PACE - Process & Control Engineering - September 2013

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SEPTEMBER 2013 | VOL.66 NO.8

PACE marks 60 years For six decades now, PACE magazine has been an integral part of Australia’s process control and automation community. Tell us your story editor@pacetoday.com.au

Post Print Approved PP255003/00539

INSIDE PACE

Jeff Kodosky

Integration

Profile

The Father of LabVIEW shares his vision for National Instruments

Monitor and manage energy and water consumption independently

Tim Mahony is Manager Electrical Engineering at Wide Bay Water Corporation

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CONTENTS

Publisher: Martin Sinclair Email: martin.sinclair@cirrusmedia.com.au Editor: Kevin Gomez Tel: (02) 8484 0976 Fax: (02) 8484 0722 Email: kevin.gomez@cirrusmedia.com.au Group Sales Manager: Tim Richards Tel: (02) 8484 0829 Mobile: 0420 550 799 Email: tim.richards@cirrusmedia.com.au

IN THIS ISSUE

QLD Sales Manager: Sharon R. Amos PO Box 3136, Bracken Ridge, QLD 4017 Tel: (07) 3261 8857 Fax: (07) 3261 8347 Mobile: 0417 072 625 Email: sharon.amos@cirrusmedia.com.au Graphic Designer: Nicolle Lawson Email: nicolle.lawson@cirrusmedia.com.au

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Production Co-ordinator: Tracy Engle Tel: (02) 8484 0707 Fax: (02) 8484 0722 Email: tracy.engle@cirrusmedia.com.au

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Cirrus Media Tower 2, Level 3, 475 Victoria Ave, Chatswood, NSW 2067, Australia Locked Bag 4700 Chatswood Delivery Centre, NSW 2067, Australia Phone: 02 8484 0888 Fax: 02 8484 0633 ABN 80 132 719 861 ISSN 1329-6221 www.cirrusmedia.com.au © Copyright Cirrus Media, 2013

News 6

Energy 14

Insight 8

Case Study 16

NIWeek 2013 A round-up of products and applications presented at the National Instruments event Securing networks Dealing with the increased level of connectivity exposes inherent security risks

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Energy-water nexus The interconnectedness of water and energy must be considered in an integrated way Desal power Australia’s largest seawater desal plant claims several innovative engineering implementations

Engineer’s Notes 20

Compressor control Maintenance costs of reciprocating compressors are greater than those for centrifugal compressors IICA Corner 26

Strategy meeting Communiqué says new form of the IICA will emerge with more specific outcomes

ON THE COVER OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF: SEPTEMBER 2013 | VOL.66 NO.8

PACE marks 60 years For six decades now, PACE magazine has been an integral part of Australia’s process control and automation community. Tell us your story editor@pacetoday.com.au

Average Net Distribution Period ending March ‘13 6,424

Jeff Kodosky

Integration

Profile

The Father of LabVIEW shares his vision for National Instruments

Monitor and manage energy and water consumption independently

Tim Mahony is Manager Electrical Engineering at Wide Bay Water Corporation

Post Print Approved PP255003/00539

INSIDE PACE

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SEPTEMBER 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 03

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COMMENT

EDITOR’S MESSAGE

WHAT’S ON

Specialist Industrial Control System Security Training 3-5 September 2013, Melbourne www.sistraining.com.au

Prepare for the rise of cyber-physical systems

HAZOP Study for Team Leaders and Team Members 10-12 September 2013, Perth www.icheme.org/hazopperth Human Factors in Health and Safety 25-26 September 2013, Brisbane www.icheme.org/humanfactors

Kevin Gomez Editor

IICA Cyber Security Seminar 30 October 2013, Sydney nsw@iica.org.au

Next Issue

For daily updates visit www.pacetoday.com.au

• Instrumentation • Discrete Control • Minerals Processing • Process Control in Building Automation • Cybersecurity Solutions

ONE of the key points of discussion at NIWeek in Austin centered around the growth of Internet of Things (IoT). There are different terminologies, depending on who you ask. Germany coined the phrase Industry 4.0. They refer to mechanical production equipment driven by water and steam power as Industry 1.0.

Mass production powered by electricity was Industry 2.0 and the use of IT and electronics to automate poduction is considered Industry 3.0.

Industry 4.0 is based on cyber-physical systems (CPS) – a network of interacting elements with physical input and output instead of standalone devices. James Truchard, president and CEO of NI,

came up with the CPS concept in 2006 and it aligns with NI’s philosophy of building instrumentation in software.

Truchard was referring to CPS as the virtual representation of a manufacturing process in software. CPS will allow significant customisation of products in a flexible mass production environment.

The US has the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition (SMLC) and counts Rockwell Automation, Honeywell and Emerson as its members. SMLC is adopting a broader approach and is focused on the development of standards, platforms and shared infrastructure to promote the adoption of manufacturing intelligence. The shift from

rigid factory control systems to decentralised intelligence is already happening.

Peter Post, Head of Corporate Research and Programme Strategy at Festo, puts it succinctly: “Tasks managed by the central host computer will be assumed by the individual components in future. All measures that need to be carried out to manage the order for a certain component could then be executed in a small local control loop within the component itself.�

Has anyone checked our government’s vision for the manufacturing industry? kevin.gomez@cirrusmedia.com.au

Like us on Facebook and join the conversation facebook.com/PACEtoday

TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

What will the world look like in three decades?

BY JIM PINTO A RECENT gathering of technologists, scientists, futurists and entrepreneurs recently painted a somewhat terrifying picture of what the world is going to look like in the next three decades. Here are their six prognostications.

The post-brain-map era. An accurate, functional brain map will undoubtedly change everything. Brain implants will be commonplace. Genetic and cognitive enhancements will bring

smarter, more efficient humans who feed greater ideas and innovations back into a positive feedback loop.

The biotechnology age. Humans are the only species that extend our biological reach. We’re starting to integrate that technology more deeply into our biologies through transplantable organs or implantable machines inside the body to alter or improve its performance (like pacemakers).

Your brain on the cloud. Brain implants will become commonplace, and

they’ll unlock the power of the cloud. In the same way we use our smartphones to track down information across the web, within a couple of decades our brains will be able to access the collected information in the cloud.

Longevity and immortality. In the last 200 years the average life expectancy in developed countries has doubled.

When life extension technologies are mature enough, the cost will come down enough to place it within the reach of millions; like buying Aspirin.

Technocracy is the new aristocracy.

Those who have the best technology will be society’s elites. This is not so different than today’s gadget culture. The ability to enhance cognitive function will put the haves at an advantage.

The Fortune 500. Half the Fortune 500 will not exist 50 years from now.

What worked in the last century isn’t necessarily going to work in the new one.

To quote Yogi Berra: “The future ain’t what it used to be.�

Jim@JimPinto.com

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NEWS

NIWEEK 2013

NI redesigns from the inside out KEVIN GOMEZ CLOSE to 4,000 engineers and professionals from around the world gathered at the Austin Convention Center in Texas for NIWeek 2013, National Instruments’ annual graphical system design conference.

And they were not disappointed as NI released a slew of products and unveiled several interesting applications.

NI has redesigned the CompactRIO from the inside out giving it four times faster performance than previous generations. The new cRIO-9068 software-designed controller however, maintains full NI LabVIEW and I/O compatibility with the CompactRIO platform. The controller includes the Xilinx Zynq-7020 All Programmable system on a chip (SoC), which combines a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor and Xilinx 7 Series FPGA fabric.

A new Linux-based, real-time OS provides greater flexibility for both LabVIEW Real-Time and C/C++ application developers.

The new NI LabVIEW 2013 offers overhauled sample projects, an expanded training library as well as new tools to facilitate the management, documentation and debugging of complex systems.

