FieldComm Group announced that Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical Limited (MRPL), located in Mangalore, India, has been named the FieldComm Group 2018 Plant of the Year. The annual award is presented by FieldComm Group to recognize the people, companies and plant sites around the globe that are using the advanced capabilities of FOUNDATION Fieldbus, HART and Wireless HART technology in real-time applications for improved operations, maintenance and asset productivity. This is the first time ever that a process facility located in India has received this award, illustrating India's, and specifically MRPL's, growing strength in the world market.
Ted Masters, president and CEO of FieldComm Group (left), presents the 2018 Plant of the Year plaque to the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical (MRPL) team at the 2018 Automation Fair in Mumbai, India. Source: FieldComm Group
The culture of "doing things better" has been an integral part of MRPL and Close coordination between the many disciplines (C&I, Projects, Process Operations, etc.) has enabled them to be industry leaders in utilizing the information provided by smart devices, which has led them to be selected as the 2018 Plant of the Year.
"FOUNDATION Fieldbus technology provided a 50% savings with I/Os, cabling, maintenance utilization and installation costs when compared to conventional installations — saving $6,600,000 in project costs alone. In terms of maintenance, FF and HART provided on our instruments, valves and positioners provide an average savings of 55 man days per month," says B. Sudarshan, chief general manager of Instrumentation & Electrical at MRPL.
- More than 35,000 devices
- More than 9,000 FOUNDATION Fieldbus devices, including 1,300+ valve positioners
- More than 5,000 HART devices connected to the DCS via HART multiplexers, and used predominantly on safety systems (SIS)
- HART is used on several varied applications with average battery life of approximately 3 years
- Utilizing FOUNDATION Fieldbus for Motor Operated Valves, MRPL achieved 80% reduction in I/O, cabling and footprint requirements, accounting for $415,000 in savings
- Device templating has greatly reduced commissioning time and reliability
- MRPL has also indicated that they are starting a fourth phase project for the refinery, which will utilize HART and FOUNDATION Fieldbus exclusively and is targeted for completion in 2025
In addition to hard cost savings in infrastructure and maintenance time, MRPL continues to receive savings in averted shutdowns and interruptions. In one instance where an unexpected shutdown would have occurred due to valve fault, valve positioner diagnostics identified an issue that allowed MRPL to avoid shutting down Hydrogen generation — saving $60,000 in startup and shutdown costs associated with fuel and energy loss.
"Open standards have enabled us to derive value in many different scenarios throughout the entire plant," Sudarshan says. "For example, HART is enabled in our Safety Systems that allow for Partial Stroke Testing — avoiding the necessity to completely shut down. Control in the Field provided by FOUNDATION Fieldbus allows MRPL to operate even in the event of critical hardware failure — giving our team peace of mind. In 2016, thanks to Control in the Field, we were able to keep our refinery processing running during a DCS upgrade that otherwise would have required a shutdown resulting in a production loss of $800,000."
Ted Masters, president and CEO of FieldComm Group adds: "End users will continue to use multiple communication protocols in their facilities to optimally address process automation use cases. The most adept users will also take advantage of smart data and the tremendous cost savings enabled through its use. MRPL is a great example of using smart data, and we are grateful that they applied for and won this year's FieldComm Group Plant of the Year Award."
Previous Plant of the Year Award recipients include Shell FLNG (Australia), Nucor Steel (USA), Dow Chemical (USA), Monsanto (USA), Shell (Canada), MOL (Hungary), Mitsubishi Chemical (Japan), PVSDA (Venezuela), Statoil (Norway), Sasol Solvents (South Africa), BP (USA), Clariant (Germany) and DuPont (USA). To read their stories, learn more about the award or apply for the award in the future, click here.
