Distributed Control System (DCS)

• CENTUM VP Batch replaces the legacy system and improves production efficiency in the acrylic plant.
• CENTUM VP Batch capability can handle the recipe management to Batch report handling and unit management.

• Exapilot automates comlex and non-routine decoking process of NCUs.
• Operator workload has been drastically reduced.

• Meet the IEC 61508/JIS C 0508 functional safety standards
• Proactively introduce leading edge technologies
• Accommodate the plant licensors' safety, reliability, and maintainability requirements
• Improve the monitoring and operation functions of the emergency shutdown system

• Integrated CENTUM VP and ProSafe-RS Systems Ensure Nonstop Operation of ADU/DKU Processes.
• "This is a real VigilantPlant! We will continue to improve our production efficiency."

Yokogawa provided CENTUM DCS, APC, Exapilot, and Exaquantum for migration project at Juhua Group's methane chloride plant.

The entire management and optimization solution contributes to improving economic benefits, plant safety, quality, etc.

• Highlyadvanced biopharmaceutical plant uses CENTUM, VP Batch, Exaquantum and PRM.
• Total system integration for large-scale biotech production facility.

• Modern waste to energy facility in UK uses CENTUM CS 3000 and ProSafe-RS
• Lakeside exports at least 34MW per hour to the country's national grid

• Rapid Implementation of Integrated CENTUM CS 3000 and ProSafe-RS.
• The highly reliable CENTUM CS 3000 system has also helped TOL maintain high productivity at this plant.

Yokogawa provided an integrated and comprehensive solution for ethylene cracking process optimization.

SMOC APC controller improved control level of ethylene cracking unit and reduced operators workload.

• All correct operation procedures are carefully configured in the CENTUM CS 3000 and smoothly in operation
• CENTUM CS 3000 ensures stable supply of electricity and steam to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport

• Operational Excellence by Asset Maximization, Utilizing Yokogawa's DCS, SIS, Analyzers, and Field Instruments.
• The CENTUM VP PCS and ProSafe-RS SIS were integrated using the same engineering environment.
• Nearly 60 gas chromatographs and a large number of other types of analyzers in several analyzer houses.

• Stable operation and proactive maintenance were realized at new coal-chemical plant in China.
• Yokogawa engineers ensured a successful and efficient commissioning and startup.

• Thai SPP uses CENTUM CS 3000 to improve efficiency of Biomass Power Plant
• The burning of the ground rice husks in the boiler's furnace chamber is a complex process that must be carefully controlled

• Yokogawa provided control solutions for expansion project in sugar and bio-energy plant.
• Consolidated central control room was designed for safe, comfortable, and efficient work environment.

• Yokogawa's CENTUM CS 3000 DCS Monitors and Controls Operations at Poultry Litter-to-energy Plant
• The boiler and turbine startup procedures reduces operator workload and helps to ensure a smooth and safe startup

• As the main automation contractor (MAC) for this plant construction project, Yokogawa Brazil engineered, installed, and commissioned an integrated control and instrumentation solution
• Yokogawa Brazil completed the commissioning of these systems ahead of schedule and the production of green polymer was started just one week later

• OTS for familialization of liquefaction processes and operator training.
• Yokogawa's integrated solutions contribute to safe and steady production at gas liquefaction plant in Norway.

• World's first offshore regasification terminal relies on Yokogawa ICSS (CENTUM CS 3000, ProSafe-RS).
• LNG carrier scheduling, unloading, tank storage, and vaporizing are all procedure based operations.

Samsung Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (SPCL), a major Korean petrochemical company, produces 700,000 tons per year of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) at its Daesan plant. PTA, a white powder substance that is produced by oxidizing and refining para-xylene, is a precursor to polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a polyester material that has excellent thermal resistance and wear resistance and is widely used as a substitute for natural cotton fibers and in film packaging, beverage bottles, tire cords, paints, adhesives, and other applications.

• World's largest LNG terminal relies on CENTUM to maximize safety and reliability.
• It is very important for KOGAS to be able to adjust flexibly to shifts in demand in the gas that it supplies to power plants, industrial companies, and residences.

• Nan Ya had been using Yokogawa Micro-XL DCS since the plant opened in the 1990s.
• Step-by-step approach for migration from Micro-XL to CENTUM VP keeps downtime to a minimum.

Okinawa Prefecture is promoting clean energy with the aim of becoming a low-carbon society in the 21st century. Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) technology is particularly well suited for this purpose, and is expected to both reduce the environmental impact that power generation has in the prefecture and lessen the prefecture's dependence on imported fossil fuels.

• Power supply made dramatically reliable thanks to CENTUM CS 3000 with seven-nines availability
• Visualization of almost all plant data on the same HMI by linking up subsystems via Modbus
• Improved plant performance

• Exapilot contributes to safety, reduces cost, and retains operational know-how.