The NI cRIO-9068 helps meet

EDUCATION: The NI myRIO is smaller and more student-friendly than its industrial counterpart. demanding embedded control and monitoring tasks while reducing development time and cost. Engineers use the CompactRIO platform to build systems that can suppress fires on cargo airplanes, generate electricity through the flight of tethered kites and precisely stack 20 tons of wet concrete.

One of the users is Lime Instruments that has developed a control system for the hydraulic fracturing market. Their solution works with a variety of existing equipment and legacy systems, withstand harsh environments and offer a high

degree of reliability. “The increased performance and capabilities, ultrarugged specifications and affordable price of the cRIO-9068 make it ideal for our next generation of oil field and electrical grid products,” said Robert Stewart, president of Lime Instruments.

“NI Linux-RT really opens up the CompactRIO system to advanced customisation,” added James Ritter, software engineering manager at Lime Instruments. “We can take advantage of the remarkable amount of software in the Linux community to improve

network security, more easily manage our systems remotely or use open-source code libraries with ease.”

“Because so many customers have invested in CompactRIO, we took this redesign extremely seriously,” said David Fuller, vice president of applications and embedded software at National Instruments. “Our R&D teams re-examined every part of the controller’s design and made sweeping improvements while maintaining complete backward code compatibility.”

National Instruments also announced an expanded commitment to engineering education with the release of NI myRIO. Based on the same technology as the NI CompactRIO platform, NI myRIO is smaller and more student-friendly than its industrial counterpart.

NI myRIO includes the latest Zynq all programmable system on a chip (SoC) technology from Xilinx, which combines a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor and an FPGA with 28,000 programmable logic cells.

Using the NI LabVIEW graphical programming environment, students can program the FPGA and evolve their systems in real time, giving them the flexibility to prototype and quickly iterate on their designs.

The NI myRIO also includes 10 analog inputs, six analog outputs, audio

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NEWS

I/O channels and up to 40 lines of digital I/O. It includes onboard WiFi, a three-axis accelerometer and several programmable LEDs in a durable, enclosed form factor.

“If I had made a list of everything I wanted in a portable I/O device, it would have looked almost exactly like the spec sheet of NI myRIO,” University of Florida engineering instructor Dan Dickrell III said. “This little unit is an amazing piece of engineering.”

Ensuring classroom and laboratory adaptability, NI myRIO comes with free downloadable courseware, is compatible with all NI miniSystems and connects with many third-party sensors and actuators. In addition to the hardware ecosystem available for NI myRIO, the device is programmable in multiple environments, including LabVIEW and C/C++, allowing educators to incorporate it into their existing controls, robotics, mechatronics and embedded systems courses.

NI also announced the cDAQ9188XT, an 8-slot NI CompactDAQ Ethernet chassis designed for distributed

RUGGED: cDAQ-9188XT is designed for distributed or remote measurements in extreme environments.

or remote measurements in extreme environments. The cDAQ-9188XT can withstand temperatures from -40 to 70 °C, 50 g of shock and 5 g of vibration.

Engineers in the automotive, military and aerospace industries have used it to successfully acquire data and avoid repeat tests.

“We’re using the cDAQ-9188XT to track pressure, vibration, velocity and more in our jetpowered vehicle as we try to break the world land speed record,”

said Steve Wallace, data acquisition scientist for the North American Eagle Project. “So far it’s survived everything we’ve thrown at it and given us great results.”

In addition, the chassis is the first in the NI CompactDAQ platform to offer an onboard watchdog with defined safe states to help protect your tests and equipment. The platform includes 10 chassis options, three buses and over 50 C Series modules with a wide range of

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connectivity and I/O. The platform also has native integration with NI LabVIEW system design software, which provides signal processing libraries and user interface controls designed for data visualisation.

“From single-signal benchtop measurements made in laboratories to distributed, rugged or standalone measurements made in some of the most extreme conditions on earth, it’s amazing how our customers’ applications have evolved over the past 25 years,” said Chad Chesney, director of data acquisition marketing at National Instruments. “By continuing to invest in NI CompactDAQ, we’ll contribute to even more engineering accomplishments over the next quarter century.”

Additionally, with the LabVIEW Electrical Power Suite, NI CompactDAQ users can integrate power analysis functions such as energy, frequency, voltage unbalance and event detection into their monitoring systems.

[PACE Editor Kevin Gomez filed this report from NIWeek in Austin, Texas.] australia.ni.com

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OPINION

SECURITY

Securing automation networks The increased level of connectivity brings inherent security risks, writes Robert Hicks.

T

HE industrial landscape is rapidly evolving to address the challenging economic environment facing Australia today. Organisations need to become more efficient and flexible to maintain competitiveness and improve productivity.

This evolution has seen a significant increase of Industrial Ethernet technologies being applied to control systems. A single Ethernet network can be used for standard control, as well as safety, motion, process, visualisation, and asset management.

This allows for significant reductions in the costs and time associated with installation and maintenance of networks when compared to the traditional approach of using multiple fieldbuses.

By providing a scalable platform that can accommodate multiple applications, Ethernet-based automation systems can help increase flexibility and accelerate deployment of new applications, providing companies with a future proof network that can help them achieve their productivity goals.

08 www.pacetoday.com.au SEPTEMBER 2013

Additionally, Industrial Ethernet adoption across a plant or factory provides for far easier information sharing by creating a link between the plant and business systems, helping industry achieve operational improvements.

Ethernet networks allow for easy access to critically important, real time data. A well designed, robust, secure

Researchers are predicting an explosion of end devices connected to Ethernet

Ethernet network, can now allow real time data to be accessed securely from anywhere in the world.

Operational dashboards and reports provide increased visibility into current plant operations.

However, this increased level of connectivity also brings inherent security risks that need to be addressed.

As the convergence of manufacturing and IT relies on standard Ethernet networks, these infrastructures are increasingly exposed to new security risks and active cyber threats.

Addressing these risks poses many challenges for business; though mitigating the risks will help companies benefit from the many advantages that networked operations bring.

Exposing process networks to a wider audience raises valid security concerns. Due to their isolation, traditional fieldbuses inherently brought some level of security; although accessing data on these networks could be difficult. As industry moves toward a converged Ethernet network, security becomes a prime concern.

However, commercial Ethernet technologies have for the past two decades, been working on alleviating risks associated with viruses, unauthorised access, remote access and external attacks. Leading control

A defence-in-depth security approach utilises multiple layers of defence.

system vendors are increasingly collaborating with traditional IT companies to design reference industrial Ethernet architectures utilising current best practices.

Industrial network security is multifaceted; it is essential that all variables that introduce risk be proactively identified, tracked and addressed in order to help facilitate a safe and reliable industrial process.

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OPINION

No single product, technology or methodology can fully secure Industrial Automation and Control System (IACS) applications.

Protecting IACS assets requires a defense-in-depth security approach which addresses both internal and external security threats. This approach utilises multiple layers of defence (physical, procedural and electronic) at separate IACS levels by applying policies and procedures that address different types of threats.

A balanced industrial network security framework must address both technical (electronic technology) and non-technical (physical, policy, procedural) elements. This industrial network security framework should be based on a well-defined set of security policies and procedures, leveraging established IT processes, while balancing the functional requirements of the IACS application itself.

This has led to a cultural change where IT and engineering are becoming closely aligned. In the past, industrial applications were maintained

solely by engineers, but now the line between traditionally separate IT and engineering departments is becoming less defined. Engineers are becoming more familiar with IT technologies, and conversely, IT is fast learning the intricacies of industrial Ethernet.

Researchers are predicting an explosion of end devices connected to Ethernet, and as power over Ethernet becomes accepted within industry, more and more devices are expected to be shipped ‘Ethernet ready’, highlighting the importance of having secure industrial networks.

