Automating for Efficiency
A
utomation is the use of machines, control
systems and information technologies to
optimize productivity in the production
of goods and delivery of services. The
correct incentive for applying automation is to
increase productivity, and/or quality beyond
that possible with current human labour levels
so as to realize economies of scale, and/or real-
ize predictable quality levels. In the scope of
industrialisation, automation is a step beyond
mechanization. Whereas mechanization provides
human operators with machinery to assist them
with the muscular requirements of work, auto-
mation greatly decreases the need for human
sensory and mental requirements while increas-
ing load capacity, speed, and repeatability. In
process industries, automation involves using
computer technology and software engineer-
ing to help companies operate more efficiently
and safely. In the absence of process automation,
plant operators have to physically monitor per-
formance values and the quality of outputs to
determine the best settings on which to run the
t production equipment.
e This generally results in operational inefficiency
and unsafe operating conditions, and thats why
c process automation and control is so crtitical to
the refining and petrochemicals industries.
h curacy is required.
n Automation Plays an Increasingly Important Role
Automation has had a notable impact in a wide
o range of industries beyond manufacturing (where
it began). Once-ubiquitous telephone operators
l have been replaced largely by automated tel-
ephone switchboards and answering machines.
o Medical processes such as primary screening in
electrocardiography or radiography and labora-
g tory analysis of human genes, sera, cells, and
y tissues are carried out at much greater speed
and accuracy by automated systems. Automated
teller machines have reduced the need for bank
Process
Automation
Feature 34 HYDROCARBON ASIA, apr-june 2014
visits to obtain cash and carry out transactions. In
general, automation has been responsible for the
shift in the world economy from industrial jobs to
service jobs in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The term automation, inspired by the earlier
word automatic (coming from automaton), was
not widely used before 1947, when General Motors
established the automation department. At that
time automation technologies were electrical, me-
chanical, hydraulic and pneumatic. Between 1957
and 1964 factory output nearly doubled while the
number of blue collar workers started to decline.
Advantages and Disadvantages
The main advantages of automation are:
Increased throughput or productivity.
Improved quality or increased predictability
of quality.
Improved robustness (consistency), of proc-
esses or product.
Increased consistency of output.
Reduced direct human labor costs and expenses.
The following methods are often employed to
improve productivity, quality, or robustness.
Install automation in operations to reduce
cycle time.
Install automation where a high degree of ac-
Replacing human operators in tasks that involve
hard physical or monotonous work.[3]
Replacing humans in tasks done in dangerous
environments (i.e. fire, space, volcanoes, nuclear
facilities, underwater, etc.)
Performing tasks that are beyond human capa-
bilities of size, weight, speed, endurance, etc.
Economic improvement: Automation may im-
prove in economy of enterprises, society or most
of humanity. For example, when an enterprise
invests in automation, technology recovers its
investment; or when a state or country increases
Visit our website at: http://www.safan.com
 its income due to automation like Germany or
Japan in the 20th Century.
Reduces operation time and work handling
time significantly.
Frees up workers to take on other roles.
Provides higher level jobs in the development,
deployment, maintenance and running of the
automated processes.
The main disadvantages of automation are:
Security Threats/Vulnerability: An automated
system may have a limited level of intelligence,
and is therefore more susceptible to committing
errors outside of its immediate scope of knowl-
edge (e.g., it is typically unable to apply the rules
of simple logic to general propositions).
Unpredictable/excessive development costs:
The research and development cost of automat-
ing a process may exceed the cost saved by the
automation itself.
High initial cost: The automation of a new
product or plant typically requires a very large
initial investment in comparison with the unit
cost of the product, although the cost of auto-
mation may be spread among many products
and over time.
In manufacturing, the purpose of automation has
shifted to issues broader than productivity, cost,
and time.
