Hydrocarbon Processing - November 2022 - 23

Process Controls, Instrumentation and Automation
approved control system, as well as to a
full spectrum of approved analytics, reliability
and measurement equipment. This
could be completed without the need to
upgrade an unsatisfactory control system
or to perform a full rip-and-replace procedure
on the old equipment. The project
team would simply strip the old controllers
off the existing I/O and move to the
control system of their choice, connecting
it via an I/O-agnostic interface. Then, as
time allowed in the coming years, personnel
would gradually move the old I/O to
new hardware, enabling a transition to optimum
control with little to no downtime.
Maintaining capital flexibility. As
hydrocarbon processors retool existing
terminals and add new sites and trains to
increase capacity, they are finding a need
to add automation that leverages some
of the existing infrastructure; however,
plant personnel are also learning that such
a strategy can quickly cause capital constraints.
These teams need ways to better
focus investments, allowing them to redirect
capital to enable the updates they
need without derailing other critical projects
when budgets are tight.
Many of these plants are faced with
difficult choices, as they will be forced to
spend capital on automation in the next
couple of years due to control system obsolescence.
However, as they pull their
capital plans together, modernization
teams quickly discover that there is only
so much capital to go around. These teams
must balance the requirement to upgrade
control technologies with additional mandated
needs to process more product, refine
more oil, expand and reopen refineries,
and upgrade technologies just to keep
running.
Control solutions with I/O-agnostic
interfaces can help ease the pressure of
constrained capital. This is one of the few
places where a change is typically more
cost effective than maintaining the status
quo. Typically, the cost for supporting legacy
control systems is high, and the support
received is often poor, as few companies
still have a deep bench of personnel
capable of supporting old equipment. In
contrast, agnostic interfaces to connect
new control technologies to existing I/O
are usually low cost-typically lower than
the upkeep of legacy technology-and are
designed to let plants start small and scale
up as capital constraints allow.
FIG. 4. Installed costs are significantly lower when using an I/O-agnostic interface vs. traditional
rip-and-replace modernization strategies.
Moreover, because I/O-agnostic interfaces
allow plants to keep existing I/O in
place, they enable teams to postpone work
that generates a large percentage of project
cost. Once the interface is in, and the plant
is up and running using new and more efficient
control technologies, technicians
can individually update I/O on their
schedule while the plant is running-thus
shifting what used to be a capital expenditure
to the operations budget (FIG. 4).
One large producer hoping to address
automation obsolescence across its entire
enterprise discovered that it would never
be able to procure sufficient funding to
transition the hundreds of thousands
of I/O points across its fleet as part of a
capital project. However, implementing
an open automation solution centered
on I/O-agnostic interfaces would enable
the organization to move all existing I/O
to new control technology, and then put
a plan in place to gradually transition its
I/O backbone over the next decade, using
existing personnel as part of operations.
All plants would immediately reap the
benefits of new control technology-a
feat that seemed impossible, using traditional
modernization strategies.
Improving modernizations and performance
with open technologies.
Meeting the world's needs for fuels and
other petrochemical products requires
an increase in efficiency, reliability and
productivity, which is not possible when
limited to most legacy control hardware.
The answer is making the change to a new
control system to unlock best-practice
technologies but doing so in a way that
does not require a rip-and-replace project
that will generate massive downtime and
strain capital budgets.
New technologies enable modernizations
to deliver a fast return on investment,
while simultaneously empowering
teams to better manage capital costs
and opening a wider array of options
for available technology. Lifecycle costs
for these new technologies are typically
lower than what plants spend to maintain
legacy equipment, and these open
technologies empower plants to do more
with less, both during and after modernization
initiatives.
MUNCHOONG (MC) CHOW is a Modernization
Consultant with Emerson. He collaborates with
customers to create new initiatives for modernizing
their legacy process automation systems. His
role encompasses both consulting and business
development, focusing on the refining/hydrocarbon
processing industry. Chow has more than 30 yr of
experience in process automation, with the past
20 yr spent with Emerson and an Emerson Impact
Partner. He earned a BS degree in control systems
and instrumentation engineering from City, University
of London, England and is a Certified Functional
Safety Professional.
AARON CREWS is the Global Director of Modernization
at Emerson. He has extensive experience in planning
and executing control system modernization
projects throughout the hydrocarbon value chain,
and his current focus is on enabling approaches
and technologies that deliver the value of modern
automation at reduced cost and risk. Crews earned a
BS degree in chemical engineering from Texas A&M
University and an MBA degree from the McCombs
School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.
Hydrocarbon Processing | NOVEMBER 2022 23

Hydrocarbon Processing - November 2022

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