Risk and security assessments are the starting point for any security policy implementation. Security assessments should look at your specific situation from technologies to policies, procedures to behaviour, and give you a realistic picture of your current security posture (current risk state) and what it will take (mitigation techniques) to get to where you need to be (acceptable risk state).

Rockwell Automation recommends the formation of a multi-discipline

team of operations, engineering, IT and safety representatives to collaborate in the development and deployment of your industrial security policy based on your risk assessment.

A balanced industrial network security framework must address both technical and nontechnical element

Rockwell Automation and Cisco have also collaborated to develop Converged Plantwide Ethernet (CPwE) reference architectures to help address the industrial network security framework. This comes in the form of design considerations, guidance, recommendations, best practices, solutions and services to help

companies to successfully design and deploy a scalable, robust, secureand future-ready plant-wide/ site-wide network infrastructure.

The CPwE Industrial Network Security Framework is aligned to industrial security standards such as ISA/IEC-62443 (formerly ISA-99) Industrial Automation and Control Systems (IACS)Security and NIST 800-82 Industrial Control System (ICS) Security in regards to a defensein-depth security approach.

Manufacturers and automation vendors will continue to take advantage of investment and innovation in compatible commercial Ethernet technologies, and adapt these innovations to the industrial environment while integrating a holistic approach to industrial security.

[Robert Hicks is Product Manager, Rockwell Automation. Hicks will be presenting at the IICA Cyber Security Seminar on October 30, 2013 in Sydney; email nsw@iica.org.au or call 0410 334 333 for more information.] www.rockwellautomation.com.au

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CONVERSATION

Jeff Kodosky talks LabVIEW NI cofounder Jeff Kodosky talks about the path ahead for his invention. By Kevin Gomez KNOWN as the Father of LabVIEW by engineers and scientists worldwide, Jeff Kodosky cofounded National Instruments in 1976 and has continued to mentor the organization and pioneer graphical system design approach through NI LabVIEW. Kodosky’s invention of LabVIEW was named as one of the ‘Top 50 Milestones for the Industry’ and he holds 68 patents associated with LabVIEW technology.

PACE Editor, Kevin Gomez caught up with Kodosky in Austin, Texas at NIWeek 2013 to get some clues on the evolution and future of LabVIEW.

Was the GPIB board the start of LabVIEW? It was definitely the start of the company.

It put us front and centre in automated test, at the intersection of computers and instruments. It gave us a lot of insight because a customer would buy our GPIB board, plug it in, connect the instruments and if it didn’t work they’d call us because we’re the ones that were connecting all of these things.

So we learned a lot about what customers were doing, a lot about how the instruments were working and a lot about how to diagnose and troubleshoot over the phone. The software that we’d built for our boards had a lot of extra capability to help us troubleshoot

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problems. We learned a lot about measurement and automation because we were right in the middle and that set the stage for our later expansion into virtual instrumentation.

How did G language evolve?

Once we were established as a GPIB supplier we got to thinking, what can we do next to simplify the task of automating measurement systems? We said, well why don’t we come up with some software tools that would make it easier? We looked at a lot of different things including making libraries for C an BASIC, and basic and so on.

Went out and talked to customers, they said, yeah if you have better library of the fixed basics we’ll do this. But that’s not exactly what we had in mind.

We wanted to do something a little more revolutionary and a little more far reaching. So I went up to an office near campus, scratched my head a lot and pottered around. A major milestone for me was when I got introduced to the Macintosh computer.

All of a sudden, seeing those graphics made me realise - that’s the future of human computer interaction. I said, this has to be part of our solution.

We’ve got to be able to build virtual instruments on a computer and connect up to real instruments or connect up to the data acquisition part or whatever.

We’ve got to have these like front panels because people could then operate it without having to read a big manual, they could experiment.

Programmers were writing basic programs to automate a few instruments and collect data, asking them to write an interactive graphical interface program would be impossible. They just wouldn’t be able to do that. So how would we program a system like that?

So I asked Dr T, give me a few more months and maybe I can figure out a way that we can use the graphics to do the programming. (Dr James Truchard is the president, ceo, and cofounder of National Instruments and often referred to as ‘Dr T’.)

I was young and naïve and didn’t know that conventional wisdom said that was impossible. So I pottered around, thinking of different ways we could use graphics. Looked at dataflow, it was nice but as soon as you tried to do loops it got inordinately complex.

Looked at flow charts, there wasn’t enough leverage in use of graphics.

Nothing seemed to be a eureka kind of answer. I kept coming back to dataflow because of its phenomenal logical level of understanding. You could see what’s going on, understand it very easily.

So somewhere along the line it occurred to me that if we could add controlled structures from structured programing into dataflow then we would simplify the creation of loops and other kinds of case structures and so on. It would have the simplicity of dataflow and the composability of structured programming. That was when we realised, okay this is a germ of an idea that could work. So we kicked off the LabVIEW project and the rest is history.

My own philosophical view is the world is parallel and we have parallel processes running in our brains

How do you respond to those who prefer abstract programing languages?

I have a pragmatic realisation that there are going to be people who like to program in conventional languages.

That’s what they’d like to do and so they’re going to want to do that and stick with doing that. That’s fine. So for those folks I’d say: do your C, your Python or whatever kind of programing you want and connect it into LabVIEW. Leverage LabVIEW where it makes sense and do your custom programing

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CONVERSATION

in your own language where that makes sense. My own philosophical view is the world is parallel and we have parallel processes running in our brains. We’re doing multiple things at once all the time.

We actually have to learn, take computer science courses to think sequentially.

We study and figure out how to do that so we can try to solve a problem by doing it purely sequentially. Then we take that sequential program and we put it on a multicore computer so that we can get some parallels and some performance back. Seems a little weird.

Why wouldn’t we want to think of parallel solutions right off the bat?

We do that in LabVIEW, it’s naturally parallel. That’s why it was so easy to map to FPGAs which are the ultimate parallel prime work. So I don’t get into the religious fights with programmers anymore, it’s just not worth it but I think the future is going to be more and more graphical programming. We’ll have specialists who do lower level programing to do high performance routines for certain applications but the overwhelming majority of programs will end up being graphicals at some point in the future.

Just like the overwhelming programing done today is sequential programing in a high level language, not an assembly.

There are a few assembly language programmers today but most people recognise working at that level is just not worth it. We’ve got good enough compilers and we’re willing to sacrifice a percentage of the performance of the machine to be able to work at a higher level and we do. I think the transition to graphical languages will be similar, it may take a little longer time frame and it may not appeal to everybody but that’s kind of my view on where we stand.

Is mobile is the next big leap for LabVIEW? Mobile devices need to be exploited in test and measurement and control applications. It’s pretty clear that something like data dashboard, being able to view data on machines by proximity or remotely is clearly a need and that’s why we’re doing it. How much more and the timescale is still kind of fuzzy. We want to make sure that we’re figuring out how we can use new technology and make it available to our broad base of users.

Sometimes it’s not always clear what the long term is going to be so we have research projects that we do and experiments that we run. I definitely think mobile devices are going to have a profound influence although I’m not

exactly sure where it’s going to be. I know what’s in the HMI area but unsure how much more we will see.

Over the years we have been working on major advances that are poised to be included in the LabVIEW framework.

The higher level of abstraction that we refer to is a system diagram. Basically a graphical representation of the project where you can see all the components in your system and how they’re interconnected, both at a hardware configuration level as well as a software distribution level.

Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?