Reliability and Precision
The old focus on using automation simply to in-
crease productivity and reduce costs was seen to be
short-sighted, because it is also necessary to provide a
skilled workforce who can make repairs and manage
the machinery. Moreover, the initial costs of auto-
mation were high and often could not be recovered
by the time entirely new manufacturing processes
replaced the old. (Japan's "robot junkyards" were
once world famous in the manufacturing industry.)
Automation is now often applied primarily to in-
crease quality in the manufacturing process, where
automation can increase quality substantially. For
example, internal combustion engine pistons used
to be installed manually. This is rapidly being
transitioned to automated machine installation,
because the error rate for manual installment was
around 1-1.5%, but has been reduced to 0.00001%
with automation.
The costs of automation to the environment are
different depending on the technology, product or
engine automated. There are automated engines
that consume more energy resources from the Earth
in comparison with previous engines and those
that do the opposite too. Hazardous operations,
such as oil refining, the manufacturing of industrial
chemicals, and all forms of metal working, were
always early contenders for automation.
Reduced risk comes from using control systems
like safety instrumented systems to safely shut-
down a plant when an unsafe condition arises, to
properly use alarms to alert operators of abnormal
situations, and to use cyber security techniques to
minimize chance of accidental or malicious misuse
of computer control systems.
Automation Tools
Engineers can now have numerical control over
automated devices. The result has been a rapidly
expanding range of applications and human
activities. Computer-aided technologies (or CAx)
now serve the basis for mathematical and or-
ganizational tools used to create complex systems.
Notable examples of CAx include Computer-aided
design (CAD software) and Computer-aided manu-
facturing (CAM software). The improved design,
analysis, and manufacture of products enabled by
CAx has been beneficial for industry.
Information technology, together with industrial
machinery and processes, can assist in the design,
implementation, and monitoring of control sys-
tems. One example of an industrial control system
is a programmable logic controller (PLC). PLCs
are specialized hardened computers which are
frequently used to synchronize the flow of inputs
from (physical) sensors and events with the flow of
outputs to actuators and events.
HYDROCARBON ASIA, apr-june 2014 35
 Human-machine interfaces (HMI) or computer
human interfaces (CHI), formerly known as man-
machine interfaces, are usually employed to com-
municate with PLCs and other computers. Service
personnel who monitor and control through HMIs
can be called by different names. In industrial
process and manufacturing environments, they
are called operators or something similar. In boiler
houses and central utilities departments they are
called stationary engineers.
Limitations to Automation
Current technology is unable to automate all
the desired tasks.
As a process becomes increasingly automated,
there is less and less labor to be saved or
quality improvement to be gained. This is an
example of both diminishing returns and the
logistic function.
Similar to the above, as more and more proc-
esses become automated, there are fewer re-
maining non-automated processes. This is an
example of exhaustion of opportunities. New
technological paradigms may however set
new limits that surpass the previous limits.
Many roles for humans in industrial proc-
esses presently lie beyond the scope of au-
tomation. Human-level pattern recognition,
language comprehension, and language pro-
duction ability are well beyond the capabilities
of modern mechanical and computer systems.
Tasks requiring subjective assessment or
synthesis of complex sensory data, such as
scents and sounds, as well as high-level tasks
such as strategic planning, currently require
human expertise. In many cases, the use of
humans is more cost-effective than mechani-
cal approaches even where automation of
industrial tasks is possible.
Automation Systems
A process control or automation system is
used to automatically control a process such
as chemical plants and oil refineries. The PAS
often uses a network to interconnect sensors,
Process
Automation
Feature 36 HYDROCARBON ASIA, apr-june 2014
controllers, operator terminals and actuators.
A PAS is often based on open standards in
contrast to a DCS (distributed control system),
which is traditionally proprietary. However in
recent times the PAS is considered to be more
associated with SCADA systems.
PAS is the lowest level of automation, while MES
(manufacturing execution system) is considered
to be directly positioned above a PAS.
Process automation involves using computer
technology and software engineering to help
power plants and factories in industries as di-
verse as paper, mining and cement operate more
efficiently and safely.