The CENTUM CS 3000 / UOI was selected for this project. The control platform in the UOI is the GE Fanuc CIMPLICITY Human Machine Interface (HMI) system, which fully integrates the controls for the turbine and BOP auxiliaries and uses the same screens/formats at both the turbine and BOP HMI displays. The CIMPLICITY HMI used in the UOI is a SCADA based design that fully supports the customer's requirement for remote operation capability.

The construction of Tuas Power Station started in the mid 1990s. The plant has steadily grown to be a significant player in the competitive Singaporean electricity market. Stage One of Tuas Power Station is equipped with the country's largest steam generators which are capable of producing 600 MW each.

• Monitoring and control of the entire cogeneration plant including the two once-through steam generators
• Reliable and cost-effective power supply
• Operator-friendly HMI

• 2009 PACE Zenith joint winner project
• Reduced operating and maintenance costs
• Increased power generation
• Improved plant operating flexibility
• Modernized, screen-based operations
• Reduced emissions

Unified operator interface solution enables remote operation

• Steady power supply and safe operation thanks to reliable Yokogawa CENTUM CS 3000 and transmitters
• Environmentally optimized operation by fine-tuned boiler combustion control and strict monitoring and control of CO, NOx and SOx in flue gas and pH of water from cooling towers
• Full replica plant simulator for effective plant operation and engineering staff training
• Annual maintenance contract

• Based on a careful review of all operational procedures and operator roles and configured new SOPs in Exapilot.
• As a result, SFC has been able to reduce operator workload, improve product quality, and reduce production losses.

• Exapilot smoothly starts up and shuts down the world's biggest experimental distillation unit.
• Data visualization is the key, giving operators a complete understanding of what is is going on in the process, in real time.

• Steady boiler control by CENTUM CS 3000 with dual redundant CPUs and seven 9s availability
• Total plant information integrated into supervisory information system via OPC interface
• Reduced water, coal and other resource consumption

• CENTUM CS3000 seamlessly integrates with multivendor control systems through OPC interface. 
• Challenging predictive maintenance to monitor many transmitter data through PRM.

• ABS plant migrates from CENTUM XL to integrated CENTUM CS 3000 solution.
• CENTUM CS 3000 Integrated Production Control System together with CCTV equipment, a plant information management system (PIMS), the Exaplog Event Analysis Package, and the CS Batch 3000 package.

• At the company's Ulsan resin plant, six Exaquantum servers were connected to CENTUM CS 3000 and other vendor's systems.
• KKPC needed to expand its SBC capabilities and improve production efficiency at its plants.

Yokogawa contributes to the education of process industry talents by providing its own products.
TAFE Queensland students learn process industry by controlling the color of toast with CENTUM VP DCS.

• The AR1 refinery recently replaced its legacy DCS with Yokogawa's CENTUM CS 3000.
• Achieving an Intelligent Oil Management System.

• Up to 90% of all manual tasks can now be carried out automatically.
• Increasing productivity by means of partially automated start-up and load change procedures.

INPEX Corporation (INPEX) is Japan's biggest oil and gas development company and is involved in all aspects of this business, from research to exploration, production, and sales. INPEX is engaged in projects all over the world, in a total of 29 countries, including Japan, where it operates a gas production plant near Oyazawa, a town in Niigata prefecture.

• Yokogawa's integrated solutions control FGD processes at Romania's largest power plant
• SO₂ and dust emissions are controlled within the EU environmental standards

• Installation of Exaquantum PIMS package improves efficiency of process data management.
• Improve quality and yield through proactive maintenance of plant assets.

The AFCO project is a showcase of the good coordination between Yokogawa Middle East, Yokogawa Thailand, Yokogawa Singapore, and Yokogawa Electric Corporation. Yokogawa Middle East and Yokogawa headquarters both were involved in the project execution.

Yokogawa China successfully replaced control system with CENTUM VP at 4th phase of caustic soda production plant in China.
Thanks to their project execution capability, the replacement was completed within a shorter period than the planned shutdown time.

• CACT Offshore platform reduces unplanned downtime by migrating from Legacy PLC System to reliable CENTUM CS 3000.
• It is possible for CACT engineers to modify the system configuration, download software updates, and hot-swap I/O cards while the process control system is online.

The customer has successfully brought online a greenfield 800 MW supercritical power plant, using a Yokogawa full-replica plant simulator to ensure a fast and smooth plant commissioning process.

• CS 3000 efficiently controls and monitors coal gasification process.
• Once an operator selects "Start", the necessary instructions are sent to all plant equipment via the sequence control.

• The solution was a remote connection via Microsoft Terminal Services across the internet.
• It enables an Ausmelt technical expert in Melbourne to log on to the Yokogawa control system at Karabash in Russia.

• Yokogawa provides CENTUM CS 3000 and ProSafe-RS for the largest LNG terminal in Europe.
• Yokogawa's OmegaLand plant operator training simulator (OTS) helps to reduce costs, optimize LNG terminal processes.

• CENTUM CS 3000 production control system contributes to smooth HDPE production.
• The challenge for this replacement project was in completing the work and starting up the new CS 3000 system as soon as possible, keeping downtime to a minimum.

