Smart Connected Equipment, Not Just Devices

Smart connected devices such as sensors and actuators, digitally networked throughout the plant, are the foundation of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industrie 4.0 enabling Big Data analytics. The interesting fact is that in the process industries some plants have been using smart connected devices similar to and even more advanced than a smart home thermostat for 20 years, long before the term IoT was coined. Now we are moving to the next level with smart connected equipment like smart pumps, smart heat exchangers, and smart relief valves. How can plants get ready for this Digital Transformation? Here are my personal thoughts:

IoT’s big fuzz is about smart connected devices as pointed out in the seminal article in Harvard Business Review meaning devices which are digitally networked and can be accessed remotely across the Internet. In the process industries we have been doing this for 20 years since the introduction of Foundation Fieldbus. Remote monitoring, configuration, diagnostics, and firmware upgrade is common in Fieldbus plants. However, for other industries like transportation, smart, connected devices are a new concept. For instance, only today can a manufacturer connect remotely to your car to see the health of the subsystems in the car such as engine, transmission, and breaks etc. and even do a firmware upgrade at any time. In the future the manufacturer will be able to check the health of your air conditioning system at home such as gas pressure, vibration, and if filters need cleaning or not etc. It is already being done for central air conditioning systems for office buildings and shopping malls as well as for cooling cases in supermarkets. With IoT it can be done for individual homes.

The Equipment Level

A smart connected device apart from real-time digital closed loop control also provide self-diagnostics which is already well understood in the process industries. For instance, a pressure transmitter detects plugged impulse lines, a temperature transmitter can detect hydrate formation in natural gas lines, scaling formation, and thermowell coating, a control valve positioner continuously monitors the valve for friction, deadband, and other issues. Similarly an intelligent on-off valve detects issues such as slow actuation.

What is now emerging at a level above individual devices is smart connected equipment like smart cooling towers, smart pumps, and smart steam traps. That is, over and above self-diagnostics in transmitters, measurements from multiple fieldbus and wireless transmitters such as vibration, temperature, acoustics, corrosion, pressure, and level etc. is used to determine the health of larger pieces of equipment. That is, smart connected equipment is full of smart connected devices. For instance, a smart pump have vibration and temperature transmitters for bearing diagnostics, as well as pressure and level transmitters for mechanical seal diagnostics. The equipment diagnostics is performed by analytics algorithms inside condition monitoring software. Note that vibration is not enough. Many measurements are required to get a complete picture of equipment health. Smart equipment make up smart plants. Here are a few examples of what fully instrumented smart connected equipment can do:

A smart heat exchanger will tell you when there is fouling causing inefficiency as well as plugging. The duty can be trended in the historian or elsewhere to see for instance how different opportunity crude mix and anti-fouling chemicals impact the rate of fouling. This helps determine if cleaning is required or not, and when is the best time to clean.

A smart pump detects plugged strainer, bearing vibration and overheating, motor overheating, mechanical seal failure etc. to help in daily maintenance and turnaround planning.

A smart cooling tower will notify maintenance about bearing faults, fouling, corrosion, as well as water-side problems such as windage and other issues

A smart Air Cooled Heat Exchanger alarms on bearing faults, louver defect, fan pitch issues, fouling, and excessive cooling. This result in greater availability, reduced manual data collection, lower maintenance cost, and shorter turnarounds.

A smart blower will tell you when the bearing vibration or temperature is high and when the suction filter is plugged etc.

Large process compressors are typically already monitored, but now smaller compressors for instrument air and others are also monitored to detect bearing fault, plugged intake filter, process instability, lube oil issues, control vane defect etc.

A smart steam trap is instrumented to detect failures including blowing steam and trapping of condensate. The steam trap can be replaced immediately to stop steam loss, inefficiency, and water hammer damage.

A smart relief valve reports releases and also detects leakage/passing

Software automatically collects data from the hundreds or thousands of additional sensors on the smart connected equipment around the plant which are all highly instrumented. Thanks to digital networking such as wireless and fieldbus, there is no need to run 4-20 mA wiring or installed AI cards. There is also a lot of excitement about the new business models where the monitoring is done remotely. A remote monitoring service can be as simple as an offshore installation being monitored from onshore, or a plant being monitored from a corporate engineering centre elsewhere in the world, or it could be more advanced where a third-party service provider or the original equipment manufacturer monitors their own equipment. The service can be reporting-only or possibly an outcome-based paradigm where the service provider also remediates the issue. Anyway, the plant must first be instrumented with the sensors and digital networking. In most smart plants monitoring will initially be done by the plant’s personnel using a system which is on the premises (“on-prem”). However, once the plant has chosen a security paradigm, and they are comfortable and selected which data is allowed to leave the plant, the plant can chose to go with some form of remote monitoring service. I will review the various business models in a future essay.

Getting Started

Existing plants can be upgrade by instrumenting the equipment, without replacing the control system. A good way to get started is to conduct a plant modernization audit to discover latent measurement needs that can improve reliability, energy efficiency, productivity, HS&E, and reduce maintenance cost. I will explain the principles of a plant modernization audit in the next essay. For new plants being built also review equipment instrumentation needs as part of the FEED or pre-FEED to make sure this gets included. The process licensor will include instrumentation required for process control and safety. However, the maintenance, reliability, and HS&E teams etc. that will run and maintain the plant for years to come need the information additional instrumentation provides. Well, that’s my personal opinion. If you are interested in how the digital ecosystem is transforming process automation click “Follow” by my photo. Click “Like” if you found this useful to you and share it with others if you think it would be useful to them.