1660602112319 Hugconference

Live Coverage from Honeywell Users Group Americas 2014

June 4, 2014
Our Editors Cover This Year's Event. Don't Miss the Details!

Headlines from June 3, 2014

Build Out Continues for SmartLine Instrument Platform

Honeywell Process Solutions continues to invest in its field instrument portfolio, announcing several new products and development milestones this week at its Honeywell Users Group (HUG) Americas Symposium in San Antonio, Texas. Read more.

Make the LEAP to More Efficient Project Execution

Honeywell Process Solutions' new project execution approach helps prevent cost and time overruns by "taking automation off the critical path," according to Brendan Sheehan, projects and automation system business global marketing director, Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS). Read more.

Innovation, Commitment Drive Honeywell Forward

Even as Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) continues to fulfill its promise of never leaving a customer behind, it's innovating on the twin fronts of technology and project execution methodology to address its customers' most pressing needs. Such was the core message delivered by newly minted HPS president, Vimal Kapur. Read more.

Demand the Highest Value

"At Honeywell, we resolve to improve the customer experience at every touchpoint," began Andy D'Amelio, vice president Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS), in his keynote address to the Honeywell Users Group (HUG) Americas this week in San Antonio, Texas. Read more.

Sleek New Console Boosts Operator Effectiveness

At first glance, the new Experion Orion console from Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) is the sleekest and most futuristic operator console ever. But that's just the beginning. First impressions give way to a deep appreciation of the enormous amount of thought and discipline that goes into making the complex seem so simple and elegant. Read more.

Headlines from June 4, 2014

South Americans Take Top HUG Honors

The southern hemisphere was well represented onstage during this week's Honeywell Users Group (HUG) Americas Symposium in San Antonio. IAC Ingeniería Ltda., a Chilean integrator, was named Americas 2013 Channel Partner of the Year. And Herbert Senzano Lopes, a Brazilian chemical engineering graduate student, claimed top prize in the UniSim® Design Challenge for his use of the Honeywell Process Solutions simulation software to model the productive re-use of pipeline flare gas to generate electricity. Read more.

IT Compliance Adds Urgency to Chevron Upgrade Plans

Earlier this year, Microsoft sunsetted support for its Windows XP server operating systems. Windows Server 2003 will soon follow in July of 2015. Chevron Corp is using this imminent non-compliance with corporate IT policies to help motivate and justify an ongoing modernization and standardization plan across its fuel blending and movement operations. Read more.

Total's Stepwise Migration from TDC to Experion

Control system migration may be complex, but identifying, addressing and resolving its many problems can make it an especially rewarding challenge for the automation professional. A team at Total Petrochemicals & Refining has been modernizing the TDC 2000 system in its Port Arthur facility since 2005, and learned many lessons. Read more.

{pb}

BP Renews Safety at North Slope Gathering Center

Upgrading process safety systems is challenging in the best conditions and times—doing it at -40 °F is a little more tricky. But that's what BP Exploration just accomplished at its Gathering Center 1 (GC1) facility in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Read more.

KMCO Gains Big System Benefits on a Budget

Automating manual operations can deliver significant benefits. And when you're dealing with all the recipes needed to make hundreds of different chemical intermediates, automation can be an absolute blessing. For example, specialty chemical manufacturer KMCO Inc. used mostly manual and single-loop controllers to make about 1,000 products. Read more.

Headlines from June 5, 2014

Incremental Thinking Won't Solve Automation Challenge

As the project execution arm of the global energy giant, ExxonMobil Development Company typically is involved with more than 100 active projects around the world at any given time. And while automation engineering is a critical aspect of them all, it's an "infrastructure" activity that is wholly dependent on other engineering disciplines for its design inputs. Read more.

Simulators to Streamline Operator Training at Suncor

Suncor Energy Inc.'s Fort McMurray, Alberta, plant is five hours north of the nearest civilization (Edmonton) and 8 hours away from a major city (Calgary). There's snow around for seven months of the year. Yet a modest house costs $800,000. "It's hard to get skilled workers to move to the area," said Derwin Bonney, Suncor fixed plants simulator training supervisor. Read more.

Marathon Petroleum's Instrument Management Journey

Everyone wants to see into the future, but it can be a little disorienting when you actually do. In the world of process instrumentation, this means moving from reactive instrument maintenance to predictive/proactive maintenance and using software packages. Read more.

Control Performance Depends on Data Integrity

With 348,000 data streams from 50,000 miles of pipelines, 24 natural gas processing plants and six offshore oil platforms, as well as numerous storage and supporting facilities, Ted Porter, process control supervisor, Enterprise Products, has good reason to be sure his company's data flows continuously and accurately. Read more.

Cybersecurity Demands Continued Vigilance

If, as Thomas Jefferson said, eternal vigilance is the price of liberty—it's also the price of cyber-secure operations. So after Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) designs the latest security functions into its products, its developers know this is just the beginning of the updates they'll need to provide. Read more.