INDUSTRY WATCH

• October 1997 • InTech

Port Angeles, Wash.-A Daishowa Americapulp mill has staked claim to being the first (non-Beta) production installation of Foundationfieldbus demonstrating interoperability amongmultiple vendors with closed-loop control dis-tributed in the field devices.

The installation at Port Angeles,Wash., whichsaw a successful start-up June 3, 1997, currentlyincludes two fieldbus hosts and six fieldbus trans-mitters with two closed loops, six analog inputs,and five analog outputs.

[Editorsnote:Dow Chemical'sFt. Saskatchewanplant claims the first commercial application ofproducts conforming to the Fieldbus Foundation'sfinal specification. However, that installation pri-marilyinvolveda singlevendor's(FisherRosemount)equipment. See June 1997 InTech, page 15.]

The fieldbus technology is being used to con-trol a refinery hydrogen peroxide bleachingprocess in a mechanical pulping facility and willfacilitate brightness optimization, chemical usagereduction, and chemical tracking. The project in-troduced fieldbus technology to Daishowa andoffers a path forward-away r----.-..,....-------....,.....,,....,..,..--~ •••..-~from old, high-cost DCS tech-nology (vendor dependence) tolower-coststandard fieldbus tech-nology (vendor independence).

Daishowa's fieldbus projecttakes advantage of many featureslisted in the Fieldbus Founda-tion's final specification. Theprocess uses analog output (AO),analog input (AI), and PID-control function blocks in fielddevicesfor controlling and moni-toring the process.Inreroperabilityis demonstrated by two differentmanufacturers' devices operatingon one fieldbus HI segment.

Technology Update

Pulp mill claimsa FoundationFieldbus firstBy Jason Mangano and Dan Dumdie

SMAR International provided redundant field-bus power supplies; all fieldbus devices, includingsix transmitters, each with multiple I/O (AI orAO function blocks); and a PID-control functionblock. National Instruments provided the hostsoftware and hardware. This included a fieldbusconfiguraror,an operator interface (Lookout), util-ity software, and fieldbus interface PC cards. Rel-com provided the fieldbus power multiplexer (forredundant power supplies and battery backup),power conditioner, impedance controller, bus ter-minators, and all fieldbus spur connectors.

The configuration was done on the host anddownloaded to the field devices. The host alsoservesas the link activescheduler (LAS)and com-municates with field devices to obtain process in-formation and trends for operations. Daishowawasable to purchase and evaluateallsoftwareand hard-ware (starterkits) availablefor fieldbusapplicationsprior to engineering the project. This ensured se-lection of the best availablecomponents.

The ability to download a configuration fromNational Instruments' hardware and software toSMAR International's fieldbus devices clearlydemonstrates interoperabilityand its benefits. Verbal commu-nications among these vendorsbefore and during start-up wasexcellent and helped make theproject a success. Fieldbus tech-nology is not only importantfor the peroxide project but willalso play a major role inDaishowas future. There are sig-nificant savings associated withfieldbus control hardware, wiringreduction, maintenance, and sys-tem checkout when compared toDCS technology.

continued on p.20

Jason Mangano (author) and Yee Tak Ngan, Daishowa America process control engi-neer, at junction box containing redundant Smar power supplies and Relcom powermultiplexer, power conditioner, bus terminator, and spur block. This box is on the con-trol room end of the segment and provides all bus power.

Daishowa is using thefirst productionfieldbus installationdemonstratingmultiple-vendorinteroperability withclosed-loop control.

Junction box containing spur blockshows that few connections are neededin the field, leaving plenty of room formore fieldbus segments.

INDUSTRY WATCH

• October 1997 • InTech

I,

Behind the byline

Jason Mangano is a processand control engineer for DaishowaAmerica Co. Ltd. in Port Angeles,Wash. He has a B.S. in chemicalengineering from me UniversityofIdaho.

Dan Dumdie is process andcontrol engineering supervisor atme same location. He has a B.S.in chemical engineering from meUniversity of Washington andmore man 20 years of experiencein process control.

continued from p.18Equipment costs are reduced because the con-

trol hardware, I/O, and communications hard-ware are all contained within the field transmitters.Air-conditioned rack rooms with raised floors forcabling are unnecessary.

