LAST MONTH SAW the Fieldbus Foundation demonstration of its High Speed Ethernet (HSE) and Flexible Function Block (FFB) technologies at the former BP Chemicals 1, 4-butanediol (BDO) plant in Lima, Ohio, now operated by International Specialty Products (ISP).The plant implements function block-based control in the field on a number of mission critical applications, but the demonstration centered on the use of HSE and FFBs to control periodic blowback of three particulate filters, each equipped with 10 quarter turn butterfly valves controlled by sequential function charts in the DCS. The application combines Foundation fieldbus H1, HSE, FFB and OPC technologies and the demonstration showed how discrete I/O could be changed to H1, and the SFC logic moved from the DCS to the field. The demonstration included interoperating equipment and function blocks from Emerson, SMAR, Invensys, Yokogawa, Yamatake, Westlock, Pepperl+Fuchs, StoneL and Softing together with Ethernet switching technology from Hirschmann and Turck. Also taking part were Hawke, Honeywell, MTL, Phoenix Contact, Rockwell and TopWorx.