Since entering commercial operation in 2000, the environmental control facilities at the Tachibanawan Thermal Power Station have been managed effectively by the CENTUM control system, achieving a stable electricity supply with minimal impact on the environment.

• Complete automation and control of glass plant
• Improved production cycle time and stabilized product quality with reduced energy consumption and costs

• Online hot cut over from the legacy Honeywell TDC3000 to the Yokogawa CENTUM CS 3000.
• The work was successfully completed 48 days ahead of schedule and without disruption to operations.

• Complex starting up and shutting down operations of a biomass power plant were automated with CENTUM VP.
• Operator errors and interventions were eliminated in all critical processes.
   

• Exapilot improves operations and reduces energy use at PTT Khanom Gas Separation Plant #4.
• This is a real solution package and a good tool for the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle to achieve operational excellence in the plant.

• Smooth upgrade for fully redundant system and advanced information technology
• Stable and high-quality sulfonate production around the clock

The Itoigawa Power Plant was constructed adjacent to a cement plant in Itoigawa City, Niigata Prefecture, and is operated by an IPP that supplies electricity to Tohoku Electric Power, one of Japan's major power companies. The use of a 149 MW coal-fired CFB boiler in this power plant is a first for an IPP in Japan, and this effectively reduces NOx emissions.

• Fieldbus technology introduced to realize predictive and preventive maintenance.
• ISAE to improve the reliability of diagnosis and parameter setting, utilizing data collected by PRM.

Nishi Nippon Environment Energy Co., Inc. was founded in 1990 with the concept of a full, safe and comfortable urban life by harmonizing the global environment with energy-savings. Also, as a total energy industry corporation, which is promoting the efficient use of heat energy for the region, it is developing a broad business on the theme of civic improvement in the 21st century by preparing a stable city infrastructure.

• CS Batch is used to automate a wide range of Reichhold's batch processes and multi-product/multi-path processes.
• Using PRM, process engineers can immediately find out the status of every field device without having to do an onsite inspection.

Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM) is the Netherlands' largest natural gas producer. In addition to onshore fields, NAM operates manned platforms and four unmanned monotowers in 19 offshore locations. These connect to a pipeline network that comes ashore at Den Helder. 

• HMEL selected an integrated solution from Yokogawa
• Yokogawa India oversaw and implemented the engineering, installation, and commissioning of the refinery

• Highly reliable CENTUM CS 3000 replaces legacy system and automates batch plant operation.
• Working together, Hanwha Chemical and Yokogawa Korea project personnel completed this work on time and on schedule.

• This is the first offshore platform in Thailand that is designed to make full use of FOUNDATION fieldbus technology.
• Thanks to Yokogawa's highly reliable systems and products, a safe working environment has been achieved.

• Innovative GEOLIDE waste water treatment complex in Marseille uses CENTUM and Exaquantum. 
• The visualization of all data on items such as motor and pump operating time and chemical consumption amount allows operators to optimize key operation items.

• Completion of First FPSO Project for Prosafe Production Services Pte Ltd
• Integrated Control & Safety System (ICSS) makes possible centralised plant supervision and management of all control and safety functions on this FPSO.

• Introduction of CENTUM CS 3000 maximizes productivity and improves product quality at special polymer plant.
• A major improvement as a result of this project is that butadiene monomer recovery efficiency jumped huge.

• Implementation of multivariable optimizing controllers and robust quality estimators within a record short period
• 3% rise expected in CCR feed amount

• Legacy System Replaced with Yokogawa CENTUM VP and ProSafe-RS at PTA plant in Indonesia.
• PID parameters imported to CENTUM VP without complex calculations.

• Implementation of AOA package for improved grade-change operation
• Dramatically reduced operators' workload and transient products, as well as sharable operation know-how

• To decrease downtime and maintenance costs, the decision was made to introduce Yokogawa's CENTUM DCS.
• With well-experienced MAC approach, Yokogawa replaced successfully legacy DCS.

• Modernized controls, assured stable power supply to Ulaanbaatar by a highly reliable, expandable distributed control system
• Fully automated boiler, burner, balance-of-plant operations
• Power plant simulator for efficient DCS operator training

• World's largest control systems and PIMS for securing production over an extended period
• Fully-automated, alarm-free operation and reduced total cost of ownership

• Kaneka Corporation has urgently needed to implement countermeasures that would reduce this facility's energy costs.
• Optimization of control strategy helps BTG plant save energy and operate more efficiently.

• PetroChina Dushanzi Petrochemicals Polyethylene Plant system migration.
• The revamp included the challenging creation of function design specifications (FDS) as well as FAT and SAT.

PT. Tanjung Enim Lestari Pulp and Paper (PT. TEL) operates a pulp mill in Muara Enim, which is 130 km west of Palembang, the capital of Indonesia's South Sumatra province. This is the only pulp mill in the world to produce high-quality, bleached-hardwood kraft pulp solely from plantation grown Acacia mangium trees.

