by Gary Mintchell | Oct 18, 2023 | Automation, Sustainability
Sustainability is one of the bigger topics in my professional life these days. There are industries that generate more carbon than others. This project will target improvements in energy efficiency, decarbonization and circularity in plants and production facilities.
Tata Steel Ltd and ABB have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and will work together to co-create innovative models and technologies to help reduce the carbon footprint of steel production. ABB will bring global experience in automation, electrification and digitalization for the mining and metals industries.
Tata Steel is among the top global steel companies with a crude steel capacity of 35 million tons per annum and is committed to major sustainability targets including achievement of carbon neutrality by 2045. In line with its aspirations, the steelmaker has a medium-term target to reduce carbon emissions to less than two tons of CO₂ per ton of crude steel in its Indian operations by 2025.
The two companies will focus on system-level assessments of Tata Steel’s manufacturing plants and production facilities for evaluation and co-development of short and long-term options for energy efficiency, decarbonization and circularity.
Tata Steel is committed to sustainable development and growth as an integral part of its business philosophy. To ensure sustainable growth, the company is working on deployment of key enablers for deep decarbonization, including the use of more scrap in steelmaking, use of alternate fuels such as natural gas and green hydrogen, use of renewable energy and deployment of carbon capture and storage/utilization technologies. Tata Steel expects to increase capacity to 40 million tons by 2030 hence this collaboration with technology partner ABB is a key enabler to achieve that growth in a sustainable manner.
ABB and Tata Steel will explore energy optimization via hydrogen as an alternative fuel for upstream processes and energy reduction as well as substitution through fully integrated electrification and digital systems such as ABB Ability eMine and e-Mobility solutions and energy efficient motors.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 10, 2023 | Sustainability
Honeywell product development has been busy. This is more news from the company’s sustainability efforts.
- Comprehensive audits and customized roadmaps accelerate businesses’ journey towards their NetZero targets amidst ongoing energy transition challenges.
Honeywell has announced the addition of decarbonization audits and reduction roadmaps for thermal solutions to its Emissions Management Suite. This new service enables companies to set a comprehensive baseline for thermal system emissions and to follow a clear roadmap towards their carbon reduction.
The decarbonization audits and reduction roadmaps for thermal solutions reinforce the support Honeywell offers to customers across diverse industries, including metals, automotive, food and beverage, and building materials. Using advanced digital tools like Thermal IQ 2.0, the service allows businesses to establish real-time baseline CO2 emissions tied to thermal process performance, optimize processes, and effectively reduce their carbon footprint.
Honeywell’s Thermal Solutions teams of experts conduct the decarbonization audits by assessing customers’ thermal assets and provide customers an objective, multi-year solutions roadmap in line with their reduction and net-zero aspirations. The reduction roadmaps can encompass simple measures such as digitizing, measuring, monitoring, and reporting on thermal system performance, as well as more advanced reduction-enabling solutions like flexible fuels blending, hydrogen, carbon capture, and even electrification, helping customers strive towards nearly 100% CO2 emissions reduction, further establishing Honeywell as a market leader for adaptive Energy Transitions programs.
Honeywell’s decarbonization audits and reduction roadmaps are available now in the United States, with plans for global expansion soon.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 10, 2023 | Edge, Manufacturing IT, Operations Management, Process Control, Software, Sustainability
Emerson held a media/analyst presentation on its sustainability efforts. I remembered writing and swore it was for here. After much searching, I found a document that is my monthly column for Automazione Oggi, an Italian automation magazine.
In addition, Emerson also held a user conference called Exchange Immerse. The control and software organization held the event last week. I was not invited—budgetary constraints I was told. So, no report on the conference itself and anything happening there. The company did release a number of news items which I’ve noted briefly below.
Sustainability
Emerson recently gathered assorted media writers virtually to discuss its ongoing efforts with sustainability. Seth Harris, Emerson Director of Sustainability for the Americas, and Gerardo Muñoz, Sr. Solutions Marketing Manager for AspenTech (an Emerson business), discussed how advanced automation ensures integrity across the carbon capture value chain.
Emerson’s Framework includes: Greening Of—how they improve internal performance; Greening By—how they support and enable customers’ decarbonization and environmental sustainability; and Greening With—how they foster collaboration among many stakeholders.
The emphasis of this presentation included energy source decarbonization and energy management.
Carbon capture represents an estimated 15% of total CO2 reductions by 2070. These are achieved through both direct air capture and point-source capture. CO2 is captured from emissions and processed for deep well storage. The process includes four steps. First is separation and purification of complex toxic gas to yield high purity CO2. Next, the gas is compressed and liquified to an ideal stable state for transport. The liquified CO2 is safely transported to its destination for, fourth, stored in stable geologic formations.
