Emerson Process Management has completed an automation retrofit to six of eight diverse product units within the Elekeiroz Chemicals plant near São Paulo, Brazil. The implementation of Emerson’s PlantWeb® digital plant architecture features DeltaV™ digital automation systems with advanced control software and AMS™ Suite predictive maintenance software. Employing both batch and continuous processes, the various product units feed one another and share utilities in a highly interdependent manner.The Elekeiroz plant consists of eight product units such as this maleic anhydride plant. At Elekeiroz, the PlantWeb architecture is composed of DeltaV systems within each plant that are networked with intelligent field devices using FOUNDATION fieldbus digital communications protocol, and also connected using HARTand analog technology. The four DeltaV systems include the AMS Suite: Intelligent Device Manager that gathers predictive diagnostic data from Rosemount® transmitters, Micro Motion® Coriolis flowmeters, and Fisher® valves with FIELDVUE® digital valve controllers. The networked predictive intelligence helps Elekeiroz personnel to know the health of the process and the devices themselves and detect abnormal developments before they become an operations issue.
“When PlantWeb was implemented in the maleic anhydride plant, AMS enabled two people to calibrate and commission 57 smart control valves in just two days,” said Gilberto de Souza, instrument and electrical maintenance supervisor at Elekeiroz. “Before PlantWeb, it would have taken at least seven days. That alone saved us more than USD 15,000, not counting savings from all the smart transmitters, which were also quick and easy.”