• Reinstrumentation project at HDPE plant replaced legacy pneumatic instruments and PLCs with integrated CENTUM CS 3000 PCS and ProSafe-RS SIS.
• HART field devices can be monitored from the central control room with the plant resource manager (PRM) package, enabling a more predictive and proactive maintenance approach that reduces total cost of ownership.

• PRM allows a preventive maintenance approach where maintenance can be scheduled and performed before a field device fails.
• Exaquantum gathers plant data from the CENTUM VP to generate a variety of reports on the polymerization process.

• Smooth and safe switchover to the new system
• Easy-to-use, easy-to-engineer system, plus various post-installation enhancements
• Tuned controllers for smooth plant operation and better traceability of process upsets
• Various other improvements thanks to advanced process control and MVC implementation

Saudi Aramco's operations span the globe and the energy industry. The world leader in crude oil production, Saudi Aramco also owns and operates an extensive network of refining and distribution facilities, and is responsible for gas processing and transportation installations that fuel Saudi Arabia's industrial sector. An array of international subsidiaries and joint ventures deliver crude oil and refined products to customers worldwide.

Eraring Power Station, located just north of Sydney, is one of the largest power stations in Australia, comprising four 660MW coal-fired units. The power station has operated reliably since 1981. To ensure continued reliability for the next few decades, Eraring Energy, the owner of the power plant, decided to replace the original hard-wired control equipment with a modern integrated control and monitoring system (ICMS).

• CENTUM VP Batch package improves productivity.
• Reduction of operator workload and safe operation.

• Smooth and safe migration to CENTUM VP enhances production efficiency at major Australian gold mine.
• The HMI stations instaled at the central control room, training system, primary crusher, workshop, and office are all connected via thesame communication bus.

• Successful migration of in-line blending distributed control and oil movement systems.
• To minimize operator intervention and to keep the product properties on specification.

• TOKUYAMA improves productivity by migrating from MicroXL to CENTUM CS 3000.
• TOKUYAMA appreciates the high reliability of this Yokogawa system.

• NAM needs to remotely monitor field devices and organize their maintenance schedule.
• True value in instrument diagnostics and preventative maintenance with powerful software tools like DTM.

Universal Terminal (S) Pte Ltd, one of the largest independent petroleum products storage terminals in the Asia Pacific, has been built on Singapore's Jurong Island at a cost of S$750 million.

• Smooth project execution with no schedule and/minimal safety incidents.
• Easy to use, easy to reconfigure interface that has resulted in numerous post-installation enhancements.
• Minimizing day-to-day plant operation problems including reducing the alarming factor.

• CENTUM CS 3000 distributed control system to control the ethanol plant and it's utility boilers
• Batch processes that require careful automated control for maximum efficiency and product quality

• Smooth replacement of old control system by early involvement and close teamwork
• Improved security, flexibility and quality of production

• The plant was designed to be unmanned, except for some first-line maintenance personnel who are stationed at the plant.
• Through the use of the latest control system and FOUNDATION™ fieldbus technology supplied by Yokogawa, process control and the diagnostic monitoring of field instrumentation is done from remote locations.

• Yokogawa installed a B/M9000CS quality control system with various cross direction profile control functions.
• The installation improves product quality and efficiency at pulp & paper mill.

• All logistics of raw materials, intermediate products and final products are controlled and managed by MAS.
• MAS enables Operational Excellence with its seamless interface to enterprise resource planning system.

• The project goals emphasized schedule, quality, cost and safety.
• More than 40 sub-system interface cards are utilized for b14 partners company7s system integrated with CENTUM CS 3000.

• Yokogawa provides CENTUM VP with Batch Recipe Management Package for new fine chemical plant.
• Yokogawa's CENTUM VP complies with the requirement of Good Automation Manufacturing Practices(GAMP).

PetroChina Guangxi Petrochemical Company has completed construction of a combined refinery and petrochemical production complex in Qinzhou, a port city in China's Guangxi Autonomous Region. With a 10 million ton per year capacity, the refinery is one of China's largest, and is truly world class, using a highly advanced hydrogenation process, with the main process technologies coming from the USA and France.

• Using the CENTUM CS 3000 system, many kinds of plant key performance indexes are calculated and analyzed to produce further improvements.
• During plant start-up, PRM helps the customer's engineers perform all the loop checks.

• Yokogawa receives award for hot cutover of BP Sharjah plant DCS.
• Yokogawa was selected by BP as main automation contractor (MAC) for a project to replace the Sharjah plant's existing legacy DCS with Yokogawa CENTUM VP.

• Yokogawa revamp of control systems at NAM Den Helder plant ensures stable gas supply in the Netherlands.
• Site survey, creation of a function design specification (FDS) from the existing TDC system database, documentation verification.

• Extremely cost-effective, reliable fieldbus solution to revive control system
• Minimized total cost of ownership and maximized total value of ownership

• To replace the existing CENTUM XL control station with the latest Yokogawa CS 3000 hardware and upgrade the control network.
• The plan was to minimize plant downtime by doing a hot cutover from the old to the new control system.