My question for all of you inventive chemists out there is can’t this gas be used as a feedstock in order to make something useful?
News Items
This looks to me as Emerson’s response to the user-pushed initiative for Open Process Automation. Emerson has not been active with the Open Group’s work. But obviously they feel the customer pressure for software defined and more openness with connectivity and potential for upgrade. These are significant advancements proving out Emerson’s tagline as a software company. I find that doubly interesting given that a competitor has dropped software from its tagline. One of my more popular podcasts discusses “Software Eating Manufacturing.” Check these out.
Boundless Automation Vision Drives New Technologies for a Next-Generation Automation Platform
Emerson announced the first of a series of new technology releases that build upon its Boundless Automation vision and serve as the foundation of its next-generation, software-centric industrial automation architecture. The new technology releases will transcend a traditional control system, creating a more advanced automation platform that contextualizes and democratizes data for both people and the artificial intelligence (AI) engines.
Emerson’s DeltaV Edge Environment will provide more secure ways to move data from the automation platform to wherever it is needed – data lakes, data scientists, analytics applications in the cloud, enterprise resource planning systems, etc. – without losing valuable operational context.
Emerson also announced the release of technologies supporting the increased bandwidth and intrinsically safe connectivity of Ethernet advanced physical layer (APL).
Its new DeltaV PK Flex Controller allows users to leverage subscription-based services to use only the technologies they need, with the flexibility to add functionality at any time. Subscription options also enable teams to reduce capital costs and shift expenses to the operating expense budget. As a next phase, Emerson will add more than 16 services to its subscription portfolio to provide customers with more flexible business models, empowering them to drive innovation and growth with ease.
Emerson has also added new software-as-a-service, cloud-hosted solutions to bring data from the edge into the cloud, helping combine cloud data with AI tools to upskill personnel and offset experienced worker shortages. Those AI analytics tools, including AMS Optics and Aspen Mtell, will help teams build models for predictive and prescriptive maintenance strategies that unlock the autonomous plant, while simultaneously creating a new paradigm of centralized operations where highly skilled personnel work in tandem with AI.
As expanded connectivity brings more assets, devices and data into the fold, teams will need more powerful tools to help them manage and use the information coming in from many different sources. Emerson’s Ovation Green solutions, including asset management and supervisory control and data acquisition software, represent a powerful suite of technologies to combine a utility’s renewable energy assets into a single management tool, unifying data and setting the stage for holistic automation across the power grid. Similarly, tools like AMS Data Server unshackle reliability data, making it easier for users to get critical information out of the intelligent field and into cloud-based applications for use by cross-functional teams.
Emerson Forms Life Sciences Executive Board to Advance One-Click Technology Transfer Initiative
Emerson announced a new executive board of key life sciences leaders to help define, review and demonstrate prototypes for Emerson technologies that will safely speed life-saving drugs to market.
Collaborating through Emerson’s One-Click Technology Transfer Board, Emerson customers FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, Merck and Pfizer will lead the development of strategies, solutions and guidelines to convert today’s life sciences manufacturing recipe transfer process into a digitalized production platform. Digitalizing recipe technology transfer will reduce the time, effort and risk of managing, sharing and translating information to help get new drug therapies to patients faster.
Emerson will also open a dedicated research center to accelerate the development of One-Click Technology Transfer software. Located in the Singapore life sciences manufacturing hub that is home to 8 of the 10 global pharmaceutical companies, Emerson’s new research center will design, develop and verify the software and digitalized production platform.
Emerson’s One-Click Technology Transfer capabilities will help digitalize drug recipes and recipe management, from discovery and development to production at scale, providing valuable translations between drug recipe requirements and manufacturing processes while establishing best practices and creating a framework to unify disconnected systems into a holistic platform. The board will define reference data models and objects for one-click manufacturing, create the framework for a centralized recipe transport and translation platform that is scalable and extensible, and define and implement standards for version and quality control while simultaneously ensuring the overall system is easy and intuitive to use.
Emerson’s data scientists and software developers at the research center will use the latest computer software development technologies to perform rapid prototyping to test and verify concepts. The software platform developed through rapid prototyping will be tested and proven, working across the One-Click Technology Transfer Board company supply chains as appropriate.
