Emerson Exchange 365

by Jim Montague

When it comes to process control and automation, too many good cooks don't spoil anything. Indeed, the more than 300 conference sessions, workshops and short courses given at this week’s Emerson Global Users Exchange 2015 show that collaborative effort and team problem solving are key to achieving top plant performance—and often to giving a great presentation.

In a Thursday luncheon session, eight winners were chosen in the event's five tracks, including Solve & Support, Measure & Analyze, Operate & Manage, Final Control & Regulate, and Business Development & Career Management.

"We received 900 abstract submissions starting back in January, and our per-track review teams cut them to about 320 final submissions by April," said Doug De Bruin, senior projects director at Clearwater Paper and vice chair of the Emerson Global Users Group Board of Directors. "The teams strive for quality and seeks to remove all subjectivity because we want attendees to feel like they're getting the best quality sessions possible.” Next, presenters began to develop their slide decks and other content for their 45-minute sessions, working with mentors to reach final approval. “As usual, it was hard to get down to just 320 sessions because we get so many quality proposals,” De Bruin said, “so we're once again asking everyone who didn't make it try again next year."

Solve and Support

This track had 50 final submissions, five award nominees, and three best-of-track winners:

Mark Murphy and Adrian Lee of Fluor Enterprises, and Larry Lammers of Caltrol Inc., who presented "Engineering Outside the Box; Using New Tools To Reduce Engineering And Construction Costs." They took a typical grassroots project with 12,500 I/O, and examined various ways to dramatically reduce the cost of field installations through optimized hardware selection, reduced engineering, design and construction using multiple Emerson capabilities. Read more about their presentation.

Brian Faivre of Deschutes Brewery and Ryan Nielsen of Emerson, who presented "Cheers! A Look at How Deschutes Brewery Uses Emerson Standard Configuration Library to Make the Country's Best Craft Beer." In 2002, Deschutes added a semi-automated system to increase production, while still producing high quality product, but the system caused the brewery pain. Their presentation focused on how these pains were alleviated by using the Emerson standard configuration library during their Brewery Cellar Expansion Project, and showed how using the library continues to assist Deschutes.

Midhu Varghese of AbbVie, and Jeff Cook and Lee Valle of Novaspect, who presented "Estimating Tools Save $600K." Through innovative use of common tools, the end user's system database was grouped into S88 areas, physical I/O and controller layout mapped, and cross-controller communication risks identified, assessed and quantified. This resulted in the capital budget request being reduced by $100K with a scope increase of $500K and estimate allowance reduced from 20% to 10%. Read more about their presentation. 

Measure & Analyze

This track had 75 final submissions, five award nominees, and two best-of-track winners:

Aoyama Takayuki and Atsushi Kondo of Mitsubishi Chemical, and Bill Zhou of Emerson, who presented "Mitsubishi Chemical Uses Diagnostics and Smart Maintenance to Reduce Costs and Improve Uptime." Mitsubishi Chemical improved its ability to diagnose issues with plant assets, and quickly correct abnormalities in the plant. By migrating the plant over to digital field devices and taking advantage of additional diagnostic information available through HART, Mitsubishi Chemical developed a proactive maintenance program that relied on extensive field intelligence. Read more about their presentation.

Josh Peters of Seneca Resources Corp., who presented "Dual Channel Gas Monitoring and Ultrasonic Leak Detection for OSHA PSM Mandates." Seneca Resources created a system to detect gas emissions from the shale gas well pad it builds for its clients. By implementing a mix of fixed gas monitoring and ultrasonic leak detection, Seneca mitigated risks identified during HAZOP analysis, and facilitates compliance with OSHA PSM regulations. Read more about his presentation. 

Operate & Manage

This track had 100 final submissions, five award nominees, and one best-of-track winner:

Pranob Banerjee and Sandeep Kondaveeti of Nexen Energy ULC, and Hailei Jiang of Spartan Controls, who presented "Managing SAGD Well Production through Advanced Process Control." Nexen's oil sands division operates more than 100 steam-assisted, gravity-drainage (SAGD) wells in Alberta, and it implemented advanced process control to enhance well production. Read more about their presentation.

Final Control & Regulate

This track had 30 final submissions, three award nominees, and one best-of-track winner:

Gordan Suljkanovic and Nestor Anaya of Lyondell Basell, and Afton Coleman of Emerson, who presented "Dual SIS Smart Positioners for Isolation Valves Partial Stroke Test." An interlock with two fail-closed, 36-in, triple-offset butterfly valves in series was installed to mitigate over-pressure hazards.

Business Development & Career Management

This track had 20 final submissions, three award nominees, and one best-of-track winner:

David Beckmann of Emerson, who presented "Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook." His was a presentation directed at helping each attendee see the advantage of communicating with a clear voice about how to make their company more effective by Elevating their Experience.