• Yokogawa's CENTUM VP and PRM improve efficiency at new nylon plant in Thailand.
• At the plant startup stage, PRM was used together with FieldMate to thoroughly check all loops.

• Exapilot was introduced to maximize operational efficiency at an experimental refining facility.
• To prevent operator errors, it was essential to standardize operating procedures.

• Yokogawa's integrated solution contributed to reliable and efficient operation.
• All the instrument information is fully integrated with the instrument management system.

Shree Renuka Sugars Limited (SRSL) is a global agribusiness and bio-energy corporation. The company is one of the world’s largest sugar producers and refiners.

• Yokogawa Taiwan successfully replaced 3rd party DCS, which had worked over 20 years, with CENTUM VP.
• CENTUM VP's high reliability and easy engineering function realized a silent control room for the customer.

The Mathura refinery is a strategically important facility that supplies diesel, gasoline, aviation turbine fuel, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas, furnace oil, and bitumen to customers throughout northwestern India.

• Yokogawa joined forces with Air Liquide to co-innovate the step-by-step revamping plan based on Air Liquide's specific requirements.
• Customer was satisfied that Yokogawa was able to deliver its solutions on time and on budget.

• This has considerably improved the safety, quality, and efficiency of off-site operations.
• Yokogawa was the clear choice for installation of the OMS.

• Yokogawa provides CENTUM CS 3000, Exaquantum and PRM solutions for China's largest refinery/petrochemical complex.
• Process data management by Exaquantum is a key issue in the petrochemical complex.

Process automation end users are under more pressure than ever to do more with less. The current economic climate means that many automation capital projects are on hold. With capital budgets tighter than ever, users instead focus on operational budgets (where cost cutting is also a key concern), or on automation investments with a very rapid return on investment.

Alarm management is not just a project that has a start and end date; it's a continuous cycle. Once the alarm system has been reviewed and improvements have been identified, we must check that controls are in place to ensure the alarm system remains functional. The key is to ensure that the system is continuously monitored and any changes are fully documented. There are seven key steps for alarm management. Rationalization is one of those critical steps.

This technical white paper will discuss Yokogawa's CENTUM VP DCS (Distributed Control System) product, hereafter referred to as "CENTUM VP", and the extent of its compliance with Part 11 of Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations, (21 CFR Part 11), the Electronic Records / Electronic Signatures Rule.

As LNG moves from a niche to a major area of the oil and gas industry, experienced suppliers are required to deliver the technologies that support it. 

FOUNDATION™ Fieldbus is an enabling technology with the potential to revolutionise operation and maintenance in the process industry and thereby to contribute significantly to reducing these costs, everyday of the lifetime of a plant. Specifically with regard to maintenance, FOUNDATION™ Fieldbus opens the way to proactive diagnostics and to virtually eliminating preventive maintenance and to avoiding shutdowns.

The worlds of process automation and production management have been converging for some time. What once used to be islands of automation and production management functionality connected through highly proprietary integration schemes that were costly to maintain have developed into integrated platforms that provide seamless data exchange between the world of automation and the plant floor, the functions of production and operations management, and integration with business level systems.

Network-IO can help reduce projects by decreasing the amount of time needed to implement the physical part of the process control system. A system with configurable I/O allows flexible "binding," in which the soft- ware configuration of the system can be loaded into the physical system at a late stage in the project.

Recently, several ARC Advisory Group analysts and management team members had a chance to sit down with the new Yokogawa President and COO, Mr. Takashi Nishijima, and several other top Yokogawa executives to discuss the company's burgeoning presence in the worldwide upstream and midstream oil & gas industry.

In today's dynamic industrial marketplace, the only constant is change. Raw material costs, energy costs, market demands, environmental and safety regulations, technology, and even the nature of the labor force itself are constantly changing, and not always in predictable directions.

Network and system security is now a necessity in process automation industry. YOKOGAWA provides a service lifecycle solution for cyber security to ensure that the security measures and deployments are continuously enhanced, monitored and inspected.

This white paper explains the details of the security design, implementation, operation and validation solutions from the technical perspective.

As plant operation becomes more intelligent and complex, the alarm system for safe and stable operation is becoming increasingly important. An alarm warns operators of an abnormal situation in a process and urges them to respond to it.

Recently, there is an increasing demand for operation and monitoring of all the various controllers distributed in the field on the same screens to improve plant operation efficiency. The purpose of the Unified Gateway Station (UGS) is to connect external controllers, such as the STARDOM's FCN/FCJ autonomous controllers and other vendors' controllers, to the CENTUM VP integrated production control system and to operate and monitor those external controllers on the Human Interface Station (HIS) screens, the operation and monitoring screens for the CENTUM VP.

In 2005, Yokogawa announced "VigilantPlant" as a concept to ward the realization of a type of plant operation that is considered ideal by our customers.