Well of course if I knew what I know now back then. it could have influenced a lot of things. Although the technology we had back then is nothing like we have available today. Even if I knew that there were going to be FPGAs in the late 90s back in late 80s I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it. I think we made different trade-offs because there’s always more to do than we have resources available. If we did this before that, is it better or worse? You can’t really tell so here’s a simple example. In LabVIEW 4 we had a one-step undo that we finally implemented. Up until that time there was no undo for LabVIEW so if people made a mistake, tough luck.

That was the number one requested feature for a decade but we didn’t know how to do it efficiently and it took us a long time to figure it out. But in LabVIEW 4 we implemented a one-step undo and I was arguing for releasing that because I thought that would be a giant benefit. It’s an infinite increase over zero step undo. But other people on the team felt that it would be better to wait one more release and have a multi-step undo.

Their decision prevailed and we released a multi-step undo that has worked flawlessly ever since. Would we have been better introducing the one-step version earlier and solving part of the problem but not the whole problem or waiting until we had the multi-step?

I don’t know. We did it this way, it seems to have worked fine and so I don’t know how to second guess that. There’s been a lot of cases, a lot of decisions along the path where it’s not clear what’s best when we made a choice. Thinking about it again you might think, well maybe it would have worked a little better for me on another choice but it’s not really clear that it would.

“ VEGA sensors, they are always on the cutting edge of technology.”

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australia.ni.com SEPTEMBER 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 13

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The energy-water nexus It takes a lot of water to produce fossil fuels and even more to generate electricity from these fossil fuels.

The interconnectedness of water and energy must be considered in an integrated way, writes Paul Miller.

W

HETHER or not you subscribe to the manmade global warming and “peak oil” arguments, it’s clear to almost everyone in the industrial world that “business as usual” is not sustainable indefinitely.

Fossil fuels are becoming harder and more costly to extract. The nuclear option is being taken off the table in many countries. Wind and solar electric generation are still not baseload solutions (and may never be).

And many world regions are already suffering some degree of water stress.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (WBSD) Vision 2050 Project explores ways in which the approximately nine billion people projected to be living on the plant in 2050 can live well by “living within the limits of the planet.” In other words, by living in such a way that an acceptable standard of living “can be sustained with the available natural resources and without further harm to biodiversity, climate and other ecosystems.”

Vision 2050 is not a project undertaken by a bunch of “tree huggers,” but by the CEOs of 29 global companies, largely in industries like utilities, oil & gas, chemicals, consumer packaged goods, and mining & metals.

According to the project’s report, “All types of ingenuity will be needed over the next 40 years. Although distinct, the interconnectedness of issues such as water, food, and energy – relationships that must be considered in an integrated and holistic way, with tradeoffs that must be understood and addressed.”

Energy supply insufficient While it’s likely that per capita consumption of energy will go down somewhat in developed economies, this will not be the case in emerging economies. This is particularly true in China, India, and Brazil where more energy will be required to sustain industrial development.

According to Gerald Schotman, Chief Technology Officer of Royal Dutch Shell, by 2050 global energy demand will double and could even triple from its 2000 level if

UE Solid State Pressure Switches Program Precise Pump Control The One Series electronic pressure switch provides pump start/stop sequencing to match exact process needs while reducing pump cycling and eliminating nuisance trips.

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14 www.pacetoday.com.au SEPTEMBER 2013

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emerging economies follow historical development patterns.

According to Schotman, even if renewable energy sources continue to grow at a promising rate (potentially supplying as much as 25 percent of the world’s energy by 2050), and future technological advances enable oil and gas to be extracted from increasingly remote and difficult locations, a large gap is likely to remain between demand and supply: “a gap as big as the total output of the energy industry in 2000.”

Exxon-Mobil’s forward-looking report, The Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040, predicts that global energy demand will be about 30 percent higher in 2040 compared to 2010.

According to the report, while energy demand in OECD countries will remain essentially flat, nonOECD demand will grow by close to 60 percent.

Fresh water shortfall According to a report on water challenges prepared by United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) in conjunction with the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), water scarcity currently affects many regions of the world.

“Without a significant reversal of economic and social trends, it will become more acute over time.

Although water is considered a renewable resource, in many parts of the world, water resources have become so depleted or contaminated that they are unable to meet ever-increasing demands. The challenges are more acutely felt in developing countries.”

According to the report, this has become a major factor impeding both economic development and business operations. The challenges associated with water scarcity are emerging as a strategically important risk for global businesses and their financial backers.

Furthermore, rapid globalization within the business supply chain only increases this risk. Thus, according to the report, the business case for addressing water challenges in a strategic manner only gets stronger.

Energy and water At the macro level, it’s clear that energy and water are closely intertwined. It takes a lot of water to explore for, produce, and refine fossil fuels and even

more to generate electricity from these fossil fuels.

In fact, by some estimates, power generation accounts for approximately 40 percent of all water withdrawals in the US (almost of which was ultimately returned to the source).

On the other side of the coin, due to the large, energy-intensive pumps involved and the energy-intensive nature of many of the treatment processes currently in use; it takes significant electricity to withdraw, treat, and transport freshwater, wastewater, and – increasingly – both saltwater and reused water. According to one Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) report, approximately 4 percent of the electricity generated in the US is used to pump and treat water.

The challenges associated with water scarcity are emerging as a strategically important risk for global businesses and their financial backers.

To reduce current and future business risks and help ensure business continuity, it’s important for industrial enterprises to monitor, measure, and manage their energy and water consumption independently; as well as fully understand the often interactive relationships between the two.

If organizations have not already started to do so, ARC Advisory Group recommends that they start putting in place and implementing initiatives on both the strategic and tactical levels to use both energy and water more efficiently and effectively.

It’s also important to address the cultural and educational issues so that all employees understand that it is in their own best interests, as well as the best interest of the company and the community at large, to minimise energy and water consumption and related emissions.

[Paul Miller (PMiller@ARCweb. com) is Senior Editor and Analyst, ARC Advisory Group.] www.arcweb.com SEPTEMBER 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 15

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Technology powering desal plant Although currently in preservation mode, Australia’s largest seawater desalination plant lays claim to several innovative engineering implementations, writes Hartley Henderson.

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ONSTRUCTION and commissioning of a major new desalination plant, featuring innovative process and control systems, has been completed near the Victorian town of Wonthaggi.

Delivered as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) at a capital cost of $3.5 billion, Thiess Degremont Joint Venture (TDJV) designed and built the Victorian Desalination Plant for AquaSure, which is responsible for the finance, design, construction, and operation and maintenance of the project.

Aquasure has contracted Degremont Thiess Services Joint Venture (DTSJV) to operate and maintain the plant over the 27 year concession period.

The plant is capable of supplying up to 150 billion litres of water a year (with the capability to expand to 200 billion litres a year) to Melbourne and Geelong as well as to South Gippsland and

LANDMARK: The Victorian Desalination Plant is one of the largest reverse osmosis plants in the world.

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S T R A LTake ASIA safety on Australasian AArange currently your Hindustries.

A Z A R DThe S Aconference U S T R Awill L Afeature S I A Ha mix A Z of A invited R D S Aspeakers, U S T R oral A L and A S I A Hadvantage A Z A R DofSthis A opportunity U S T R A LtoAshowcase SIAHA Z Aproducts R D S Aand U services S T R AtoL key ASIA a trade in the Australasian process safety field by sponsoring orS exhibiting Hposter A Z Apresentations, RDSAUST R A Lexhibition A S I A Hand A Zconference A R D S Adinner.

