Topic: Process Automation Systems

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Process Controllers on Deck
See the Latest Developments in This Technology

Surprise! Field-Based Control Beats DCS
It Is Evident That Device-Based Control Exceeds DCS-Based Control in Reliability and Performance

Invest in Your Own Backyard
Lean Times May Be the Best Time to Spend on Enterprise Integration

The Future is Now
Process Control Is Open to Innovation!

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White Papers: In Depth Research

Plant Modeling: A First Step to Early Verification of Control Systems
Author: Arkadiy Turevskiy, Technical Marketing Manager, The MathWorks
Posted: 03/02/2010
Today's control system engineers face competing design demands: increase embedded system performance and functionality, without sacrificing quality or breaking the budget. It is difficult to meet these challenges using traditional design and verification approaches.

Without simulation it is impossible to verify a control design until late in the development process when hardware prototypes become available. This is not an insurmountable problem for simpler designs with predictable system behavior, because there are fewer sources of error in simpler control algorithms--and those errors can often be resolved by tuning the controller on the hardware prototype.

Today's multidomain designs combine mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, control, and embedded software components. For these systems, it is no longer practical to delay verification until late in the development process. As system complexity grows, the potential for errors and suboptimal designs increase. These problems are easiest to address when they are identified early in the development process. When design problems are discovered late, they are often expensive to correct and require time-consuming hardware fixes. In some cases the hardware simply cannot be changed late in the development process, resulting in a product that fails to meet its original specifications.

Traditional verification methods are also inadequate for testing all corner cases in a design. For some control applications, it is impractical or unsafe to test the full operating envelope of the system on hardware.

Development of Integrated Flexi-Burn Dual Oxidant CFB Power Plant
Author: Foster Wheeler USA and Foster Wheeler Energia Oy, Finland
Posted: 09/23/2009
Carbon-dioxide capture and storage (CCS) offers the potential for major reductions in carbon dioxide emissions of fossil fuel-based power generation in the fairly short term, and oxyfuel combustion is one of the identified CCS technology options. Foster Wheeler (FW) is working on reduction of carbon dioxide with its integrated Flexi-Burn dual-oxidant PC and CFB technology.

The proven high efficiency circulating fluidized-bed (CFB) technology offers a solution for carbon dioxide reduction both in re-powering and in greenfield power plants. CFB technology has the advantages of a more uniform furnace heat flux, excellent fuel flexibility and offers the opportunity to further reduce carbon dioxide emissions by co-firing coal with bio-fuels.

Development and design of an integrated Flexi-Burn dual-oxidant CFB boiler and balance of plant system was conducted in both air mode and oxyfuel mode. Through proper configuration and design, the same boiler can be switched from air mode to oxyfuel mode. The dual-oxidant CFB system incorporates features to maximize plant efficiency and power output when operating in the oxy-firing mode through firing more fuel in the same boiler.

Existing boiler design tools are being modified to incorporate the features of oxy-combustion, so that various design options can be evaluated. The 460 MWe supercritical CFB power plant (currently under construction by FW) has been used as the basis for an integrated Flexi-Burn dual-oxidant CFB study.

Process Analytics Finds Process Problems
Author: By Jack Wilkins, Canary Labs
Posted: 08/21/2009
Process Analytics and Intelligence—sometimes called Manufacturing Intelligence—has transformed the way companies produce goods, understand their manufacturing processes, and ensure a quality product in ways we could not have foreseen ten years ago.

Real-time Analytics have replaced the legacy concept of running reports. Reports that represent a static picture of a process at a fixed point in time are great tools for compliance audits and long term warranty analysis. However, they may not accurately represent the "as-is" state of a process. Reports showing large amounts of data can be difficult to interpret. There are often limitations in how the report data can be drilleddown and viewed.

With today's large volumes of data, there's a wealth of information that can be gained about the process. But how can this data be captured, managed and retrieved in a way that presents the information in an up-to-theminute easy to understand format? Real-time Analytics provides the techniques and solutions that address this problem. Instead of users having to interpret the data, it's presented in a graphical form enabling them to easily drill down to explore the data in real-time.

This white paper discusses how Process Analytics is implemented and utilized. Ways of managing and distributing Process Analytics to the organization are presented.

Specifying the Correct Enclosure Material
Author: Hoffman
Posted: 08/07/2009
Thirty years ago, specifying an enclosure involved three steps: ordering the appropriately sized gray box, installing sensitive electronic equipment and hoping the enclosure would withstand its surroundings. Today, choices have increased exponentially, as there is a wide variety of enclosure types. While many different attributes will affect an enclosure's performance, selecting the correct enclosure material is a key element in ensuring long enclosure life. The following tips and integrated Project Assessment Tool will assist in determining the correct enclosure material for the application at hand.

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