The specifications of the ISA100.11a wireless communication standard of the International Society of Automation (ISA) for industrial automation were published, and companies are developing products based on the standard. The ISA100.11a has many features such as high reliability including redundancy, network scalability, and support for various protocols for industrial automation.

Recently, manufacturing industries are trying to slash the total cost of ownership (TCO). Batch processes are not exceptions. Until recently, in comparison to continuous processes, batch processes have generally not yet undergone systematization and standardization.

The purpose of blending in a petroleum refinery is to mix semi-finished products that have been rectified during various refining processes so as to manufacture a product that meets specification.

The manuals of control systems such as a DCS provide a vast amount of information depending on their multi-functionality and functional integration. A conventional large-scale control system our company offers comes with more than 10,000 pages of paper documents.

To improve efficiency and quality in the DCS application coding and inspection phases for an entire CENTUM CS system, engineering tools have been developed, along with the training required to operate these tools. In consideration of the time needed for development, the need for adequate operability, the basis of standard CS software architecture, and the use of freeware (e.g., Perl² and Tcl/Tk³), we began development of these engineering tools with the objectives to reduce development costs and increase efficiency.

A fieldbus is a bidirectional, multidrop, digital communication system developed to replace the conventional 4-20 mA communication lines that connect intelligent field devices with a control system. Fieldbus is continually reviewed in an effort to standardize the fieldbus specifications to comply with the specifications of the IEC and ISA.¹

The first stage in creating next-generation production control system that achieves innovative plant operation is providing "Visualized operation". "Visualized operation" for the customer means that he can reliably access and visualize plant data regardless of plant location and time.

One of Yokogawa's corporate philosophies is to contribute to society through broad-ranging activities in the areas of measurement, control, and information. To achieve this philosophy in the control industry, Yokogawa launched CENTUM, the world's first distributed control system (DCS), in 1975.

As the world's societies become more connected, market competition is becoming more ruthless and transactions are performed at ever increasing speeds. Deregulation has ignited global competition throughout the world. The proliferation of Information and Internet technologies have accelerated the growth of global competition, with life cycles for high tech products having lives measured in "dog years" (in each normal year they advance seven years).

The consolidation of control rooms was conducted in several refineries in the 1990s and early 2000s as a means of reducing the number of operators and improving the efficiency for enhancing competitiveness. The characteristics of consolidated control rooms vary, reflecting the history of a refinery.

The manufacturing industry has grown based on solid production technologies for creating quality products. However, the economic environment is changing dramatically, forcing manufacturing firms to face tough global competition; firms must ship the right products at the right time as the market requests.

The phenomenon of the current era, coined the information age, involves a global trend toward digital technology and open architecture. Field devices are no exception to this trend.

For large scale geographically dispersed projects, there may be a hierarchy of individual Process Automation systems, which in turn are each responsible for a specific region, and are managed by a higher level system. Engineering of systems on this scale is a huge challenge, because each individual system has its own database and its own configuration.

As a company that has strong relationship with nature and provides products using nature's blessings, Mercian Corporation is committed to the environment. Its environmental philosophy is "Mercian thanks nature's blessings and capability that sustain life, and seeks to balance environmental preservation with creating an affluent society."

Recipe management software refers to the computer software used to manage product names and their corresponding recipes and set the recipe data in the control system in order to control the operations of a plant in which multiple materials are blended to manufacture a number of different products.

As for a controller used in a distributed control system (DCS) shown in Figure 1, covering as many applications as possible with a single controller will bring cost reduction effects such as easy engineering and a small controller installation area. Therefore, the controller is required to process large amounts of data more quickly.

There are already safety systems on the market that have achieved safety integrity level SIL3 of the functional safety standard, IEC61508. However, most of them have achieved SIL3 by conversion of modules into dual-redundant or triplex form.

For safe plant operations, it is critical to correctly understand the conditions encountered by operators inside the plants. In relation to this topic, human cognition has been studied in various fields such as human factors and ergonomics.

In industrialized countries, social trends such as the aging of workers and the decrease in working population are becoming obvious. Substantial problems such as a lack of skilled engineers and increases in the labor cost of knowledge workers are significantly impacting industrial automation users. These problems cause greater economic loss to the users. 

The power generation facility in a pulp and paper plant is comprised of units, each of which is composed of a boiler, a turbine, a generator, and auxiliary equipment, and these pieces of equipment were traditionally controlled on a unit/equipment basis. This paper presents an application of CENTUM, Yokogawa's distributed control system (DCS) that integrates the independent control systems of such power generation facilities to achieve labor saving through operations via CRT display and keyboard.

In recent years it has become increasingly common for plants to be provided not only with the control layer of a production control system (DCS, etc.), but also with the protection layer of a safety instrumented system (SIS) to reduce the risk of industrial accidents. The safety instrumented system is indispensable for avoiding risks to a plant failure.

The requirements for water supply and sewage services are becoming increasingly strict, such as consolidation of facilities, operational efficiency, lower cost, and information transparency due to stagnant demand. There is also demand for greater use of information technologies (IT), encouraged by the government's e-Japan strategy.