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Keynote speakers HThe A ZHonourable A R D S ABillUMarmion, S T R A LMinister A S I Afor H Mines A Z Aand R DPetroleum; S A U S THousing, R A L AWA S I A HRegistrations AZARDSA U S T R A L A S I A H A Z A R D S A U S T R A L A S IA are now open! For more information, visit: HVince A Z Santostefano, A R D S A Ucoo, S T Woodside RALASIAHAZARDSAUSTRALASIAHAZARDSAUSTRALASIAHAZARDSAUSTRALASIA www.icheme.org/hazardsaus2013 HJane A ZCutler, AKeith R Dceo, SMartinsen, ANOPSEMA U S T North R A LAmerican A S I A Haviation A Z A veteran R D S A U S T R A L A S I A HEmail: A Z A hazardsaus@icheme.org RDSAUSTRALASIAHAZARDSAUSTRALASIA Captain partner HMichael A Z A Tooma, RDSA U S T&Rhead A L of A occupational S I A H A Z health, A R D safety S A Uand S Tsecurity, R A L A S I A HTel: A Z03 A R9642 D S 4494 AUSTRALASIAHAZARDSAUSTRALASIA HNorton A Z ARose R DFulbright SAUSTRALASIAHAZARDSAUSTRALASIAHAZARDSAUSTRALASIAHAZARDSAUSTRALASIA

HInvited A Zspeaker A R D S A U S T R A L A S I A H A Z A R D S A U S T R A L A S I A H A Z A R D S A U SADVANCING TRALASIA CHEMICAL Judith Hackitt CBE, chair, UK Health & Safety Executive and IChemE president H A Z A R D S A U S T R A L A S I A H A Z A R D S A U S T R A L A S I A H A Z A R D S A U SENGINEERING TRALASIA WORLDWIDE HAZARDSAUSTRALASIAHAZARDSAUSTRALASIAHAZARDSAUSTRALASIA

HAZARDSAUSTRALASIAHAZARDSAUSTRALASIAHAZARDSAUSTRALASIAHAZARDSAUSTRALASIA HAZARDSAUSTRALASIAHAZARDSAUSTRALASIAHAZARDSAUSTRALASIAHAZARDSAUSTRALASIA 16 www.pacetoday.com.au SEPTEMBER 2013

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Helping to put you in Control 4-Beam Photoelectric Detector

Westernport towns. This production capacity represents approximately one third of Melbourne’s annual water needs.

According to plant director, Mike Jury, this is the largest seawater desalination plant constructed in Australia, and one of the largest reverse osmosis plants in the world.

“Even though the plant is one of the biggest in the world, it has a very small footprint with its compact modular design, and its use of world-leading energy recovery devices in the reverse osmosis process significantly reduces power consumption,” Jury said.

“Other energy saving features include variable speed drives, high efficiency motors, and low energy use membranes.

“Around 90MW is required to power the plant and transfer pipeline when operating at 150GL capacity, and this is 100 percent offset by renewable energy.

“A 220kV high voltage alternating current (HVAC) power cable has been constructed in the same easement as the 84 km transfer pipeline and is the longest underground power cable of its type in the world. Fibre optic cables have also been laid to provide important information on the pipe and power networks.”

Key steps in the operation of the plant include seawater intake, filtration, reverse osmosis, remineralisation, storage, return of seawater concentrate to the ocean, and removal of sludge to landfill.

Jury says it takes about one hour for a water drop to move through the plant from the seawater lift pump station to the treated water storage, and quality of the water is continuously monitored online at various stages of the desalination process.

Highly automated Carlos Rodriguez, information and technology manager for DTSJV, points out that control of the plant is highly automated, with different functional areas, banks and streams co-ordinated by using several layers of control logic, from individual devices up to overall plant operation level.

“The control system is made up of 12 SCADA Servers that are distributed around the plant for redundancy, plus 48 PLCs at the plant and the pipeline. A significant aspect of this project is the provision of redundancy at all levels, including in the three process streams, SCADA Servers, PLCs, within the communications system, and with the instrumentation, where there is more than one instrument (e.g. pressure meters, analysers) in critical locations,” he explained.

“All control is performed at the PLC level while SCADA servers are for process visualisation and data archiving.

“Some 85 percent of devices are connected to field panels rather than directly to PLC panels as field panels are closer to the devices.

“Fibre optic rings provide the communications backbone at the plant and the pipeline. Field panels communicate over fibre optic rings with the PLC panels using Profibus protocol, so that even discrete I/Os connected to field panels end up communicating to the PLC via Profibus through remote I/O modules.

“Due to the process dependencies across the plant, there is very high inter-PLC communications for coordinating the different levels of control logic.

“The plant’s leading edge innovative design

Through-beam laser sensor consisting of a transmitter and receiver. Alarm output has normally open and normally closed contact, up to 250 m outdoor & 750 m indoor detection distance.

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Various models are available.

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4-Port Ethernet Serial Server

Connects four RS-232, RS-422 or RS485 serial signals to an ethernet network. 10/100 Mbps ethernet supported. Four DE-9 serial ports.

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JOURNEY: It takes about one hour for a water drop to move through the plant from the seawater lift pump station to the treated water storage.

For OEM/Wholesale prices Contact Ocean Controls Ph: (03) 9782 5882 oceancontrols.com.au SEPTEMBER 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 17

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involves almost 20,000 devices, including 43 percent Profibus and 57 percent discrete I/Os.” Rodriguez says that the plant has the biggest Profibus installation in Australia, and that a new aspect of the plant design is the inclusion of safety PLCs instead of electrical interlocks.

“The amount of redundancy at process and control levels is a key element in the design of the plant. It ensures that if one area fails the rest of the plant can still run without that area,” he said.

Integrated control A complete integrated Simatic PCS 7 Process Control System, including project-specific software design standards and methodologies, was supplied by Siemens.

The company’s product manager, Marek Lisik, says this highly reliable automation system controls, coordinates and monitors all field equipment, including very expensive assets such as large pumps and valves, and can be expanded or reconfigured at any time.

“The PCS 7 provides a wide range of scalability for overall output of the plant with optimal utilisation of assets, energy, and asset protection,” Lisik said.

“The Distributed Control System includes I/O’s which are mostly intelligent instruments and field devices distributed over redundant Profibus DP and Profibus PA fieldbuses.

“Process controllers are a mixture of Standard (DCS) and Failsafe (SIS), both redundant and single as per control, safety and availability requirements of each plant area or group of equipment.”

Siemens also supplied the Power

18 www.pacetoday.com.au SEPTEMBER 2013

TESTED: The quality of the water is continuously monitored at various stages of the desalination process.

Management System/ Electrical SCADA System for the desalination plant engineered to SIL 3 in accordance with the new Ethernet based IEC 61850 standard.

According to Lisik, this is Australia’s largest operating IEC 61850 application, with over 380 Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) in one network.

“Implementation of a full IEC 61850 Power Management System (PMS) has provided significant cost and technical benefits, including the

ability to implement fast transfer schemes, interlocking applications, and load shedding systems using fibre optic communications,” he explained.

“The PMS extends throughout the plant via a fault tolerant 1Gbit/s Ethernet ring supporting Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol.”

Commissioning of the desalination plant, which has a 50-plus year design life, has now been completed following more than 200,000 tests on 28,500 individual pieces of equipment.

Currently, water from the plant is not required to augment Melbourne’s water supply; so the plant is being put into preservation mode ready to deliver water on demand.

AquaSure 1800 811 214 www.aquasure.com.au Siemens 03 9721 7371 www.siemens.com.au

PA0713_000_BUR

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Served up on a plate

AirLINE Quick: High quality, cost effective, fast delivery Meet AirLINE Quick. AirLINE Quick has internalised all pneumatic air channels, and integrated primary and secondary components to deliver one single complete pneumatic (or electro-pneumatic) valve bank on a stainless steel adapter plate. Unlimited modularity in valves, functions, feedbacks, I/O, and accessories, is offered, with local assembly from Bürkert’s ISO 9001 Sydney Systemhaus. The stainless steel plate mounts directly into a cabinet, effectively minimising labour for cost effectiveness and fast delivery.

