New Series of Emerson Fieldbus Installations Added to our Web Site

We recently added three new fieldbus sucess stories to the "Installations" section of our web site.  Some of these date back to 2008, but they are interesting for several reasons.  First, all of these installations are in China, which is a leading adopter of FOUNDATION Technology.  The industries and applications are also unique, and the savings realized are considerable. 

First is a SynGas Project with SES (ZaoZhuang) New Gas.  This is a coal gasification facility that produces 20,000 Normal cubic meters of natural gas an hour.  SES has also deployed control in the field. 

Changxing Glass is using FOUNDATION Fieldbus on one of their large production lines.  Changxing realized a 50 percent reduction in labor for startup, 15 percent reduction in field devices, and 60 percent savings in cable installation. 

Guixi Copper Smelting has a production capacity of  700,000 tons per year annum of copper cathode and sulfuric acid.  They are using FOUNDATION Technology on this sizable operation to improve reliability, product quality, and throughput.  Guixi Copper realized a 50 percent reduction in maintenance costs and startup times. 

Video Invitation to our End User Seminars in North America

Our marketing specialist Talon Petty has created an official video invitation at our YouTube channel for our end user seminars to be held in North America throughout 2011.  Seminar registration, locations, dates and more are listed at the end.  Check it out and we look forward to seeing you at our next seminar!

Official Video Invitation to North America End User Seminars

Interesting Interview of India Process Automation Pioneer P Mahajan

P Mahajan is one of the leading process automation professionals in India and provided the keynote address at our Mumbai General Assembly back in March.  Mr. Mahajan is technical director for Engineers India Limited (EIL), and is basically one of the fathers of process automation in India, introducing the concepts of electronic instrumentation and intrinsically safe systems in electrically hazardous plants to India in 1974.  This is a very good interview from A&D India of P Majahan by Soumi Mitra on some of the key automation trends in India, including fieldbus. 

Soumi Mitra Interviews P Mahajan on Process Automation Trends in India

Castrol Installs FOUNDATION Fieldbus on Tank Farm, Achieves 2 Day Startup

We at the Fieldbus Foundation consistently point out the reduced commissioning costs, engineering costs, and startup times you can achieve with FOUNDATION technology, and it's nice to see the results being reported in the real world.  Emerson Process Management recently posted this success story from Castrol NV in Antwerp, Belgium, where Castrol installed a DeltaV process automation system with FOUNDATION instruments.  Castrol reported a 60 percent reduction in commissioning time.  Because of the advanced diagnostics capabilities of the fieldbus devices, Castrol was able to reduce the overall number of field devices at each metering station.  Many tank farms today are faced with legacy control system issues, and still more are not very highly automated, or employ some combination of manual and automated approaches.  FOUNDATION Technology makes an excellent solution for these applications. 

DeltaV System, FOUNDATION Fieldbus Meets Product Measurement, Movement Challenges for Castrol NV Belgium

New YouTube Video Shows Device Commissioning

There is a new YouTube video posted to the Fieldbus Foundation channel that shows Amit Ajmeri of Yokogawa doing device commissioning.  It's a very good synopsis of the device commissioning process, including downloading the latest DD file from the Foundation web site.  The video was taken at our last end user seminar in Carson, California and also shows Yokogawa team member Ray Azizian. 

Amit Ajmeri Demonstrates FOUNDATION Fieldbus Device Commissioning

Interesting Article in Oil and Gas Journal on Reliance Jamnagar Refinery

The Reliance Jamnagar refinery is the largest in the world, and it is also quite possible the largest FOUNDATION Fieldbus installation in the world with over 22,000 fieldbus devices.  There is an interesting article in the Oil and Gas Journal on the refinery expansion project that is worth a read. Invensys Operations Management is the primary automation system supplier for this project and there are a lot of details on their scope of supply, etc. 

Brazilian End User Seminar is a Success

Our Brazilian Marketing Committee organized and held our most recent end user seminar on Thursday, June 16th at the Windsor Barra Hotel & Congressos in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil is a hotbed of fieldbus adoption right now. Major end users such as Petrobras are making significant investments in FOUNDATION Fieldbus. The seminar attracted roughly 150 attendees from end users to suppliers to systems integrators. The keynote address was given by Dr. Gunther Kegel, the new Chairman of the Fieldbus Foundation Board of Directors and CEO of Pepperl+Fuchs. Dr. Kegel listed some key FOUNDATION Fieldbus installations in Brazil, where the technology is in use in over a dozen refineries, several offshore platforms, and many other installations which, for end user Petrobras alone, accounts for around 70,000 fieldbus devices. Local supplier Smar also has many fieldbus installations throughout the country. Omar Sacilotto Donaire of Smar gave an update on the FOUNDATION Technology roadmap. Other end user presenters included Elaine da Silva of Petrobras and Ronaldo Neves Ribeiro and Alessandro S. Castro of Celulose Nipo Brasileira (a leading Brazilian pulp producer).

Fieldbus Foundation Chairman Dr. Gunther Kegel Delivers the Keynote Address

With all the fieldbus activity in Brazil, there is a strong demand for training. LEAD is in the process of becoming a certified FOUNDATION Fieldbus training center under our FCTP program, and Miguel Borges from Petrobras/Cenpes provided on update on LEAD’s status and future plans. Fieldbus Foundation’s Brazil Marketing Committee Chairman and Pepperl+Fuchs Marketing Director Augusto Pereira of Pepperl+Fuchs gave a presentation on bests practices for fieldbus project implementation. The seminar concluded with a presentation from another end user, Claudio Sperb from Braskem, on successful project implementation. The Braskem example is interesting because it involves ethanol production. Brazil implemented a comprehensive ethanol fuel production program to deal with the oil crunch of the 1970s and has been a leader in ethanol production ever since. Today, it is the second largest producer of ethanol in the world and has some of the most advanced production processes. Most of the country’s ethanol comes from widely available sugar cane.

The presentations can all be downloaded at the Fieldbus Foundation Forums web site, but you must be a registered user to download. Registration is free and only takes a minute. Warning: most presentations are, understandably, in Portuguese.