Control System World

ZUG, Switzerland--Jan. 19, 2012-- Foster Wheeler AG (Nasdaq: FWLT) announced today that its India subsidiary, Foster Wheeler India Private Limited, part of its Global Engineering and Construction Group, has been awarded a contract for a new LNG receiving terminal to be built in Ennore, in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The contract was awarded by India’s national oil company, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL).

The Foster Wheeler contract value for this project was not disclosed and will be included in the company’s fourth-quarter 2011 bookings.

Foster Wheeler’s scope of work includes basic design, front-end engineering design, and the preparation of capital and operating cost estimates for the new LNG import, storage and regasification terminal, which will be designed to process five million tonnes per annum of LNG. Foster Wheeler’s scope also includes marine studies to enable IOCL to finalize the jetty location, utilities, and regasified LNG send-out facilities. The LNG terminal facilities are planned for completion by 2015-16.

SAN RAMON, Calif., January 16, 2011 – Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) reports that its subsidiary, Chevron Nigeria Limited, is working to contain a fire that ignited early this morning aboard the K.S. Endeavor, a drilling rig offshore Nigeria operated by FODE Drilling Nigeria Limited. The rig was drilling a natural gas exploration well, located in the Funiwa Field approximately six miles (10 kilometers) offshore and in approximately 40 feet (12 meters) of water.

One hundred and fifty-four personnel were on the rig and an associated barge. Two contractors are still unaccounted for while all others are safe and undergoing medical examinations at an adjacent production platform. Aggressive search and rescue activities continue for the two missing personnel.

"Every effort is being made to find the missing workers. They are our utmost priority," said Andrew Fawthrop, managing director, Chevron's Nigeria/Mid-Africa Strategic Business Unit. "We do not know what caused the incident. We are working diligently to contain the fire, which is restricted to the rig. Substantial resources have been deployed including well control specialists and drilling experts. We continue to work in full cooperation with Nigerian authorities and are committed to providing additional information as it becomes known."

he real-time Ethernet port multiplier allows the connection of eight independent Ethernet networks. The CU2508 is connected to the PC via a gigabit uplink. The PC offers high-performance data transfer to the multiplier, which allocates the data to the relevant 100BASE-TX port based on an analysis of a frame prefix and sends them time-controlled with µs precision. Received frames are also allocated a prefix including a timestamp and sent to the PC. With the support of a driver, users have eight independent ports with full real-time characteristics available. The CU2508 is used in applications in which several Ethernet ports are required that need to be realised outside the PC. TwinCAT supports the CU2508 and makes further network ports at the PC unnecessary. For extremely high demands, an EtherCAT installation can, for example, be distributed or expanded to up to eight lines in order to multiply the performance. The distributed clocks of the EtherCAT lines are synchronised. An EtherCAT cable redundancy can also be realised using two ports of the CU2508.

For further details please click 'Real-time Ethernet port multiplier'

Question:

We have a Data Highway+ network of Allen Bradley PLCs and have recently installed a Quantum DCS with Modbus TCP/IP. We would like to connect both systems together and display the data of both systems on an HMI. Is there a cheap and easy way to do this?

Answer by MatrikonOPC:

The short answer is: Yes, there is an easy way to do this. How? Using OPC the de facto standard for open data connectivity - an easy and inexpensive way to implement reliable bidirectional communications between your two control systems. The more detailed answer involves two pieces: OPC Servers to communicate with your specific controllers and an application that bi-directionally shares the data between them.

First, let’s look at getting the data to a common HMI: An OPC Server can provide you with access to all types of production data, regardless of whether the data comes from a real-time, historical, or alarm and event data source. Using the MatrikonOPC Universal Connectivity Server then, you can communicate to Allen Bradley PLCs and Quantum DCS, making their respective data available in a common OPC format that your HMI can display.

To share data directly between your two controllers requires that we establish bidirectional communication between both systems. The easiest way to do this is to use OPC Data Manager. OPC Data Manager is specifically designed to share real-time, historical, and Alarm & Events OPC data between two or more control systems in a secure and reliable manner. The interface is intuitive, making the mapping process quick and easy.

Please click here to get further details 'How do I communicate between my control systems?'

A good handy white paper on Custody Transfer using Coriolis Meters by MicroMotion. Please click 'Using Coriolis Meters for the Custody Transfer of Natural Gas' to download the paper.

A solution is provided by ProSoft for Modbus TCP to Modbus RT using module RLX-IFH24E. Please click 'RLX-IFH24E' to further read this technical guide.

RSLogix 5000 Software from Rockwell Automation Empowers New Series of Scalable Control System Offerings for Smaller Applications.

MILWAUKEE, Jan. 16, 2012 — The latest release of Rockwell Software RSLogix 5000 software from Rockwell Automation delivers the high performance of an integrated control system for manufacturers and machine builders requiring a smaller control system. Most notably, the software brings integrated motion capabilities on the EtherNet/IP network to the Allen-Bradley CompactLogix controller family. Using RSLogix 5000 v20 in combination with scalable, right-sized control system components allows users to scale from 200 to 10,000 I/O points using a single control platform and common user experience.

“Many machine builders and manufacturers must use multiple control platforms to meet their diverse needs,” said Mike Burrows, director, Rockwell Automation. “This creates unnecessary complexity because each platform has a unique design environment, user interface and vendor support model. Forward-looking machine builders and end users need a single-control infrastructure that easily scales to match application requirements.”

RSLogix 5000 v20 software provides a single-development environment for the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture system, including: the recently released CompactLogix 5370 Series of programmable automation controllers (PACs); Allen-Bradley ControlLogix and Allen-Bradley GuardLogix 5570 Series PACs, Allen-Bradley Kinetix 350 servo drive on EtherNet/IP, and Bulletin 1734 POINT Guard I/O Analog Input Module. This wider variety of options provides best-fit alternatives for applications, while new components significantly lower the cost to deploy integrated motion on EtherNet/IP in a greater range of machine applications.

ZUG, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 17, 2012-- Foster Wheeler (NASDAQ: FWLT) announced today that a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction Group has been awarded a contract by Petron Corporation (Petron) for the Petron Refinery Master Plan-2 Project in Bataan, Philippines. Foster Wheeler will execute detailed engineering and procurement services for the delayed coker unit (DCU), including the engineering and material supply of two double-fired Terrace WallTM coker heaters. The DCU will have a design capacity of 37,500 barrels per stream day and is a key part of this significant refinery upgrade.

This award follows an earlier award for the process design package and technology license for the DCU, which will use the company’s leading Selective Yield Delayed Coking (SYDECSM) process.

“We are very focused on leveraging coking technology wins into larger workscopes,” said Umberto della Sala, Chief Operating Officer of Foster Wheeler AG. “Coker units are complex, and we always recommend Foster Wheeler detailed engineering and critical procurement to realize the full operational benefits of our well-designed, well-constructed delayed coking unit. We believe that this award reflects Petron’s confidence in the added value that we will bring to this project and in our fast-track, cost-effective execution plan.”