For its new 1,4-butanediol (BDO) plant in Lima, Ohio, BP Chemicals Inc. called upon Emerson Process Management’s PlantWeb field-based automation architecture with FOUNDATION fieldbus. BP distributed most process-control logic to field devices rather than centralising control in traditional computer control systems. The benefits: cost savings from design flexibility due to the open, standards-based technology and broad functionality of field devices, as well as greater system reliability without the need for costly redundant components. PlantWeb architecture is the automation solution of Fisher-Rosemount, now doing business as Emerson Process Management, the process business of Emerson. The BP Chemicals project is believed to present the most extensive use of “truly distributed” control using FOUNDATION fieldbus, with control algorithms running in 83 of the architecture’s 85 Fisher FIELDVUE® digital valve controllers. In addition, all dual-element transmitters rely on on-board signal-select blocks. Seventy-one fieldbus segments serve 350 Rosemount, Rosemount Analytical, Micro Motion, and Fisher Controls fieldbus instruments and valves handling 130 feedback loops. Each of the process’s 400 discrete devices is hardwired to the DeltaV™ automation system process controllers. Therefore, the entire system, with the exception of an emergency shutdown function, is covered by a single operating platform.
