Emerson Exchange 365

László Simon, head of automation and control department at Teva Pharmaceuticals Ltd explained how by installing wireless differential pressure (DP) meters to measure the flow of nitrogen, they have been able to optimise energy consumption and achieve production consistency between shifts and plants.

Teva is a leading international supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients (api) with more than 70 years of experience. The company has its headquarters in Israel and employs over 4,600 professionals worldwide. Annual sales are $1.9 Billion and the company has 20 sites worldwide, including three in Hungary.

The TEVA facility in Debrecen, Hungary, produces solid and semi-solid dosage products, pills, capsules, ointments, and soft and hard gelatine capsules. Bulk production output is 10 billion units. It is a large flexible complex that is capable of adapting to different project requirements that change rapidly to meet customer needs. When production capacity increases, so to does costs and this prompted the need for energy optimisation.

Accurate measurement of nitrogen usage within each plant was important when calculating the cost to produce each product. For TEVA to obtain this data, installing new measurement devices was required. There are 20 plants in the Debrecen complex and flow measurements were needed in different plants at different times, depending on the current project requirements. To meet this need for new measurement data, significant capital investment was required.

The company considered a conventional wired solution, but because there was no existing wiring available, the cost of the additional engineering and installation work exceeded the available budget. A further consideration was that the installation had to be completed during the annual 2 week shut down period. It would be very difficult to meet these time constraints using a wired solution.

“Emerson’s wireless technology provided an ideal solution and we decided to install wireless measuring systems at two locations,” said Simon. “The instruments were easy to install between two flanges and comprise a group of wireless transmitters to measure differential pressure, pressure and temperature. The calculation for mass compensation based on these measurements is made by the DeltaV system using standard function blocks. This data provides an exact nitrogen consumption calculation for each product, removing measurement inconsistencies.”

Wireless technology reduces installation complexity and cost, simplifying wiring and I/O allocation. In just 30 minutes, which included the mechanical installation, the instruments were sending measurement data to the DeltaV system via the wireless gateway and Modbus. Now that wireless technology is established at the site, instruments can be added or relocated on demand and at low cost to provide complete measurement flexibility.

The project was completed successfully, enabling nitrogen consumption to be optimised within the available budget. The wireless implementation was reliable and flexible and above all, very easy to install.

Simon concluded his presentation by showing the audience live data from wireless instuments installed at the TEVA plant in Debrecen, Hungary. This demonstrated how he is able to monitor the flow information from a remote location.