Emerson Exchange 365

Blogs

Jim Cahill
- 17 Aug 2017
Blog: 2017 AIChE Board of Directors Election

Professional societies are very important in advancing knowledge, standards, peer networks and more. Within our world of manufacturing and automation there are several including the International Society of Automation (ISA) and the Measurement, Control & Automation Association (MCAA) to name but two. There are also numerous engineering societies around the globe focusing on many of the engineering disciplines including...
Jim Cahill
- 14 Aug 2017
Blog: Digital Transformation of the Gas Value Chain

As liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant come online across the globe, the fundamental nature of the gas market is changing with supply finding demand and pricing variability decreasing. The October 25-27 Gas Asia Summit , as part of the Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW), brings together business leaders and technical experts in the natural gas and LNG industries to discuss trends, innovations and collaboration opportunities...
Jim Cahill
- 9 Aug 2017
Blog: Monitoring Your Medium Voltage Switchgear

When I worked in the offshore oil & gas business many years ago, production platforms typically had low-voltage electrical systems running motors no larger than 480VAC. Over the years as the process sophistication grew and motors with variable speed drives replaced engine-driven compressors and other assets, the need for medium voltage systems (between 1KV and 35KV) grew. For most other industries with access to an...
Jim Cahill
- 7 Aug 2017
Blog: Optimized and Flexible Refinery Blending for Current Market Conditions

Refinery blending operations are the “cash registers” since it “ …is the last chance to optimize the final saleable product, as well as the final opportunity to achieve as close to product specifications as possible. ” A recent RBN Energy blog post, The Price You Pay (For Premium Gasoline) – The Widening Price Differential Between Premium And Regular Gasoline , notes the growing cost spread...
Jim Cahill
- 31 Jul 2017
Blog: Terminal Automation Solutions Webinar

Storage terminals are an integral part of the supply chain for hydrocarbon products to connect producers with consumers. With the vastness of new oil & gas production discoveries brought on by the shale revolution, terminals are increasingly becoming bottlenecked in many parts of the world. This is primarily due to increased customer demand. Join Emerson’s Mike Stappert on August 10 at 2pm EDT/10am PDT for...
Jim Cahill
- 27 Jul 2017
Blog: Reducing Control System Hardware Footprint

Emerson’s Ben Skal presented on reducing the Ovation distributed control system hardware footprint at the 2017 Ovation Users Group conference. Virtualization technology is at the heart of this hardware footprint reduction and having less workstation and server hardware to maintain. Ben’s presentation focused on: What is virtualization & how it works Appropriate uses of virtual machines (VMs) ...
Jim Cahill
- 27 Jul 2017
Blog: Reducing Control System Hardware Footprint

Emerson’s Ben Skal presented on reducing the Ovation distributed control system hardware footprint at the 2017 Ovation Users Group conference. Virtualization technology is at the heart of this hardware footprint reduction and having less workstation and server hardware to maintain. Ben’s presentation focused on: What is virtualization & how it works Appropriate uses of virtual machines (VMs) ...
Jim Cahill
- 26 Jul 2017
Blog: Take Charge of Partial Discharge to Protect Plant Assets

Emerson’s Jonathan Murray discussed partial discharge solutions at the 2017 Ovation Users Group conference. Unplanned electrical asset failures can halt production and amount to millions of dollars of associated costs. The IEEE and NFPA organiz...
Jim Cahill
- 26 Jul 2017
Blog: Model Predictive Control in Power Generation

Model predictive control in power generation was the subject of a 2017 Ovation Users Group presentation by Emerson’s Ranjit Rao . Rajit opened comparing classical control with model-based control. In classical control, a proportional-derivative-integral loop is used with feedback. There is a setpoint, the actual process variable and the error or difference between the process variable and setpoint. Based on the...
Jim Cahill
- 26 Jul 2017
Blog: Simulation for Training and Engineering Applications

At the 2017 Ovation Users Group conference, Emerson’s Bob Kerestes and Sheldon Willis gave an update embedded simulation in the Ovation system. Sheldon opened the presentation describing types of uses for simulators for training and engineering. For training simulators, simulations can range from simple tie-back models to high-fidelity models which simulate the dynamics of the running process. For high-fidelity...