Instrumentation devices and equipment serve for plants as the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin, which are responsible for the five senses, and act as the central nervous system and brain do for human beings. The reliability and availability of such devices and equipment are the most important requirements of customers.

CENTUM VP is a next-generation Integrated Production Control System which provides solutions to improve operation efficiency (Operational Excellence) based on Yokogawa's VigilantPlant concept. In the development of Integrated Production Control Systems, we have expanded the functions of the Human Machine Interface (HMI) maintaining the main essence of CENTUM series, regardless of the changes of platforms.

Yokogawa proposed the VigilantPlant concept as an ideal plant that achieves fully optimized operation where all the necessary information is given to all the operators involved in the plant operation. In VigilantPlant, operators are able to quickly respond to changes in the external environment while the production activities run without any interruption.

FCSs, the control stations in a CENTUM CS system, have already demonstrated that they are highly reliable, effective and maintainable. These advantages are the result of such features as the dual-redundant hardware configuration, the online modification of application data, and so on.

The environment surrounding process control systems has changed dramatically as the performance of personal computers improves and the Windows operating system advances, there has been a move towards the trend of open architecture. As we are already aware, in addition to the traditional high reliability level and the unique operability there has been an increase in demand for the interoperability of human- machine interfaces (HMI), which are responsible for the operation and monitoring of our distributed control system (DCS).

In process control it is not uncommon for systems to be affected by dead times, due to material transfer times. This is evident typically in pipelines. A fluid of density ρ and flow rate w in a section of pipe A the length of d takes the amount of time τ = ρAd/w to cover the whole distance (see Figure 1).

Industrial automation (IA) systems and products, which utilize measurement, control and information technologies, are used across the world as fundamental infrastructure for achieving safe, stable and highly efficient plant operation. In order to keep the systems and products effective throughout the plant lifecycle, customers need to periodically check their effectiveness and take prompt action if any problem is identified.

In Japanese industries which grew rapidly until the early 1990's, solid production techniques for creating high-quality products supported the development of manufacturing industries. However, the economic environment has been changing rapidly and tough global competition has become unavoidable. Particularly, the manufacturing industry must adapt not only to changes in economic environments but also to changes in social conditions such as emphasis on health, safety, and environment (so called HSE).

Recently, standardization of procedural automation of manual operations has been promoted mainly by the International Society of Automation (ISA), and the functional requirements necessary for automation are being studied by the ISA106 committee in the US.

Upgrading and renewal of plant facilities, including production control systems and safety instrumented systems, are essential for maintaining safe and efficient plant operation. Even though these activities are categorized as R&R, they require investment and customers are often required to evaluate the profitability for obtaining approval.

Conventional safety instrumented system (SIS) is typically installed separated from a distributed control system (DCS) to eliminate interference from the DCS and assure safety. However, users increasingly wish to integrate SIS with DCS while maintaining the safety of safety controllers.

Yokogawa's ProSafe-RS safety instrumented system is used for many applications as a system conforming to the safety integrity level (SIL) 3 defined in the IEC61508 international functional safety standard. To deal with temperature inputs, systems were conventionally configured using signal conditioners.

Report functions in process control are often positioned as part of the logger functions. However, plant operation data in a batch process should be not only logged regularly but also acquired and managed for each batch execution. The report function for logging plant operations in a batch process mainly comprises a function to print out plant operation data collected for each batch execution, and there are various approaches available to implement this function.

Drastic changes in the economy of manufacturing industries, has led to increasing demand for plant operations to reduce personnel, improve efficiency, and increase the operation rate of facilities. On the other hand, for plants to operate safely, improvements in reliability and operational safety cannot be neglected.

The CENTUM CS 3000, a reliable distributed production control system, has been introduced worldwide with the objective of operating plants efficiently 24 hours a day, every day. The CS 3000 handles abnormal conditions in a plant appropriately and minimizes the chance of them developing into faults.

In recent years, expectations for control systems using wireless communications have been increasing in the process control market. This is because these systems do not require power and communication wiring for field instruments, enabling reduced initial and maintenance costs, and easy installation.

In this day and age, just simply buying a personal computer, taking it home and turning it on will enable you to be taken to the world of Internet. In such an era, communication connection capability and prospects is increasing in importance. DCSs are no exception for concern.

To date, Yokogawa has focused on DCS (Distributed Control System) which control the entire power generation plant, including boilers, in the electric power industry. In contrast, turbomachinery control has been handled by turbine manufacturers, but as the electric power market has been active internationally, especially in China and India, in recent years, Yokogawa has been developing turbomachinery control systems to to further develop the electric power industry.

For a transfer system in a plant, such as a transfer between tanks in a brewery, the transfer of pellets in a pneumatic transport system, or the transfer of oil at an offsite location, it is necessary to monitor the open/close status of valves or the on/off status of motors or blowers in reference to the transfer pattern (a combination of the transfer source(s) and destination(s), route, etc.).