There are no separate control cabinets, I/Ocabinets, large power supply cabinets, nor anycontrol and I/O modules, communications mod-ules, control and I/O racks, or separate termina-tion units and associated cabling. The equivalentto all of this is contained in the field transmitters.

In the near future, a significant amount of pre-ventive maintenance will be done online in field de-vices. The conduit and wiring cost will be 40% to60% less than for DCS installations because onlyone twisted pair is used to interconnect many fielddevices. Finally, engineering costs will be significantlyreduced due to the decreased number of cabinetsand hardware devices used in a fieldbus installation.

The peroxide bleaching process was chosen asthe first installation for fieldbus at Daishowa. Us-ing fieldbus controls rather than DCS control re-sulted in about 55% capital savings. This was crit-ical since the project was initially rejected based oncost estimates, further justifying the decision to gowith fieldbus technology.

The success of this technology gives the mill al-ternatives for future control installations and up-grades. A second fieldbus project, planned for thefourth quarter of 1997 in the mechanical pulping fa-cility,will be significantly larger than the first project.

Ozone gets OK for usein U.S. food industryPalo Alto, Calif.-Ozone, one of the most effec-tive disinfectants used in food processing in othercountries, has received "generally recognized assafe" (GRAS) status in the United States from apanel of experts from the food science, ozonetechnology, and other related fields.

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPR!)requested an independent contractor to review thehistory and health aspects of ozone for possible usein processing foods for human consumption and forGRAS status. Afrer an initial meeting with the Foodand Drug Administration (FDA), which allows in-dependent affirmation of GRAS status of substancesby a qualified panel of experts, an expett panel of sixscientists met frequently over the course of a year tointerpret and evaluate the history of ozone.

The panel's findings included the following:• Ozone is a more powerful disinfectant

than chlorine (the most commonly useddisinfectan t).

• Ozone has been used safely and effectively inwater treatment for nine decades and has beenapproved in the U.S. as GRAS for treatmentof bottled water since 1982.

• Ozone has been applied in the food industryin Europe for decades and, in some cases, foralmost a century.

• Ozone doesn't remain in water so there are nosafety concerns about consumption."Ozone is one of the most powerful disinfec-

tants known. There are no toxic by-products orpotential health hazards when properly used as amicrobiocide," said Myron Jones, EPR! FoodTechnology Center manager.

Potential applications for ozone in the foodindustry include increasing the yield of certaincrops, protecting raw agricultural commoditiesduring storage and transit, and sanitizing packag-ing materials used for food storage.

"Ozone is very efficient in killing pathogens andspoilage organisms, and its use by the food industrywill be welcomed as another tool to ensure the pro-duction of safe and wholesome foods," said JeffBarach, vice president of research and food sciencepolicy at the National Food Processors Association.

Patent awarded for wayto remove toxins in waterHayward, Calif.-A patent for a method ofremoving certain inorganic contaminants fromwater has been received by Sepragen Corp. Thepatent describes a method using radial flow columnchromatography to remove heavy metals such asnickel, selenium, lead, copper, and silver fromgroundwater, wastewater, or industrial effiuent.

"Current efforts have been limited to technol-ogy development with some limited field testing.With the issuance of this patent, we expect topursue this opportuniry more aggressively thisyear," said Vinit Saxena, president and CEO.

Sepragen previously announced it had devel-oped the Sepralac process for dairy whey fraction-ation and the Sepradebitt process for the removalof bitterness from citrus juice. Sepragen is cur-rently in discussions with several companies tocommercialize Sepralac.

Sepragen has been a pioneer in the developmentof large-scale chromatography with its patented ra-dial flow chromatography process, which can isolatematerials from high-volume liquid streams, Saxenasaid. The company licenses and sells products andprocesses based on that technology, includingSuperflo columns, QuantaSep control systems,and Seprasorb media for biopharmaceutical,dairy, and food and beverage applications.