Automation System Providers
As is usually the case it is not the operators who
usually develop technologies used in the plants
or refineries. The independent vendors are left
with that task.
Emerson's Automation Helps BP's
Whiting Refinery Boost Heavy-Crude
Capacity More Than Four-Fold
Emerson Process Management has
completed process automation for BPs
modernization of its refinery in Whiting,
Indiana. As main automation contrac-
tor for the massive upgrade, Emerson
provided technologies and services that
helped enable the Chicago-area refinery
to modernize its facility to process ad-
vantaged crude supplies.
The Whiting project is one of the
largest, most complex startups for which
weve served as main automation contrac-
tor, noted Steve Sonnenberg, president
of Emerson Process Management. We
congratulate BP on its success and ap-
preciate the opportunity to have helped
make it happen.
Visit our website at: http://www.safan.com

To facilitate commissioning and star-
tup of BPs new crude distillation unit,
coking unit, gas oil hydrotreater, and
sulfur complex units, Emerson drew on
the resources of its engineering centers
around the world. This global Emerson
team -- with personnel from the U.S.,
India, Costa Rica, and the Philippines
-- included more than 80 engineers, con-
sultants, and technical specialists. A core
team will support BP throughout 2014
as the refinery increases production of
heavy-sour crude. The startup of one of
largest investments in BP history enables
major refinery to begin processing more
heavy-sour Canadian crude.
The following
are some ven-
dors who pro-
vide automation
systems:
HollySys
HollySys has
over ten years
of experience in
DCS platform
for the plant
managers, en-
gineers, and
control room
operators. All
this promotes
the development of new generation DCS fea-
turing total integration and they are proud to
recommend their fourth generation DCS family
of solution -- The HOLLiAS MACS-SM.
HollySys process automation product branded
as HOLLiAS which stands for (HollySys In-
tegrated Industrial Automation System). As a
leading supplier in automation control industry,
HollySys developed its fourth generation control
system platform based on international advanced
automation control technology. Inherited the best
characteristics of our previous DCS, the HOLLiAS
MACS-SM series brings you the next revolution
step in providing better information, critical
control, high performance, and operational
readiness. It is an open system platform that is
extremely reliable and flexible in configuration
providing a complete solution to your plant
automation needs.
With many successful installations, HOLLiAS
MACS has already achieved international global
standard through the implementation of up to
1000 megawatt large-scale power plant applica-
tion. We also have some other specialized solu-
tions such as Digital Electro Hydraulic (DEH)
and Emergency Trip System (ETS) for certain
specific industry.
The DCS platform - HOLLiAS MACS-SM
series delivers the perfect process control and
overall enterprise level management with in-
tegration of field devices, PLC, MES, and ERP.
It is widely utilized in the process industries of
power generation, nuclear power, oil and gas
process, petrochemical, chemicals, pharmaceu-
ticals, pulp and paper, metals and minerals,
cement, beverage, glass, metallurgical, other
environmental protection, water and waste
process, and much more.
HYDROCARBON ASIA, apr-june 2014 37
 Features
Profibus-DP fieldbus technology
o decentralized risks and control
o centralized supervision in real time
o centralized or decentralized the I/O mod-
ules
Industry Ethernet technology
Real-time communication
Stable networking
High security and safety
Flexible system architecture
Supporting wide range of I/O from 10,000 to
100,000 I/O points
Open system architecture supporting OPC
industrial standards
Honeywell
Honeywells next-generation control system,
Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS),
integrated with Safety Manager, creates a unified
platform that offers a single operating view of
safety and automation systems in plant opera-
tions while maintaining the required separation
and redundancy.
The automation solution increases process avail-
ability, production and profitability of the plant,
while ensuring safety and security of personnel,
equipment and the plant environment.
Honeywells wide range of security systems pro-
vides multiple layers of protection to avoid incidents
in the plant and minimize impact to protect people
and assets. Know-how from UOP, a Honeywell
company, can also be incorporated in the design
and layout of graphics, regulatory control strategies
and Safety Manager.
