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| | Waste management disposal company gains access to real-time data and flexible plant control with Rockwell Automation. |
| | Customer: | | Pyros
Fawley, Hampshire |
| | Country: | | United Kingdom - Great Britain |
| | Industry: | | Infrastructure |
| | Services: | | None |
| | Products: | | Condition Monitoring, Motion Control, Operator Interfaces, Process Solutions, Programmable Controllers, Software |
| Waste management disposal company gains access to real-time data and
flexible plant control with Rockwell Automation.
Challenge
- Upgrading the control system of the UK’s leading waste management disposal plant
- Allowing flexible control of different plant systems
- Modifications and maintenance to systems without downtime
- Delivering real-time management information and data
Solution
- Logix Control Platform
- FactoryTalk® Site Edition
- FactoryTalk Historian
- RSSql
- ControlNet
- FactoryTalk View Studio
- RSLogix™ 5000 Pro
Benefits
- More flexible control of plant systems
- Easier management and maintenance of systems by plant engineers through standardised controls
- The delivery of real-time management information and data to meet regulatory requirements and business demands
- A scaleable control solution for a rapidly growing business
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The Company
Pyros Environmental is one of the leading waste management disposal companies in the UK. At its 11-acre site in Fawley, Hampshire, the company incinerates up to 105,000 tonnes of pharmaceutical, chemical, agricultural and industrial waste every year, reducing its volume by up to 85% with a resulting reduction in landfill requirements.
Pyros Environmental’s High Temperature Incinerator processes waste in excess of 1,100ºC and the company returns 34,000 megawatt hours of electricity to the national grid every year from its separate Waste to Energy plant – enough to supply 7,250 UK households. Pyros Environmental runs two separate processes at the plant, a High Temperature Incineration plant and a Waste to Energy plant. In-line with UK government and regulator policies, Pyros is investing in this national asset to help relieve some of the challenge of wastes (both hazardous and non-hazardous) that are no longer suitable for landfill.
The Challenge
With increasingly stringent directives for the management and disposal of industrial waste, Pyros continuously aims to upgrade the services that it provides for both UK and international companies, helping its customers to meet waste management aims and obligations. One of the technical issues holding back the development and flexibility of the plant was its ageing distributed control system. “We had one distributed control system running the entire plant and it was becoming obsolete,” said Ed Hutton, Project Engineer (Control & Instrumentation).
“Using the old system we were facing a number of issues,” explained Ed. “Because the control system ran the whole site, whenever we wanted to carry out any major maintenance or improvements, it was necessary to shutdown the entire site. This was clearly not an economic way to run the business.”
In addition, providing plant information to the management was a slow and difficult process and with a highly regulated industry this was increasingly taking-up time and creating additional cost. “We required real-time data for the management team for regulatory and economic reasons. Under the old system, the information was there but it was incredibly difficult to get at.”
Solution and Implementation
Pyros first prioritised its efforts in establishing a new control system for its High Temperature Incineration plant. The company chose Rockwell Automation® because of Ed’s positive previous experiences with the company and the flexibility offered by the Rockwell Automation solution.
The solution was based on the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture,™ using the Allen-Bradley® Logix Control Platform and FactoryTalk Live Data server and device-based alarm and event server. This solution allows Pyros system administrators to monitor sensor readings and other controller data from its plant floor devices using a desktop computer or dedicated PanelView™ Plus terminal. Pyros also wanted more than one entry point to its data to help make faster and more accurate decisions. Using FactoryTalk Historian and FactoryTalk Sql as the Windows Server 2003, plant supervisors are able to view the process in real-time; while managers can look at Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and compare the production activity.
Pyros also deployed FactoryTalk View from Rockwell Software, a line of HMI software products designed with a common look, feel, and navigation to help speed HMI application development and training. FactoryTalkView Enterprise Series is part of the scaleable and modular suite of monitoring and control solutions that spans machine-level to supervisory-level applications. It also works across multiple platforms virtually anywhere in the manufacturing enterprise, allowing Pyros to view the right information, at the right place, and at the right time.
Benefits
Flexibility over control and maintenance
The project has so far been successful in achieving all of Pyros’s goals. “We now have a control system that is much more flexible and user-friendly,” explained Ed. “Before we would have been very wary about making any proactive changes because of the time and uncertainty of operating with the old system. Today, the diagnostics and information provided is much more comprehensive. We are able to make changes online and because we are familiar with the standard control language, any of the maintenance team can get involved in repairs or modifications.”
“Also access to real-time data is now becoming fully automated with our plant system integrated to the management information systems. We can now take decisions in seconds rather than days.”
The future is Rockwell Automation for Pyros Environmental
The company is now planning to build on its success with the High Temperature Incinerator by rolling out Rockwell Automation control systems to its waste to energy and effluent treatment plants. “By the end of the year, we will have the whole system changed over,” said Ed. “This project has been very important for us as we continue to expand and develop the plant. Without this automation technology it would be very difficult for us to have achieved our expansion plans moving forward.”
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