Same day turn-around (on lower-quantity orders) is common.

Last year Bürkert shipped around 600 panels, and this year with AirLINE Quick it could easily be thousands. Call us, and get your valve banks served up on a plate, or mounted in a cabinet, ready to go.

Ideal for end-users, OEMs, and switchboard consultants. Designed for arduous environments, for physical and chemical resistance.

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We make ideas flow Pneumatics - AirLINE Quick (297x235).indd 1

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Reciprocating compressor control Maintenance costs of reciprocating compressors are approximately two to three times greater than those for centrifugal compressors, writes Amin Almasi.

R

ECIPROCATING compressors offer efficient and flexible operation. They are vital compressors in various process units, particularly for light gases and high pressures.

In this article, advanced control technologies, new innovations and latest configurations regarding condition monitoring, performance, flow management, capacity control systems, operational flexibility, cylinder valve, irregularity control, vibration control and other important control/automation subjects related to reciprocating compressors are presented.

The reciprocating compressors (known also as piston-type compressors) are the best compressors for any service where the capacity is relatively low and the differential pressure is relatively high. Maintenance costs of reciprocating compressors are approximately two to three times greater than those for centrifugal compressors.

This shows the importance of proper condition monitoring and automation for the reciprocating compressors.

Cylinder valve selection Cylinder valves are the most critical components of reciprocating compressors and strongly influence reliability, operation, performance and efficiency of these machines.

Cylinder valve defects are obviously responsible for most of unscheduled maintenance events of reciprocating compressors. Valve components should be operated (opened and closed) several billions of times during their operating life without being affected by fatigue or other degradation mechanisms.

The correct material selection and proper component design are keys to achieve a successful valve operation.

Reciprocating compressor valves should be supplied from a reputable valve manufacturer with proper references and a long-term successful production history.

Some compressor manufacturers are also active in the cylinder valve business.

20 www.pacetoday.com.au SEPTEMBER 2013

CAPACITY: An example of a horizontal-type reciprocating compressor.

Usually, cylinder valves manufactured by compressor vendors should be dealt with great care.The valve design and manufacturing should be considered as very delicate tasks.

This is only performed successfully by a few professional manufacturers.

Sometimes, for special applications, there are only three qualified cylinder valve suppliers with satisfactory references.

Advanced polymers have excellent mechanical properties and are capable of working at hostile cylinder valve conditions which also include extreme mechanical stresses and relatively high temperatures. In most cases, modern, sophisticated, low mass polymer sealing elements can vastly increase the valve life (could reduce energy consumptions and maintenance costs).

The main advantages of modern polymers over old-fashion metallic valve parts are: improved heat resistance, high fatigue life, high tolerance to dirt and corrosive traces (liquids or chemicals)

particularly those in dirty gases, reduced wear and improved sealing capabilities.

Valve types The main valve types are: ring type valve; plate type valve; and poppet valve.

For large compressors (generally low speeds and high pressure ratios) and

Cylinder valves manufactured by compressor vendors should be handled with great care small machines (relatively high speeds) the “ring type valve” and the “plate type valve” are the best option, respectively.

The best valve size should be selected with respect to efficiency, reliability and performance requirements considering

many operational and machine design factors such as the minimum clearance volume. The valve “lift” is the distance travelled by valve moving elements.

The higher the lift, the higher the valve flow area, the lower the valve pressure drop, the less consumed power, the higher moving elements impact velocities and the lower valve durability. An optimum valve size and an acceptable valve lift should be found for each application.

The optimum valve spring stiffness is also important. Too stiff springs can lead to the valve flutter (more compressor power and considerable wear rate) or early closing of valve (reduce the capacity). Too light springs cause valve late closing and the reverse flow (higher velocity, less reliability and reduced capacity).

Traditionally, “poppet valves” were popular many years ago. Previous generations of poppet valves have left service because of poor performance, low reliability and operational problems.

Today, some compressor manufacturers offer new versions of specially-designed poppet valves with great promises.

The performance and long-term references of these valves should be considered carefully. Sophisticated evaluations are required to highlight clearly the advantages and disadvantages compared with commonly-used valves (such as the “ring type valve”) for each application.

Capacity control One of new technologies presented for reciprocating compressors is the stepless capacity control system. A stepless capacity control system uses the finger type unloader and unloads the suction valve for only a portion of each compression cycle to achieve an adjusted capacity.

This is a hydraulically actuated system with a very complex mechanism and a very sophisticated control which is offered by very limited manufacturers.

The selected stepless capacity control device should only be used with a valve

PA0913_000_EME

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Whatever type of Water Flow Metering you need Emerson has the solution. Ø Reduce installation costs with wireless Transmitters Ø Eliminate 3rd Party verifications with inbuilt Meter verification. Ø Easy troubleshooting with Human Centred Design & advanced diagnostics. Ø Improved signal reliability with DSP (Digital Signal Processing) for high process noise applications.

All of this combines with Emerson’s high performance, ease of use and reliability. For more information visit www.EmersonProcess.com or email us at Emersonprocess.australia@emerson.com

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from the same manufacturer.

The finger type unloaders have potential for damaging valve sealing elements and require more care for maintenance. Valves and unloaders cause around 44 percent of unscheduled reciprocating compressor shutdown.

Selection method The selection of capacity control method (the unloader system, valve types/ details, and others) can affect the reciprocating compressor reliability and maintenance.

In addition, the unloader selection has strong effect on performance, operational flexibility, start-up and shutdown of a reciprocating compressor.

The “plug type” or the “port type” unloaders can offer better reliability and performance compared to the “finger type” unloaders. However, “plug type” unloaders (or “port type” unloaders) are not available for small sizes.

The latest recommendation is to use rod run-out measurements just for monitoring and alarm with limits for the cold run-out and the normal operation run-out being 60 microns and 170 microns respectively.

Great care should be taken with the unloader selection of a small reciprocating compressor. The “finger type” unloaders are only available option for some small reciprocating compressors.For some tiny machines (say below 100 kW), even a 100 percent spillback (the recycle loop) may seem an acceptable capacity control solution, because the wasted power is low.

However, the “operational flexibility” generally is considered more important than around 10 percent added reliability and the “finger type” unloaders are provided (usually in addition of a 100 percent spillback loop) for small machines in critical applications such as refinery, petrochemical or gas processing plants.

For medium size machines (from 300 kW to 1.4 MW), the best capacity control configuration is the selection of part-load steps based on plug/ port unloader, and if necessary the clearance pocket.

Clearance pockets should also be dealt with care since they could offer some reliability and operational issues.

Large machines New technologies (such as stepless capacity control systems) are not suitable for all applications. Stepless capacity control devices are only recommended for large machines (say above 1.5 MW) with great durations of part-load operation.

The stepless capacity control system is a fast-acting, accurately controlled arrangement for the energysaving operation and the rapid control of reciprocating 22 www.pacetoday.com.au SEPTEMBER 2013

compressors. The stepless capacity control system allows an operator to compress only the required amount of gas in a very dynamic fashion.

However, this system uses special instruments and actuators and nearly always brings a long list of deviations (to compressor manufacturers and project specifications) and special requirements in design, installation and operation. Of course proper manufacturer guarantees can be offered by its manufacturer and satisfactory assistances in all levels could be received.

Overall, this is a modern and special-purpose system that should only be employed when really necessary.

Only for large machines with long durations of partloads and requirements for fast follow-up, this special system is recommended.

Recycle loop Theoretically, when using the stepless capacity control system, the bypass loop could be eliminated. However, this is just theory and the best recommendation is to provide a 100 percent recycle loop (a 100 percent bypass loop) for the operational flexibility and continued operation if the automatic stepless capacity control system shows a problem.

