch basis, this
was the perfect solution. To find a compromise between 15 PLCs and one scalable system,
ZENECA chose to distribute the tasks over five DeltaV controllers,
all with redundancy, on two control PCs.
Since then, some key highlights recorded include:
- procurement of all the hardware in record time
- one week of training at Emerson Lyon (France)
for three persons
- assistance with on-site engineering for two weeks, provided
by Emerson
In mid-July 1997, work began on wire-to-wire identification
of the old system and in developing control strategies on
the DeltaV system. On August 25th, the day of their return to work, the operators
could use the new system.
André Garcia, from CEGELEC contractor, who had designed
and programmed the entire application, was pleased to discover
that he had structured DeltaV so well, because operator training
was much easier than he had anticipated. The operators had
no difficulty learning how to control their process using
the DeltaV system or using the new-found information to improve plant
performance. To date, the DeltaV system performance has been excellent.
In addition, a Platinum 24-hour-a-day contract has been concluded
in order to comply with the 99.9 percent availability policy.
This co-operation has enabled real progress in quality control
activities, operational tasks have been simplified, and the
operators are seeing improved plant performance. Because of
the success of this project, Mr. Chanal and the ZENECA organization
are looking to scale up the DeltaV system to handle additional
I/O.
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