The investment comprises an administration building and plant complex and the foundation stone went down in July 2005. The first students started their courses in September 2006 and by September 2007 a major extension had been completed.

Its mission is to make a real contribution to the competitiveness of the chemical and allied businesses in the Humber region by encouraging people to choose careers in the industry and by facilitating the provision of effective, industry-led training and competence assessment within an authentic plant environment.

This it plans to achieve by: working in collaboration with industry and providers; developing innovative training and competence assessment solutions; promoting the highest standards of safety behaviour; being nationally recognised as a best-in-class facility; and being financially self-sustaining and reinvesting in developing the facility.

CATCH believes that a more highly competent workforce with the right attitude will deliver real productivity gains for industry. Training, development and assessment in an authentic chemical plant environment will add another dimension, better equipping the local workforce to bring success to their companies, says its mission statement.

In terms of the facilities on offer, CATCH includes a solids handling process plant, a plant rigging area, a fan balancing area, a bunded tank farm area, versatile hard standing areas for outside working projects and a DCE process simulator. In terms of personnel, technical support, a solutions service and administration/facilitation are also available.

However, the lastest addition is PlantWeb digital plant architecture supplied by US-based company Emerson Process Management (Fig.1).

The company supplied products, software and services and was involved with the engineering, design and installation of the plant architecture. This includes the DeltaV digital automation system and AMS Suite Intelligent Device Manager, together with Fisher control valves and FIELDVUE digital valve controllers, Rosemount level, flow, pressure, and temperature transmitters and Micro Motion Coriolis mass flowmeters.

Originally designed as a conventional plant utilising HART communications technology, the challenging timescale and the projected savings in cabling costs led to the adoption of FOUNDATION fieldbus technology (Fig.2).

As the project evolved, extra instruments were added and these changes, together with any future expansion plans, could be readily accommodated using the existing cabling. Had the plant retained the original architecture it would have been necessary to excavate a roadway to lay additional cabling, extending the original project timescale. With customer training sessions already arranged, any delay would have created serious problems for CATCH. By adopting FOUNDATION fieldbus communications the plant was ready for its first scheduled training sessions.

"CATCH provides professional facilities although it is not itself a training organisation," said Clive Rounce, general manager at CATCH. "Our brief is to provide and maintain a realistic and safe training facility for our partner companies. When the project was at the design stage, we approached our partners for input on the type of automation system to be used. They wanted a system that would provide the best training platform based on what they actually have installed on site, and their first choice was Emerson's DeltaV system as the state of the art front end system and as a key component in an overall PlantWeb architecture."

In order to create an authentic working environment, the process on site is based on a real digital automation architecture. FOUNDATION fieldbus digital communication technologies feed data over a network to the centralised control room where students are able to control, configure and troubleshoot in a real plant environment.

Most of the hardware for the plant was contributed to CATCH by its partner companies and comprises a tank farm and system of pipework, pumps, valves, heat exchangers and reactor vessels that is typical of the chemical industry. The plant is run as a live system with safety rules and full evacuation procedures in place. It can be operated as a continuous process, or by using the reactor vessel, configured for batch production. Students are able to experience a range of situations and incidents that test their knowledge and skills in a real environment.

As new technologies are introduced to the industry, the equipment on site will be upgraded to ensure the latest innovations can be experienced. For example, the automation system incorporates Emerson's DeltaV SIS (Safety Instrumented System) which extends the benefits of the PlantWeb digital plant architecture to safety applications. Other innovations include the addition of Emerson's DeltaV Simulate software that allows engineers to develop new control strategies, and fully test them on their laptop computer using actual control configurations and process simulation software. CATCH is also planning to include Emerson's Smart Wireless solutions that enable data to be collected from remote locations without the need for wires.

"We are delighted to be involved with the CATCH project which sets a new standard for training facilities in our industry," said Travis Hesketh, director of PlantWeb for Europe, Emerson Process Management. "By basing its training facility on our PlantWeb digital architecture and DeltaV system, CATCH offers its partners a state of the art facility that uses the architecture of choice for the process industry."

The project is already proving to be a great success with over 6000 students having passed through the facility in the first year of operation. From January 2008 more than 120 apprentices will be based at Stallingborough, learning skills and gaining experience that will be vital to the future success of the industry.