A modern stepless system is only expected in critical applications and a 100 percent recycle system could be justified for such critical services. Modern stepless capacity control systems are relatively reliable devices and their record of reliability is not worse than conventional unloader systems.

On the other hand, these complex systems include various mechanical, hydraulic, electrical and control sub-systems and their reliability could not be higher than a certain limit. An important issue could be this system cannot hold its position in case of a problem.

In other words, the system should be set to the “100 percent load” or the “100 percent unload” in case of a failure or a problem (such as a hardware/ software issue, an actuator problem, a hydraulic system issue, an instrument failure, or another operational problem).

The full-load option (the “100 percent-load” in case of a failure) plus a 100 percent bypass can offer a good operational flexibility up to the shutdown of machine in the first possible opportunity.

Condition monitoring Condition monitoring systems should be particularly cost effective; at the same time they should include all necessary items to identify malfunctions at an early stage.

The result of an optimum condition monitoring system should be a relatively low maintenance cost and the lowest risk.

An advanced vibration monitoring system includes: • The continuous vibration monitoring of the compressor and the driver. Velocity-transducers are preferred over accelerometers because of a better signal to noise ratio. For relatively large machines (>0.7 MW), both (velocity-transducers and accelerometers) should be employed. An advanced configuration is the vibration monitoring at each end of the crankcase

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about halfway up from the base-plate in line with main bearings.

• The accelerometer at each cross-head.

An advanced monitoring should include: • The gas discharge temperature, pressure and flow for each cylinder.

• The pressure packing case – piston rod temperature.

• The crosshead pin temperature.

• Driver strategic temperatures, particularly the driver bearing temperature.

• The valve temperature.

• The oil temperature, flow and pressure.

• The jacket water temperature for each cylinder.

Proximity probes should be located under the piston rods and used to measure the rod position (the rod run-out) and determine malfunctions such as wear of piston, rider band problems, a crack in the piston rod (or a crack in any piston rod attachment), a broken crosshead shoe, or even the liquid carryover to a cylinder.

Monitoring and alarm The latest recommendation is to use rod run-out measurements just for monitoring and alarm (not for trip).

Recommended limits for the cold run-out and the normal operation (hot) run-out are 60 microns and 170 microns (peak to peak), respectively.

All shutdown functions should be two out of three voting to avoid unnecessary trip.

Generally minimum numbers of shutdowns should be assigned for a reciprocating compressor in critical services such as hydrogen units in a refinery, gas processing crucial roles, important refrigeration modules and so on.

The low pressure trip of the lubrication oil system is considered an essential shutdown case. Operators always encourage a very high vibration level for a shutdown (even sometimes six to eight times than normal). There are always discussions about the high discharge temperature shutdowns.

High discharge Many experienced operators argue that they prefer to tolerate relatively high discharge temperatures (and high temperatures of the cylinder valves, which could result in the valve and all wearing parts life reduction), compared to an unscheduled trip of a machine that can result in a critical refinery/ process

COMPONENTS: Examples of reciprocating compressor valves. unit shutdown with production losses of an around half a million dollars per day.

Of course safety risks should always be assessed in these situations. The author’s recommendation is to consider a high discharge temperature trip (since this is a code mandatory requirement and constantly insisted by safety teams). However, the trip level should be set properly high (based on accurate simulations and realistic thermal/ safety evaluations) to avoid unnecessary shutdown.

and on the other hand to the stationary compressor casing using auxiliary mechanical springs.

Masses, dimensions and stiffness are optimally calculated to offer the minimum operating vibration.

Irregularity setting For all reciprocating compressors, the flywheel is mandatory to regulate variable

reciprocating torques. The irregularity degree for the mechanical component reliable operation is around two percent.

This value can be considered as the minimum requirement for all reciprocating compressors. Generally in accordance with specific requirements of driver (especially the current pulsation of electric motors), torsional vibration considerations, and other operational issues, a lower irregularity value is specified.

Reliability studies have indicated an irregularity value between 1 to 1.5 percent. It is strongly recommended to obtain one percent irregularity (if practically possible) for special-purpose reciprocating units for a smooth and trouble free operation.

For very large machines (>6 MW), there are sometimes manufacturing limits, for example, extremely large flywheels could not be supplied or integrated.

[Amin Almasi (amin.almasi@ymail. com) is a rotating machine consultant in Australia.]

Passive vibration control Usually, the preferred design of reciprocating compressor for small and medium sizes is a two-cylinder machine.

For large machines, four-cylinders and six-cylinders are commonly used.

Sometimes, odd number of cylinders is unavoidable.

One of new technologies presented for reciprocating compressors is the stepless capacity control system

In these cases, a dummy crosshead should be used to reduce the operating vibration. The state-of-art spring-massspring systems can be studied for the passive vibration control (more reduction in the vibration).

This is a new technology. In this innovative system, the dummy crosshead on the one hand is attached to a movable piston assembly by a flexible member SEPTEMBER 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 23

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SPOTLIGHT

5best of the

PACE showcase of the best engineering technology releases of the month.

DIN rail-mounted display terminal The EL6090 EtherCAT display terminal from Beckhoff features an illuminated, antiglare LC display and a non-resettable operating hours counter. For the first time it offers a display option that can be directly integrated into the EtherCAT I/O system without additional installation or interfacing efforts. Furthermore, the display can optionally be positioned separate from a controller anywhere on the DIN rail, as required by the application. The EL6090 display terminal can simply be attached to the DIN rail in the terminal node to offer a display element in the control cabinet that can be easily controlled via EtherCAT in the familiar way. Additional display interfaces such as RS232 and mounting elements such as frames or brackets are no longer required, significantly reducing installation time and costs. In addition, it is possible to position a parameterisation and diagnostic display at the ideal location in the control cabinet according to application-specific requirements. The parameters that can be shown on the two-line display with 16 characters each include status and diagnostic data. The anti-glare display features switchable illumination.

Beckhoff Automation 03 9912 5430 www.beckhoff.com.au

Clamps allow shielding on both sides Weidmuller has released a shield clamp that allows users to shield on both sides of a cable to eliminate noise. The Weidmuller KLBU RC shield clamp discharges interference currents. The built-in frequency filter in the shield clamp prevents high frequency noise from being transferred across the cable.

It effectively suppresses interfering currents to help ensure a more effective and responsive system. Suitable for use in long or extensive systems, the KLBU RC shield clamp is may be used in

3 Find

24 www.pacetoday.com.au SEPTEMBER 2013

Evaluate

Select

power plants, sewage plants, wastewater and other industrial facilities where the use of numerous data cables, processors and frequency converters is growing and so too, does the potential for problems.

Weidmuller 02 9671 9999 www.weidmuller.com.au

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Email your product news to editor@pacetoday.com.au

Compact oxygen analyser

ibaInSpectra uses broad connectivity ibaInSpectra uses the broad connectivity of ibaPDA-V6 and iba hardware. Due to its scalability it is suited for the use in small standalone machines as well as in larger automation structures characterised by various different types of equipment and controllers. As it integrates into ibaPDA-V6, vibration data along with other relevant machine and process data such as analogue and video signals can be acquired centrally and put into context to each other. Hence, not only the pure vibration analysis for a single machine can be achieved, but also the detection of vibration effects on process stability and product quality. ibaInSpectra monitors and analyses the sensor data continuously in real time. The FFT view display contains all standard views like waterfall, frequency band, current value tables and time domain trend. Any desired frequency and its harmonics can be followed in the display via definable markers. ibaOceania Systems iba@iba-oceania.com 02 4964 8548

Michell Instruments has introduced the XZR200 which is capable of measuring percentage oxygen to better than 1% of Span (or 0.5% O2) with ranges of 0 to 25% and 0 to 100% available. The XZR200 is easy to integrate into existing systems as no specialist software is required; the RS232 output can be accessed via a PC. The analyser offers four configuration options, with two choices of probe length and two temperature ranges. The lower temperature range (up to +250°C) is suitable for relatively low-temperature applications such as food and drink packaging, while the higher temperature range of up to +400°C serves combustion control and metal treatment applications. Depending on the application, the XZR200 may also be configured to measure in either 0 to 25% or 0 to 100% oxygen concentrations. The first configuration gives the highest accuracy of 0.5% O2 in the combustion process range.

