WRA – World Refining Association – has announced the 22nd Annual ARTC
conference. The email description appears below. The description focuses on
digitalization in the downstream area.
But what, exactly, is meant by “digitalization?”
TIP:
Google® what is
digitalization
One result is a fascinating Forbes blog post. In Digitization, Digitalization, And Digital
Transformation: Confuse Them At Your Peril, Jason Bloomberg distinguishes between the three concepts
in the post title ...
“In the final analysis, therefore, we digitize information, we
digitalize processes and roles that make up the operations of a business,
and we digitally transform the business and its strategy. Each one is
necessary but not sufficient for the next, and most importantly, digitization
and digitalization are essentially about technology, but digital transformation
is not. Digital transformation is about the customer.”
Read the entire post at …
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2018/04/29/digitization-digitalization-and-digital-transformation-confuse-them-at-your-peril/#355d5fad2f2c
Here is the text of the email that dropped into my inbox …
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Despite having spent countless hours
discussing digitalisation over recent years, many organisations still struggle
to even accurately define the term. Big data? Predictive Maintenance?
Artificial Intelligence? However you think of it, digitalisation is a subject
that many downstream stakeholders are only beginning to grapple with. And in
addition to opening new doors, digitalisation also brings a whole host of new
challenges including the threat of cyber-attacks, making it critical that
digital solutions are implemented with security in mind.
The World Refining Association has been the world’s foremost association for
the refining industry for over two decades, with operations on every
continent. As part of our activities we
are excited to host the 22nd Annual ARTC meeting where we’ll be delving into
this subject with a dedicated digital technology programme and sessions.
Highlights include a co-presented case study from Emerson and PETRONAS on
leveraging digitalisation with asset integrity monitoring, and a panel
discussion where you’ll have the chance to pose your questions to a line-up of
industry experts.
Interested? Download the full agenda and brochure here to find out who else you
could hear from at ARTC 2019, and Register now to take advantage of the Early
Bird rates!
Best regards,
Nick Lanigan
Programme Manager
World Refining Association
E: nick.lanigan@wraconferences.com
T: +44 (0) 207 384 7944
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TIP: Google®
emerson
petronas for background on the Emerson Petronas relationship mentioned in
the email.
Here is one result from the above search …
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Petronas Fits LNG Plant on 365-meter Ship
Harun Ab Rashid of Petrona
How do you squeeze an entire liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant onto an
ocean-going vessel? Before Petronas and Emerson Automation Solutions
collaborated to commission the PFLNG Satu, no one knew. It had never been done
before.
Now we know that digital technology—along with appropriate project execution
methodologies—can make it happen with certainty.
Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) is a $46 billion Malaysian oil and gas
company founded in 1974. It constructed its 2.5-sq-km LNG plant in Korea. “That’s
a very big area,” said Petronas FLNG instrument manager Harun Ab Rashid, who
co-presented the story at the 2017 Emerson Global Users Exchange in
Minneapolis. “The ship is 365 meters in length, about the size of four American
football fields. The plant will have a 20-year life of producing 1.2 million
tonnes of LNG per annum.”
Aboard the PFLNG Satu, gas is extracted from the wellhead through the turret
and then processed onboard. The gas is liquefied at -160 °C, shrinking the
volume by 600 times, because it needs to be transported on LNG carriers. The
LNG is then stored in 177,000 cubic-meter membrane-type cargo tanks until it is
offloaded.
“This had never been done before,” explained Rashid. “It was the world’s first.
We had many challenges, and we didn’t have any records. We had to develop a lot
of new things.”
Some of the challenges included the remote location, 180 km offshore, with
limited staff onboard, as well as thousands of fire-and-gas (F&G)
detectors, instruments and valves to manage and operate safely and reliably.
New digital capabilities were needed to tackle tough challenges. “We needed to
infuse digital technology to execute the project with confidence, and we needed
to infuse digital practices in plant operations to run and maintain with
confidence,” said Rashid.