The new board builds on Emerson’s globally recognized life sciences leadership combined with the industry’s most flexible and integrable solutions. Bolstered by its acquisition of the Fluxa PKM solution and AspenTech’s software capabilities including AspenTech DataWorks industrial information management software, Emerson is well positioned to develop the technologies and standards for a fully integrated end-to-end solution for the drug development pipeline.
New Digital Valve Controller First to Offer Embedded Edge Computing
Emerson has announced the Fisher FIELDVUE DVC7K Digital Valve Controller, a new design improving upon 30 years of field-proven innovation. The DVC7K features Advice at the Device technology with embedded computing and analytics that convert raw data into actionable information locally with Bluetooth capability, within the device. This means maintenance personnel can receive the data via their phone, tablet, or computer wirelessly without having to be in a control room at the plant location. The new valve controller technology improves the performance, reliability, and uptime of both on-off and control valves—and by extension an entire process plant or facility—in a wide variety of process industry applications, and provides the information required to create streamlined work processes.
Previously, digital valve controller data had to go to a host system to be processed and prepared for viewing, however, with the intelligence of this system, data is now accessible without requiring access to the host software. All information can be viewed at the DVC7K’s local user interface, nearby via Emerson Secure Bluetooth wireless technology, or remotely after it is transmitted via a wired digital network to a host, such as a distributed control or asset management system.
The local user interface provides indication of valve health at a glance via LEDs, and users can drill down from the interface home screen to find more information. Emerson Secure Bluetooth enables access to one or more digital valve controllers at distances up to 30 feet from any device capable of supporting Bluetooth, such as a smartphone or tablet. Whether the information is viewed locally, nearby, or remotely, plant personnel can use it to drive awareness of valve health.
by Gary Mintchell | Sep 18, 2023 | Automation, Process Control, Sustainability
While politicians blather about various aspects of sustainability and climate, businesses have discovered it’s simply good business. The world searches for better, more plentiful, and safer fuels. Hydrogen is a good bet. Generating hydrogen turns out not to be so simple. However, process automation companies have focused engineering teams on viable ways to produce green hydrogen (hydrogen produced without negative inputs).
In this news, Yokogawa Electric Corp. announces that its subsidiary Yokogawa Australia has received an order from Monford Group Pty Ltd. to supply an energy management system (EMS) for the initial phase (“phase 0”) of the Yuri Green Hydrogen Project (hereafter, Yuri), which is constructing an industrial-scale renewable hydrogen production complex in Australia.
The Yuri project is being undertaken in the Pilbara region of Western Australia by Yuri Operations Pty Ltd, a joint venture between ENGIE Renewables Australia Pty Ltd and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. A consortium consisting of the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) companies Technip Energies and Monford Group Pty Ltd. is constructing these facilities, which will consist of an 18-megawatt solar power plant, an 8-megawatt battery energy storage system (BESS), and a 10-megawatt electrolyzer. Using carbon-free solar energy, this facility will be able to produce up to 640 tons of green hydrogen per year. The hydrogen will be used as a feedstock to produce green ammonia at an adjacent ammonia plant operated by Yara Pilbara Fertiliser Pty Ltd (YPF). YPF is a wholly owned subsidiary of Yara International ASA, which is one of the world’s largest producers of nitrogen-based mineral fertilizers.
For the control of the solar power plant, BESS, and electrolyzer, Yokogawa Australia will supply an EMS that is developed by Yokogawa Group company PXiSE Energy Solutions LLC. This EMS will be combined with an integrated control system (ICS) centering on the Collaborative Information Server solution that Yokogawa will also be providing for phase 0 of this project, under a separate contract*1. Once these systems are installed and integrated, the Yuri facility’s renewable energy production will be autonomously managed to ensure consistent stability and power quality based on the operating requirements of the adjacent ammonia plant, the weather, and other factors.
PXiSE’s grid control solutions have already been highly evaluated at a Horizon Power project in Western Australia*2. Horizon Power serves the largest power supply area in the world, and following a successful rollout in Onslow, the solutions will be adopted in 34 additional Horizon Power microgrids. Also, the ability of Yokogawa Australia’s Technical Excellence Center in Perth, Western Australia, to provide technical support and engineering services backed by many years of experience in providing cutting-edge solutions to a wide range of industries in Australia was also evaluated.
Commenting on Yokogawa’s participation in this project, Koji Nakaoka, a Yokogawa senior vice president and head of the company’s Energy & Sustainability Business Headquarters and Global Sales Headquarters, said, “In a world in which systems are becoming closely integrated, based on the system of systems (SoS) concept, we will contribute to our customer’s ESG management by offering high value-added solutions, including the integration of plant control and energy management systems to enable the timely control of complex power systems.”