In the 0 to 100% range the accuracy is 1% O2. A key feature of the XZR200 is a 3.3V DC logic output which is used to monitor the sensor for diagnostic purposes.

AMS Instrumentation & Calibration 03 9017 8225 sales@ams-ic.com.au

Embedded Ethernet device server XPort is a compact, integrated solution to web enable virtually any device with serial capability. By incorporating XPort to a product design, manufacturers can offer serial to Ethernet networking capability as a standard feature. It incorporates all the required hardware and software inside a single embedded Ethernet solution. Smaller than your thumb, it includes all essential networking features, including a 10Base-T/ 100Base-TX Ethernet connection, proven operating system, an embedded web server, e-mail alerts, a full TCP/IP protocol stack, and 256-bit AES encryption for secure communications.

Soanar 1300 365 551 www.soanar.com

The easiest way to find products and suppliers

Manufacturing | Mining | Industrial

askferret on 1300 156 836

SEPTEMBER 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 25

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CONNECTIONS

5

minutes with...

I would be a volunteer in a third world orphanage caring for young children

Tim Mahony, Wide Bay Water Corporation How did you come to be in this industry?

I started out as a graduate engineer in the water and wastewater industry before moving to a consultancy that worked across all engineering industries. After a decade, I moved back into the water and wastewater industry where I have remained for the past ten years. Providing an essential service to the local community is certainly both rewarding and challenging.

What’s the best business idea you have that you will never use?

As a young engineer I designed a “hockey puck” style earth leakage device that would plug into any general purpose outlet. The idea was to offer protection against electrocution for any household device that plugged into the power outlet. This was a cheap solution for all homes that didn’t have earth leakage installed. A little old lady could purchase the

device for a few dollars and install it herself without hiring an electrician.

What do you see are the biggest opportunities for our industry?

Taking advantage of the rapid evolution of technology to provide solutions for our plant operators that are both easy to use and reliable. It is rewarding to give operators a user interface that provides them with the ability to control and monitor their entire plant from a single point especially when they previously were required to walk around the plant to do their job. The advent of fieldbus technology and its increasing use in Australia has certainly given electrical engineers more opportunities to provide an end solution that is both robust and easy to maintain.

What’s the greatest challenge in your job?

Convincing non-technical personnel that PLC

code doesn’t change by itself. In 99.9 percent of cases the cause of the problem is external to the PLC. Non-technical personnel have a hard time grasping this concept. Through lots of communication, I am slowly turning the tide on this one. And restoring my sanity.

If you could be anything else, what would it be and why?

I would be a volunteer in a third world orphanage caring for young children. Given the opportunity, it would be great to provide support and love to some children who have lost so much. This will remain a goal when I retire from engineering. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to live in Australia and the resources to help our not so well off neighbours.

[Tim Mahony is Manager Electrical Engineering, Wide Bay Water Corporation.]

07 4194 7653 timm@widebaywater.qld.gov.au

IICA CORNER

Communiqué from IICA Strategy meeting A new form of the IICA will emerge with more specific outcomes, writes Jason Freyling.

AT ITS 70th anniversary of foundation, it seems particularly appropriate to review the role the IICA fulfils in the Australian Instrumentation, Controls and Automation (IC&A) community. A recent targeted survey of members and non-associated professionals reinforced the IICA Federal Council’s view that realignment to a changed industry landscape is required.

Low formal training and subject offerings, doubtful professional development opportunities and recognition of the growing number of IC&A areas and professionals are key areas for the IICA to address.

A structured program for raising membership value and improvements to the operation of the Institute was adopted. The renewal of the Institute and its emergence as the 26 www.pacetoday.com.au SEPTEMBER 2013

leading professional representation of the instrumentation, controls and automation profession that professionals want to join is the vision for this transformation project.

The Federal Council is united in bringing about a transformation of the Institute into the leading professional and learned organisation offering its members extended and different value not only for their professional development, but for the industry in general.

There is no doubt that those practising in the fields of instrumentation, controls and automation at any level are professionals, but formal professional recognition is still not achieved nationally.

Accreditation of professionals and their competency in the fields is a key objective of the transformation

efforts. Over the next few months the transformation plan will take further shape and the new form, shape and content of the IICA for the next decades will emerge with more specific outcomes, targets and offerings.

The Federal Council will be the driver for these activities and will work with the branches to identify specific deliverables to improve membership value. The transformation the IICA will undergo requires not only ideas, but also resources to succeed. Support and involvement from all members and interested individuals in the IC&A community will be sought to achieve the specific outcomes of the strategic development plan that will progress to finalisation at the next meeting of the Federal Council in October 2013.

Corporate members, Vendors,

Suppliers and IC&A User members are equally invited to participate in this exciting phase of the IICA and its positioning for the future. The IICA will remain a member-focussed and memberdriven organisation that will aim to emerge as the vehicle that represents your interests, as well as those for the wider IC&A sectors, with government, industry and community.

Regular updates of progress will be posted on the website, newsletters and PACE (www.pacetoday.com.au). Federal Council encourages all those who have an interest in the IC&A field and wish to make a difference to contact the Federal Secretary at admin@iica.org.au [Jason Freyling is President IICA.] Institute of Instrumentation, Control and Automation Australia 1300 781 715 www.iica.org.au

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Series 26 Y

Level sensor with analog output (4…20 mA, 0…10 V) for low-cost applications.

Series 36 X W

Digitally compensated, highly precise level probe with analog output (4…20 mA, 0…10 V).

RS485 interface for configuration of analog output or for data read-out.

Series 46 X

Digitally compensated, highly precise capacitive water level probe with analog output (4…20 mA, 0…10 V) for smallest pressures.

RS485 interface for configuration of analog output or for data read-out.

DCX-22 VG

Series DCX 22

Autonomous data logger with Ø 22 mm for water level and water temperature recording. Different versions and measuring possibilities (gauge/abs.).

Remote data transmission via GSM-2 module.

LEO Record Logger 4.x

Read-out software for data loggers. Level calculations and graphical display. Free software for PC, Laptop or PDA.

Digital Manometer with RECORD function.

Adjustable measuring rate and pressure units.

Storage: approx. 57’000 measuring values Ranges: 30 mbar…1000 bar Total Error Band: ±0,1 %FS

PA0913_000_END

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Next Level Instrumentation The new standard in radar instrumentation – Micropilot The new Micropilot FMR5x family offers everything to guarantee safe and precise measurements in the chemical, oil & gas, life science, foods and primary industry, from the standard product for basic applications through to high performance versions to be used in sophisticated applications like high-pressure or hightemperature tasks.

Endress+Hauser developed the hardware and software of the new instrument generation according to IEC61508, up to SIL3 in homogeneous redundancy.

Apart from the Multi-Echo Tracking evaluation by marking and tracking all echo signals, the new HistoROM data management concept convinces with fast and easy commissioning, maintenance and diagnostics. Furthermore the world´s easiest proof test for SIL and WHG saves time and costs.

The new instrument generation of Endress+Hauser offers safety, precision and efficiency across the entire life cycle. www.endress.com.au

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