RE: "Pervasive Sensing" to reach far beyond the process

Jonas Berge — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 06:17:42 GMT

In my personal opinion, WirelessHART enables existing sites to be modernized & sustained in ways previously not possible, benefitting both operations and maintenance. Wireless changes how we do things, for the better; how we maintain assets, how we look at energy consumption, how personnel operate in the field, and how we manage unmanned sites. One day every plant & field will have 1,000 wireless transmitters. Some sites are already very close.

EPCs can guide clients to modernize the plants they built years ago as a new business model to tie them through slow periods between projects, through a formal process. New projects should also deploy plant-wide wireless infrastructure, to make sure the new plant is not built to be run & maintained the old way with operator rounds; don’t build a new plant old.

With additional sensors throughout the plant, software, and operating procedures in place, "desktop maintenance" planning, energy conservation, HS&E compliance, and integrated operations can become a reality. Assets fitted with additional sensors become smart assets able diagnose their conditions and communicate it to operations & maintenance personnel. With these additional sensors in place, operator rounds can be reduced since the data comes to the operator, the operator need not go to the data. In other words, automate not only control loops, but also automate operator rounds and maintenance inspections. The process equipment is inspecting itself; a new type of self-diagnostics. “Pervasive sensing” across the plant is fundamental to this goal.

Adding sensors using wireless instead of wires enables accelerated deployment making it possible and low risk to deploy this “second layer” of automation during a short turnaround or even while the plant is running. Adding these “missing measurements” is essential for long term reliability of the plant. Therefore more and more plants are installing WirelessHART coverage throughout their process unit areas to enable a second layer of automation. Whereas the primary layer of automation is the regulatory control and safety instrumented functions that enable day to day operations, this second layer enables strategies to improve the reliability of plant assets, minimizing unplanned or unscheduled interruptions to operations and reduce maintenance costs. Modernization is not necessarily system migration, but to add automation where there was none before. Indeed, it is not necessary to replace the control system to add wireless sensors. Most plants add wireless sensors to their existing system and many of the new wireless sensors may connect to separate system for reliability, non-process safety, environmental, energy, and security – separate from the process control and safety system. Another element of this is the non-intrusive mechanical installation possible for many of these measurements; strap-on (ultrasonic sensor), bolt-on (position sensor), clamp-on the surface (temperature sensor), stick-on, screw-on, or magnetic (vibration sensor) eliminate the need for additional process penetrations for these measurements. This dramatically reduces cost and risk of deployment as there is no need to cut, drill, or weld pipes and vessels. Moreover, many of the measurement do not need high accuracy; they just need “good enough”.

Many operation and maintenance problems around the plant can be solved by deploying WirelessHART transmitters “beyond the P&ID” together with an asset management system and other software to obtain asset health information and other plant data. Wireless enables plants to innovate and experiment with new measurements to solve old operational problems.

Learn more from these articles:

Plant modernization

www.ceasiamag.com/.../9894

Improved reliability, increased energy efficiency and improved turnaround planning

issuu.com/.../iaa_aug2010

Flip through to page 57

Improved situational awareness; safety

www.iaasiaonline.com/more.php

Improved reliability and energy efficiency