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Digital automation is the key to US$2.6billion oil sands
Emerson Process Management has been awarded a contract to digitally automate an oil sands bitumen upgrader facility to be constructed by North West Upgrading 28miles north-east of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in the Industrial Heartland area of Sturgeon County. The upgrader will process bitumen, a molasses-like viscous oil, into light, low sulphur products such as diluents and ultra low sulphur diesel as well as other products that can be used by refineries to produce gasoline. Under the contract, Emerson will provide digital automation services, and install its PlantWeb digital architecture with Delta V systems that networks intelligent digital technology throughout processing facilities.
The US$2.6billion North West Upgrader project will be constructed in three phases. The facility built in the first phase, with construction to begin in late 2007, will process 77000 barrels of bitumen blend per day and is expected to be operational in 2010. When the entire facility is completed in 2015, the upgrader will have a total processing capacity of 231000 barrels per day. The bitumen, blended with a light liquid condensate, will be transported to the upgrader via pipelines from the oil sands region of northern Alberta.
Canadian oil sands – with reserves that are second only to Saudi Arabia's oil reserves – are expected to be a key resource in meeting the world’s petroleum demand for the next century.
Finding ways to reduce the high cost of both construction and oil sands processing is a key objective of project planners.
North West is relying on Emerson to supply the full scope of automation products and services through its local business partner Spartan Controls and Emerson’s Hydrocarbon and Energy Industry Centre in Calgary. This team is currently developing plant-wide automation standards to ensure that individual process units integrate smoothly into the overall upgrading process.
Emerson will supply engineering and project management throughout the three phases of construction, hands-on commissioning of automation products and systems, and ongoing service support (Fig.1). Efficiencies of PlantWeb technology will contribute further to lower capital costs for construction.
“We are pleased with the opportunity to work closely with North West Upgrading and their project management and EPC contractors and to deploy our industry-leading PlantWeb technology,” said John Berra, president of Emerson Process Management. “We are committed to helping North West succeed with timely engineering and development assistance in the project phase to achieve ongoing operational excellence while controlling costs.”
Predictive intelligence
The success of PlantWeb, according to Emerson, is based on its use of predictive intelligence to improve whole plant performance. While PlantWeb lowers capital and engineering costs compared to traditional DCS-centered architectures, it provides even greater operational benefits by enabling you to improve throughput, availability, and quality, reduce conversion costs, and sustain the resulting performance gains. Users typically report at least twopercent improvements in plant efficiency.
So PlantWeb is not simply a product or a specific automation control system, says the company. Rather, it is a proven strategy for building a digital architecture, a blueprint for building solutions that optimise plant performance in four ways.
First, it leverages digital intelligence, including diagnostics, to enable users to predict and prevent problems before they affect the process. Second, it connects the plant. Open communication standards link devices, systems, and applications in a plantwide network to ensure process and equipment information is available wherever it is needed. Thirdly is process control. The more you know about your process and equipment, the easier it is to improve production and keep your operation running smoothly. Finally, assets are optimised. New technologies and services tap the architecture's information flow to increase uptime, optimise performance, and reduce maintenance costs.
So why is this different from other automation architectures? Emerson points out that it is the only digital plant architecture with proven success in thousands of projects. Predictive intelligence enables you to detect and avoid conditions that could cause problems. It’s networked, not centralised. It’s engineered to gather and manage information from intelligent field devices. It uses standards at every level of the architecture – including taking full advantage of FOUNDATION fieldbus.