Due to emerging competitors from the rapidly growing countries such as India and China and the global economic downturn triggered by the Lehman shock, many companies in the process industries are struggling to survive the severe global competition.

The operation and monitoring functions of a plant control system are important means of understanding the condition of the plant and how it operates. Traditionally, user needs for the system focused on such features as increased operability and durability. As a result, these functions were developed for a dedicated machine in the form of dedicated human-machine interface software.

The innovation of wireless technology increases the use of wireless communication in the industry. The introduction of wireless communication to plants, however, requires strict features such as robustness, real-time responsiveness, and low power consumption. This has restricted the use of wireless communication to limited applications such as data logging and device status monitoring that does not require strict real-time responsiveness and data arrival reliability in communication.

Migration of a refinery's DCS provided an opportunity to reconfigure and consolidate the control rooms and operational management system.

Control Engineering Asia, June 2014

Your next automation system will have to do far more than real-time control,as the demands for new capabilities are rapidly growing. Bruce Jensen writes.

By Bruce Jensen, General Manager, Technical Solutions Support Center, VigilantPlant Solutions and Services, Yokogawa Corporation of America, and Joshua Kyaw Zwa, Executive Engineer, System Marketing Department, Marketing Operation, Yokogawa Engineering Asia Pte. Ltd.

...and then you plan an intelligent automation solution.

In an ideal automation project, time is unlimited, and project budgets are generous. The plant implementing such a project has the luxury of automating all of its field actuators, great and small. 

September 2008

Yokogawa is helping a large chemicals site in China manage product transfer by road, ship and pipeline.

September 2007

Yokogawa's web-based DCS Anywhere has simplified commissioning at the Nanhai petrochemicals complex. With a total investment of 4.2 billion US dollars, the Nanhai petrochemicals complex at Daya Bay in Huizhou, China, has attracted a lot of attention because of its sheer scale.

Industrial Automation Asia, August 2012

For the past 35 years, developments of a distributed control system (DCS) have been evolving to raise productivity and enhance plant operation. As field instruments advance, there is a need to exchange large amount of process data and parameters among various diagnostic devices for stability of plant operation.

As industrial facilities take on more complex tasks and lose in-house expertise, they ought to be able to rely on suppliers to show the way and help them achieve their goals.

October 2008

The 2008 Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Company of the Year Award for Distributed Control System (DCS) market is presented to Yokogawa. Yokogawa is the market leader with a dominant market share in the Asia Pacific market. 

Control Engineering Asia, May 2012

An exception level of engineering expertise tailored for the local market is one of the primary reasons why Yokogawa has managed to capture and keep the process automation top spot in the Land of Smiles, says Somkid Teraboonchaikul, managing director, Yokogawa Thailand.

As a world's leading supplier of instruments and control systems for industrial process automation, Yokogawa has committed itself to the development of advanced solutions and products in three focused areas – measurement technologies, industrial automation and control, and information technologies.

March 2008

Yokogawa has taken a vital step in their plan to make the world's plants 'silent and boring', and therefore, well-managed, with the release of their new integrated production control system CENTUM VP last month.

Process automation in oil refineries is undergoing major changes, driven by customers frustrated by what they consider to be slow and incremental advances from the main automation original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the industry. ExxonMobil has become a de facto industry representative and is driving vendors like Yokogawa and others to reevaluate how large-scale automation projects are implemented.

At ARC Process Management Academy (PMA) in Antwerp Yokogawa's contribution to plants in Europe was introduced.

Honeywell and Yokogawa have both been producing Distributed Control System (DCS) platforms for decades, and both are very active in this area. In 1975, Honeywell introduced its TDC2000 platform and Yokogawa brought out CENTUM. These two competing systems emerged from a similar place, oil refining and petrochemical industries, so they started out with similar basic concepts and use cases in mind. 

Oil producers looking past today's difficult world markets understand development of new sources will bring a growing list of challenges. An ever-increasing amount of oil and natural gas is being produced by techniques once considered unconventional: tar and extraction, fracking, and deep water offshore drilling. As the costs of these extraction methods have gone down, the range of economically recoverable deposits has increased. When crude oil markets return to more normal levels, these difficult fields, including deep water offshore oil and gas, will become increasingly important.

By Eugene Spiropoulos, Yokogawa Corporation of America

Many lubricant blending businesses find themselves in a challenging situation: there are opportunities to increase their overall business volume and profits by improving production flexibility, expanding their product slate and optimizing high-margin blends. At the same time, they find themselves constrained by current manufacturing limitations. However, launching a capital project for a significant manufacturing expansion may not be possible, and it may not be necessary.

Don't gamble with your plant's legacy DCS system. Contact us to help you plan and implement a safe, cost effective DCS migration that creates new value for your business.

The CENTUM VP is the flagship integrated production control system for Yokogawa VigilantPlant Solutions.

Chet Mroz, President & CEO Yokogawa North America, discusses the benefits of IoT at the 2015 ARC Industry Forum in Orlando.