Control System World

The International Society of Automation (ISA) and the ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance have released a new guide to the world’s only consensus-based automation cybersecurity standards. “Quick Start Guide: An Overview of the ISA/IEC 62443 Series of Standards,” now available for download at isa.org/cyberguide, provides a high-level view of the objectives and benefits of these standards—as well as easy-to-use explainers on how to navigate them. The guide explores how and why IT and OT/ICS need unique types of protection against cyber threats and offers the latest recommendations on patch management. This new guide answers some of the most common questions about the ISA/IEC 62443 Standards, including:

Why is this series of standards important? What are the benefits of using the standards?
How are IT and ICS systems different?
Which documents are part of the series and how can I use them to find what I need?
Where can I find the current best practices around patch management?
The ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance’s Advocacy and Adoption work group coordinated the development of the guide, which was authored by Johan Nye. Nye is an independent consultant specializing in industrial control systems and cybersecurity. During his career spanning more than 38 years, Nye has designed ICS system architectures, created company standards and policies, implemented major ICS projects, supported ICS site engineers, and contributed to the design of several ICS products.

“Automation cybersecurity standards are crucial in this increasingly connected world,” says Mary Ramsey, ISA executive director. “The ISA/IEC 62443 Series of Standards leads the way as the world’s only consensus-based standards that focus on automation cybersecurity. One goal of the ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance is to raise awareness of these standards and encourage their adoption across a wide range of industries. We are grateful to the ISAGCA Advocacy and Adoption work group and Johan Nye for distilling these standards into a user-friendly format that can be shared widely.”

Chemical products are a key part of everyday life with more than 100,000 substances available and in use around the world. According to data from the UN Environment Program (UNEP), the global chemical industry produces more than 400 million tons of hazardous waste annually. These residues can present a severe threat to health and the environment if not discarded safely and quickly.

Chemical company BASF is tackling this challenge in an innovative way: converting chemical waste into reusable energy. The company recently upgraded its central waste incineration plant, which processes all the chemical waste from its site in Ludwigshafen, Germany, the largest chemical production site in the world with more than 250 plants, as well as from outside of the complex. The upgrade completely modernized the 60-year-old incineration control room with our Experion technology.

Nearly 30 controllers were installed to handle thousands of input and output signals from the incineration process each day. These signals help plant operators monitor the temperature, flow, level and pressure of the combustion process used on hazardous chemical waste. Once the waste is burned, the generated heat is converted into steam, which is then placed under high pressure in turbines to generate electricity—turning hazardous waste into clean energy.

Fully integrated into the consoles are live video feeds from several points of the incineration plant such as the boiler, combustion chamber and turbine. Barco OpSpace provides integration of video and interactive (third-party) computer sources into the Experion Orion console workspace, with control from one keyboard and mouse. A complete visualization of operations at any given moment offering insight into the incineration process from the beginning to the end.

Operators and production staff use two Collaboration Stations to access a large variety of plant information and documentation in real time — for example electricity and steam reports that provide important updates about how effectively the plant is converting hazardous waste into clean energy.

The incineration plant is responsible for burning hazardous chemical waste that cannot be recycled or reused in other production processes. These residues are introduced into the plant via pipelines, tanks and containers – mostly from the site itself but also from other nearby facilities. With these systems, plant operators monitor and control devices and equipment, while continuously receiving information on variables such as temperature, pressure and flow.

In many applications within the process, food and life sciences industries, the smallest amounts of a substance must be measured and added with a high degree of accuracy – whether in piping or in chemical reactors. Flavoring for foodstuffs, active ingredients for pharmaceuticals or corrosion-inhibiting substances in oil production are just a few examples. The newly developed Promass A measures such substances drop-for-drop with a precision unmatched worldwide.
Benefits:

• Highest measuring accuracy for lowest flow quantities: ±0.1% (at min. 8 g/min), ±1% (at min. 0.8 g/min)
• Excellent measuring performance and robustness, even in case of strongly fluctuating process and ambient conditions
• Highest product quality in hygienic and sterile applications thanks to self-draining single-tube system
• Space-saving installation: compact, lightweight sensors; no inlet and outlet runs required
• Optimal process reliability: high corrosion resistance, developed according to IEC 61508 (SIL), Heartbeat Technology for permanent self-diagnostics as well as for device verification during operation
• Full access to all process and diagnostic data through freely combinable I/Os, fieldbuses or WLAN

Promass A guarantees maximum robustness and precisely measured values with unparalleled repeatability. All of this thanks to the innovative sensor concept, which sets new standards in Coriolis measurement technology. Promass A is light and compact – with no losses in performance or robustness. The measuring device is therefore ideally suited for space-saving installation, for example in modular process facilities and skids.

Product Webpage

Yokogawa Electric Corporation has announced that its Norwegian subsidiary, Yokogawa TechInvent AS, has received orders to provide 59 high-performance FluidCom chemical injection metering valves for two offshore oil fields that are being developed by Equinor ASA, a Norwegian energy company. One destination is the Johan Sverdrup field in the North Sea, 160 km west of Stavanger, and the other is the Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea, 240 km northwest of Hammerfest. The orders for the FluidCom valves were placed through the suppliers of the chemical injection packages for these projects.
Shigeyoshi Uehara, head of the IA Products & Service Business Headquarters, comments as follows about these two orders: “We believe that the selection of the FluidCom valve by Equinor, a company that is renowned for its advanced technology and leading role in efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), was based on a very positive evaluation of its features. By enabling the remote control of chemical injection, FluidCom valves reduce the amount of work that must be performed under very demanding conditions on offshore platforms. Optimization of the chemical injection amount also protects the environment. FluidCom valves thus help our customers achieve significant reductions in OPEX and contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. By expanding its lineup of upstream solutions with products such as the FluidCom valve, Yokogawa is providing new value to its customers.”
Chemicals are injected into oil wells and pipelines to prevent scaling and corrosion. Although the opening, closing, and adjustment of injection valves is sometimes automated, this is usually done manually in the upstream sector. Such work is often performed under conditions that can be quite severe, and it can be difficult to avoid injecting excessive amounts of these costly chemicals. For reasons of safety, cost, and productivity, it is important to automate this process.