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 24, 2023 | Capital Projects, News, Sustainability
My report from this summer’s Honeywell User Group included some new advances they are making with battery storage systems. The growth of wind and solar and other new forms of electricity generation that are not “always on” realizes better utility through methods of storing electricity to cover times when they are not generating. Honeywell’s new Ionic system steps up its utility.
Large-scale battery storage systems enable utilities to improve renewable power generation with an industry-leading battery management system
Honeywell announced on August 24 its collaboration with Nuvation Energy to integrate an improved battery management system (BMS) into Honeywell’s modular battery energy storage system, Honeywell Ionic.
One of the first of its kind, Nuvation’s BMS provides users with significant flexibility and greater insights into the battery’s performance. The system is easy to install and maintain and offers a cost-competitive and reliable solution for commercial and industrial customers. Offering large-scale storage for renewable energy generation, Honeywell Ionic supports up to 1500-volt inverters to increase system efficiency and includes Nuvation Energy’s industry-leading battery management system (BMS).
“Energy storage is one of the fastest growing energy industry technologies in the world, and solutions like this will be critical to enabling governments and businesses to meet their carbon emission reduction targets,” said Michael Worry, CEO of Nuvation Energy. “Our collaboration with Honeywell will allow companies to take control of their own sustainability journey.”
With Honeywell Ionic, customers can add modular systems to increase capacity. Since Nuvation’s BMS is configurable for any battery, it can also support different batteries from those in the original BESS. A single system can combine batteries that differ by chemistry, performance profile, age, and state of health.
These solutions enable intermittent renewable generation like solar and wind to be stored and reduces sudden sags or surges in power supplied to customers. Many utility grids cannot add more renewable energy without storage to avoid the destabilizing impacts its large-scale integration creates. Honeywell Ionic will be used by both utilities “in front of the meter” and commercial and industrial customers “behind the meter” for a range of energy storage applications, including demand charge management, transmission and distribution upgrade deferral, energy arbitrage, and grid resiliency.
“Combining Honeywell’s energy storage technology with Nuvation Energy’s battery management has created an efficient large-scale storage solution that addresses users’ key pain points,” said Sarang Gadre, Vertical Leader, Infrastructure and New Energy, Honeywell Process Solutions. “By pairing Nuvation’s Gen 5 BMS with Honeywell Ionic, we are helping to address tomorrow’s problems, today.”
by Gary Mintchell | Aug 15, 2023 | Commentary, News, Sustainability
My career spans three technology/market cycles. I’ve seen the excitement of new companies, new technology adaptations, new markets three times. All as user and marketing/sales and writer/influencer.
I got involved thanks to a boss with the IT world in the late 70s. At the same time I started playing around with PCs—a Timex Sinclair that I wrote games and education aids for my wife’s 3rd grade class and a Radio Shack TRS-80 that I began setting my dad’s accounting business on. This was before 1980. The deep dive into automation for machinery came in the mid-80s. I’ve followed these passions ever since.
There were large and stimulating media around all three markets. Remember all the products in PC Magazine and its siblings in the 80s and 90s? When I switched to media in 1998 at Control Engineering, it also was packed with new products as many new companies sprang up with a new take on control platforms or software.
Then I experienced the consolidation and maturity of all three markets. IT magazines…gone. PC magazines…gone (maybe a couple on the web). Automation and control magazines are half the size of 15 years ago…and maybe even less. I saw it coming in 2013 when I left Automation World and struck out as an independent writer in the space.
The MacBook Air M2 I’m writing this on is faster and has more memory than the MacBook Air I had a decade ago. But really, it’s still the MacBook Air. Excitement in the PC industry has not been PCs but mobile phones that are really computing devices. There exist a few thriving companies in the industrial market right now—mostly software companies.
There is still innovation in each of the spaces. Certainly all the excitement of playing around with the tech is gone.
What is the next big question for each of these technology markets? Or, what big question will generate an entirely new technology market? Remember, the real reason humanity has developed new technology has been to solve a problem to help humanity (well, aside from gaining an advantage in war).
One interesting thing remains—sustainability. We made so many products enabling production and manufacturing that fouled the soil and atmosphere. Now engineers are taking the technology and using it to clean up the mess. I’ve had interesting conversations with Honeywell and Rockwell Automation and ABB. And even Siemens on the topic. As we forge into a world looking for cleaner energy than fossil fuels, theses companies will supply the technology to help entrepreneurs develop and market solutions.
On that subject, check out this podcast from HPE’s Michael Bird on new energy sources. Perhaps here is a place to apply all that creativity.
