Product category:
Process Control and Monitoring Systems
News Release from: Emerson Process Management | Subject: DeltaV
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 23 October 2003
DeltaV automates chemical synthesis
plant
A DeltaV digital automation system from Emerson controls the first full-scale production facility for continuous multipurpose chemical synthesis via supercritical fluids at Thomas Swan in Consett, UK
A DeltaV digital automation system from Emerson Process Management is used to control the first full-scale production facility for continuous multipurpose chemical synthesis via supercritical fluids, recently opened at Thomas Swan and Company in Consett, County Durham The Swan-SCF plant has proved to be particularly effective for hydrogenation, with advantages in reaction rates and selectivity, plus it avoids the use of conventional volatile solvents, with their environment and waste problems
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 14 Jul 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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The Swan-SCF plant uses carbon dioxide as the supercritical fluid: this is a gas compressed to a point where it displays solvent like properties, which can be tuned through adjustments to temperature and pressure.
Emerson supplied Rosemount temperature and Rosemount 3051 pressure transmitters to monitor these critical process parameters, which are recorded throughout the production cycle by the DeltaV Historian.
Ian Richardson, Project Engineer on the Swan-SCF plant project, confirmed "The DeltaV Historian has been invaluable for tracking all events throughout the run, particularly any process upsets.
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Analysis of the final product shows how well the process conditions were tuned to the requirement, and allows us to identify any differences run to run - in this way we can tune our Swan-SCF process to achieve 100% selectivity and 100% conversion in a single pass".
The plant is highly instrumented, as might be expected for a process development and proving plant.
Emerson Micro Motion Coriolis meters are used to monitor carbon dioxide density as it passes through the pressurisation stages: the SCF reaction vessel is typically maintained at up to 500bar.
The Emerson DeltaV system provides the operator with two digital displays, typically one screen shows the overall process, and the second shows a detailed view of interest, or utility services such as the hydrogen and carbon dioxide delivery and compression systems.
"Our operators picked up plant control using DeltaV quickly and easily," continued Ian Richardson, "They use on-screen alarms to react to any process problems.
As we develop the processes we add modules and control loops, with new graphics: this we can do ourselves, easily.
All the DeltaV hardware has been stable and reliable.
It does what it claims to do, and is easy to understand".
Thomas Swan developed the Swan-SCF process used on this plant, and has demonstrated 100% selectivity and 100% conversion in a number of reactions, in a single pass.
The promise of high yields with reduced environmental impact, and the potential to explore process routes not available in conventional synthesis, has created international attention.
This is the first full scale facility for continuous multi-purpose synthesis using supercritical fluid, and can synthesise up to 1000 tonnes per year.
Initially the plant is synthesising trimethylcyclohexanone (TMCH) - an acetone derivative used in styrene products - as a basic trial product to calibrate the equipment.
The plant exploits proven new technology to replace conventional solvents by inert supercritical fluids for key chemical technologies - including hydrogenation, Friedel-Crafts alkylations and acylations, hydroformylations and etherification.
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