Case Study: DCS Migration takes place smoothly despite Technical Challenges

Chevron’s Ghent facility in Belgium blends Texaco branded lubricants. The plant has over fifty vessels and storage tanks, and currently produces more than fifty formulations of lubricants and viscosity index improvers by means of blending and additives. Product quality is rigorously controlled. Approximately 1,000 tests are performed weekly at the plant’s analysis laboratory. More than thirty truck shipments are made every week. The plant previously was controlled by a Unix-based Foxboro I/A series distributed control system (DCS) installed in 1997. In 2010, Chevron decided to migrate to a new platform to take advantage of new functionalities, and ensure it had a system commensurate with its strong value proposition of advanced technology.

Careful project investigation and planning allowed Yokogawa to migrate the legacy DCS at Chevron’s Ghent facility to a state-of-the-art CENTUM DCS platform. The transition process went smoothly and efficiently, overcoming a number of complex technical challenges, which included emulating complex level 3 functionality, managing capital constraints, and solving an unforeseen interfacing issue with the plant’s weighing hardware.

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