Yokogawa TechInvent developed and sells the FluidCom chemical injection metering valve. With flow metering and control functionality, a FluidCom valve can stably and automatically inject chemicals into a well or pipeline. The valve has few moving parts, so the risk of failure is low, and a self-cleaning function is provided that eliminates the need for maintenance. Suitable for both oil & gas upstream and midstream operations, the FluidCom valve improves operational efficiency, reduces running costs, and enhances health, safety, and the environment (HSE).

The global leader in functional safety, cybersecurity, and alarm management for the process industries, exida, has introduced their Alarm Management Practitioner (AMP) Program, a new certificate program that complements the company’s existing functional safety and ICS cybersecurity certificate programs.

The AMP Program is designed to teach end users, integrators, suppliers, and regulators how to realistically apply the most important concepts from the ISA-18.2 and IEC 62682 alarm management standards. The program was developed by exida experts who were instrumental in writing the ISA-18.2 standard and associated technical reports. It leverages exida’s experience from hundreds of alarm management projects to deliver the most important principles and the keys for success.

The AMP program will be offered in conjunction with the exida Academy Training course ALM 101: Introduction to Alarm Management Practices & Principles, which is offered generically or for specific control systems.

“exida’s AMP Program was developed to share what the ISA-18.2 and IEC 62682 really mean and how to apply them pragmatically,” said Todd Stauffer, exida Director of Alarm Management and voting member ISA-18.2. “Taking the course and completing the certificate demonstrates that the practitioner is prepared to support key alarm management activities, such as alarm philosophy development, alarm rationalization, and alarm issue remediation.”

A list of AMP certificate holders will be maintained on the exida website.

ABB recently announced it has completed its acquisition of GE Industrial Solutions (GEIS), GE’s global electrification solutions business on June 30, 2018. The transaction was announced on September 25, 2017, and is expected to be accretive to operational EPS in the first year.

The $2.6 billion transaction offers substantial value creation potential within ABB, including growth opportunities to be leveraged from coupling ABB’s digital offering, ABB Ability™, with the extensive GEIS installed base. ABB expects to realize approximately $200 million of annual cost synergies in year five, which will be key in bringing GEIS to peer performance.

“We are very pleased to welcome GE Industrial Solutions to ABB,” said ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. “The combination reinforces ABB’s position as a worldwide leader in electrification and accelerates our growth and competitiveness in key markets, particularly North America. As one of Thomas Edison’s original businesses, GEIS is the cradle of electrification – a legacy that we will preserve and build on, now that GEIS is part of ABB.”

GEIS will be integrated into ABB’s Electrification Products (EP) division, led by EP President Tarak Mehta, as a new business unit called Electrification Products Industrial Solutions (EPIS). Stephanie Mains, who was previously the President and CEO of the GE Industrial Solutions business, will lead the new business unit as Managing Director. As part of the transaction, ABB has established a long-term strategic supply relationship with GE to supply them with products and solutions from across the ABB portfolio. Included in the acquisition is a long-term right to use the GE brand.

“The product portfolios of GE Industrial Solutions and ABB are highly complementary. Together we will have a comprehensive combined portfolio, as well as an expanded global footprint, sales force and distribution network,” said Tarak Mehta. “We are committed to servicing the GEIS installed base and will now be able to provide a more technologically advanced and digitally connected offering to our customers around the world. Together we will strengthen ABB’s #2 position in electrification globally and expand our access to the attractive North American market.”

The International Society of Automation (ISA) is proud to announce those members elevated to the distinguished membership grade of Fellow and the Celebrating Excellence Award honorees for 2018, including Member's Choice honorees chosen by their peers.

Elevation to the distinguished grade of ISA Fellow is granted to Senior Members in recognition of their exceptional engineering scientific contributions to the field of automation. ISA's Celebrating Excellence Awards honor companies and individuals, both members and non-members, for significant contributions in leadership, technical innovation, and contributions to education that have advanced the profession.

Award presentations will be made at the ISA Honors & Awards Gala on 14 October 2018 at the Grand Hyatt Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

2018 ISA Fellows

Shankar B. Baliga, Ph.D.
Orange County Section
General Monitors, Lake Forest, California, USA
For contribution to significant advances in adaptive industrial gas and flame detection

Eric C. Cosman
Toledo Section
OIT Concepts LLC, Midland, Michigan, USA
For leadership in advancing the state of automation cybersecurity as an essential element of operational information technology

Edward L. Quinn
Orange County Section
Technology Resources, Dana Point, California, USA
For contributions to the design, development, and implementation of control systems, data acquisition systems, instrumentation, and standards for the nuclear power industry

Herman E. Storey
Houston Section
Herman Storey Consulting, LLC, Kingwood, Texas, USA
For leadership in advancing the adoption and management of Foundation Fieldbus, wireless networks, and intelligent devices