Analog yields to digital
It was through the use of mostly digital signals that Petronas was able to
minimize the footprint enough to fit on the vessel, while enhancing the
maintenance-and-reliability capabilities of the equipment.
“We wanted to use digital signals from the sensors to the actuators,” explained
Jonas Berge, Emerson senior director of applied technology, who co-presented.
“We used digital transmitters, digital controllers and digital valves, and
there were digital I/O signals between them. In addition, we also had some analog
4-20 mA devices with some digital capability.”
Redundant DeltaV H1 cards with built-in power supplies were used, so no
additional power supplies were needed, reducing the system footprint and the
weight. “There’s no marshalling cabinet because there are no power
conditioners,” explained Berge. “The fieldbus cable lands directly on the H1
card. It simplifies the design and the commissioning.”
The project was designed based on device count, not I/O signal count or signal
type, so the exact signal count didn’t really matter. “It doesn’t matter if a
device has one signal or three signals or eight signals,” Berge said. “They
didn’t have to wait until late in the project to count I/O. They just counted
the number of devices. There’s also no I/O card selection because there’s only
one type of card. All of the signals are grouped together, so there’s one tag
for the whole device. You don’t have tags for each signal. It makes
configuration a lot simpler.”
“The ship is only so long,” explained Berge, “so we put a maximum number of
devices in each segment and made a worst-case design. We can put up to 12 or 16
devices on each segment.” Most segments were loaded with only eight devices,
however, to allow additional instrumentation to be added in the future.
Virtual remote seals, instead of traditional remote seals with capillaries,
were used. “It makes installation simpler and reduces measurement errors,”
explained Berge. “Seventy-three multi-point temperature transmitters, instead
of 584 single-point transmitters, were used, mostly for the cargo tanks. They
reduced the number of transmitter devices and the wiring needed.”
For valve positioners, the feedback happens over the same two wires. “There’s
no additional wiring or proximity switches or limit switches,” said Berge.
“It’s all provided in real time over the fieldbus. It reduces system I/O count,
and you get the flexibility to turn on the valve-position feedback.”
Commissioning also was simplified. The devices are automatically detected and
identified when they’re connected, so configuration is automatically
downloaded.
“Several of the team members weren’t familiar with digital technologies at the
start,” noted Berge. “As the project progressed, the personnel got to learn the
benefits of digital technology.”
Digital diagnostics
Digital diagnostic capabilities also benefited the maintenance team. “We have
very limited space onboard the ship,” explained Rashid. “The system I/O is
installed indoors in the equipment room, so we don’t have to go out into
inclement weather. There are no I/O cards out on the deck.”
The system includes intelligent device management (IDM) software, and the
fieldbus devices are in the database by default. “Not all 4-20 mA/HART devices
are in the database yet, but their incorporation is almost completed,”
explained Rashid. “Advantages include reduced maintenance costs and easy
configuration and calibration. We also incorporated smart-meter verification on
the Coriolis flowmeters to tell if meters are drifting or not.”
Future process equipment diagnostics include monitoring pumps and other
equipment health, adding instruments for equipment condition and performance
monitoring and adding sensors for energy management.
Several changes were made after the factory acceptance test, but the
flexibility of the architecture made these easy to handle. “Commissioning was
smooth, thanks to the device diagnostics,” said Berge.
“So far, we’ve had two instances of saves” due to the availability of device
diagnostics, said Rashid. “The result was we avoided downtime.”
Many lessons were learned along the way, including the need to educate
contractors on the use of HART communicators and the importance of entering any
4-20 mA/HART devices into the IDM database from the beginning. But the end
result is floating in open waters and documented.
“We managed to fit an entire LNG plant onboard a ship for the first time ever,”
Berge reminded. “By using digital practices in project execution and plant
operation and by infusing more digital technology into the automation, we
achieved smooth project execution and plant operation.”
source: https://emersonexchange365.com/industries/oilandgas/f/discussions-questions/6715/petronas-fits-lng-plant-on-365-meter-ship
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