Emerson Process Management recently completed an upgrade of the control system at the Adisseo plant in Burgos, Spain, to PlantWeb digital plant architecture. The upgrade helped position Adisseo, a world-leading producer of nutritional feed additives for animals, to achieve its targeted annual 15 percent growth rate.
Adisseo’s plan for achieving the growth target included increasing plant capacity while reducing operating costs within the bounds of improved safety and increased reliability. To meet its objectives, the company needed to upgrade its control and automation system, migrating from its existing Emerson RS3 control system to a solution based on Emerson’s PlantWeb digital plant architecture with DeltaV digital automation system and AMS Suite predictive diagnostic software.
“We have a long and successful working relationship with Emerson Process Management, so it was a logical decision to invite them to engineer and supply our new system,” said Luis Ruiz, technical director at Adisseo.
The automation project involved Emerson in the supply of both hardware and software, and engineering and design services. With the help of the detailed plant and process knowledge of the Burgos staff, the Emerson team engineered the PlantWeb architecture, wrote the functional design specification, configured the system and project managed the interfacing of the automation system to the plant’s Maximo computerized maintenance scheduling system.
Following the installation of the PlantWeb solution and DeltaV system, the plant’s throughput has increased by 30 percent, accompanied by a significant reduction in reagent consumption and a 14 percent reduction in power consumed per kilo of product. There have also been significant improvements in product quality in terms of variability and product yield as a result of the tighter control over reagent flows.
The improvements in throughput are mainly due to increasing the number of plant’s production hours. Unplanned plant shutdowns have been reduced by 50 percent and restart times have been typically reduced by 20 percent. The diagnostic information provided by PlantWeb has made a significant contribution to this improvement.
The improvements in energy consumption have been achieved with the help of the asset management capabilities of the DeltaV system and AMS Suite, providing a continuous display of the power-consuming performance of equipment such as pumps and motors. Such displays, and other information from the DeltaV system, can also now be viewed remotely and securely via the internet.
Communicating over the HART protocol through the plant’s existing 4-20mA instrument wiring, the PlantWeb architecture integrates the DeltaV system, AMS Device Manager, AMS ValveLink software for Fisher control valves, and more than 400 other instruments and valves. The plant’s instrumentation is mainly Emerson; from gas and liquid Micro Motion ELITE Coriolis flowmeters, to Rosemount pressure and temperature transmitters, Fisher valves and FIELDVUE positioners, and Rosemount Analytical process gas analyzers for the on-line analysis of process reagents.
“There is no doubt that our goals of continuous growth and improvement would not have been achieved without the commitment of both the staff at the Burgos plant and the local Emerson teams,” said Luis Ruiz. “Their on-going collaboration over recent years has resulted in a plant automation system that is delivering quantifiable benefits at every level of the Adisseo organization – from the plant level at Burgos all the way to the commercial sales level where we believe we have a clear competitive advantage in the production of this important nutritional feed additive.”