Honeywell offers a range of engineering serv-
ices, adding intelligence to the real-time system,
managing operations and maximizing return
on investment. It is the only automation service
provider that continues to support products de-
veloped and installed more than 30 years ago.
Services range from project engineering to migra-
Process
Automation
Feature 38 HYDROCARBON ASIA, apr-june 2014
tion and expansion, acting as the main automation
contractor for new greenfield sites, managing the
security of process control networks and main-
taining field instrumentation, control systems and
advanced applications to maximize availability
and users business potential.
One of Honeywell's core service offerings is its
integrated main automation contractor (I-MAC)
approach that builds upon the foundation of tra-
ditional MAC to ensure operational and business
readiness from day one of operations.
Invensys
The Foxboro PAC (Programmable Automation
Control) System is a high-performance automa-
tion controller solution integrated within the
Wonderware System Platform using ArchestrA
technology.
The Foxboro PAC hardware marries high per-
formance, reliability and high |/O density with
cost-effective redundancy options. The process
modules and |/O system form the basis of a
complete distributed control and recording en-
vironment capable of continuous analog, logic,
and sequential control combined with secure data
recording at point-of-measurement; all designed
to maximize return on investment (ROI).
Hardware Benefits
Multi-function control, recording, batch, recipe
and visualization in a single box dramatically
reduces cost of project implementation
Compliance with FDA regulation 21 CFR Part
11 provides significant benefits by reducing the
time required to validate the file system
High-performance control in a versatile
modular system
To increase process availability it is a trivial
matter of plugging in a second controller
Automated whole system restore
Complete Integration Benefits
Labor savings are achieved from tight integra-
tion of the IEC 61131 Part 3 software tools
Visit our website at: http://www.safan.com
 Powerful and reliable control system at an af-
fordable price
Additional security of your system is guaranteed
through close coupling with the Galaxy
Accelerated application programming
System connectivity utilizes a standard Ethernet
communications backbone
Application programming greatly benefits from
a significant reduction in configuration time and
engineering costs
Run time operator changes to setpoint programs
are easily and securely implemented
Automatic high integrity data recording
The automated process of forwarding the data
to the configured Historian, even after a com-
munications failure, removes the requirement
for any human intervention
With a fully integrated system that encapsulates
the whole process the plant managers have a
clear view of their production environment
Industry leading HMI visualization with Won-
derware InTouch HMI software
Yokogawa
CENTUM VP is the newest series of Yokogawas
integrated production control system, so called DCS.
We accumulated our over 35 years of knowledge
and experience of de-
veloping and selling the
DCS in the market into
this new product.
Yokogawas VigilantPlant Solutions, designed to
achieve the ideal plant operations. CENTUM VP
brings you better information visibility, perform-
ance foresight, and operational agility.
A number of CENTUM V systems (1983~) are still
in operation in industrial plants, which is a good
example of our long-term commitment in customer
supports. Generations of the CENTUM series pro-
duction control systems can be interconnected and
interactively operated, i. e. the CENTUM VP system
(2008 ~) controls and monitors CENTUM-XL system
(1988 ~) via bus converter. Or, bi-directional control
and monitoring is established in between CENTUM
CS 3000 (1998 ~) and CENTUM VP.
Yokogawa ensures the long-time support of the
legacy systems and minimizes the upgrading cost by
utilizing the existing systems as much as possible.
References
Emerson
HollySys
Honeywell
Invensys
Wikipedia
Yokogawa HA Enquiry Number 04/06-03

CENTUM VP has more

intuitive human machine
interface, a large-capacity
field control station to
process data faster yet
without failure. Pair &
spare configuration of
the CPU ensures non
stop operations with
99.99999% (seven-9s) of
high availability.

CENTUM VP is
the core platform of

HYDROCARBON ASIA, apr-june 2014 39