Digital automation upgrade for Motiva refinery

Emerson has completed the digital automation of the Motiva Norco US refinery, acting as main automation contractor, project managing the installation of its PlantWeb digital architecture

Emerson Process Management has announced the completion of a digital automation project that has substantially increased the reliability and performance of the Motiva Enterprises refinery in Norco, Louisiana.

Motiva is an oil refining, lubricants and retail business operation owned by Shell and Saudi Refining.

A leading US refinery, Motiva Norco processes 225,000 barrels per day of crude oil, ranking it among the largest refineries in the world.

Its daily production includes about 10 million gallons of gasoline and about 7 million gallons of jet fuel.

Refineries such as Motiva Norco distil crude oil into components called fractions, treat the fractions to remove impurities, and chemically convert them into products like diesel fuel and gasoline.

Fractions are then combined to create various blends of gasoline.

The Norco refinery blends finished product for New Orleans and other nearby markets.

As Main Automation Contractor for the project, Emerson performed engineering, project management and installation of its PlantWeb digital architecture, to improve production reliability, plant utilisation, safety and environmental performance.

The project scope encompassed seven major process units and consolidated five separate control rooms into one centralised, integrated control room.

Digital automation was installed in various process units, including a coker, a hydrocracker, two catalytic reformers, a diesel hydrotreater, a naphtha hydrotreater and a hydrogen unit.

"A few years ago Norco cokers, reformers and hydrotreaters were running with pneumatic controls," said Jeff Funkhouser, operations manager at the Norco Refinery: "Increased sulphur content in crude demanded better hydrotreater and coker performance.

Modernisation of instrumentation and controls had not kept pace with other improvements to key units at the refinery.

Poor reliability and frequent shutdowns were undermining our efforts to serve the market effectively.

Our instrumentation was not up to the challenges of the 21st century".

Motiva Norco made the decision to re-instrument the plant with the goal of increasing reliability to world-class standards.

"We looked for a company that had the right technology and also a strong support network that would be available to us," said Evelio Hernandez, manager process control systems department at Motiva Norco Refinery: "We selected the PlantWeb digital plant architecture from Emerson Process Management.

We also selected Emerson as our main automation contractor because of its proven project management experience and intimate knowledge of the technology we had selected".

The re-instrumentation project has yielded solid results already for the facility, including its best-ever reliability utilisation year on record, and increased output without adding new units and the huge investment and leadtime that would have been required.

"It has been very exciting to join the highly professional Motiva Norco refining team and bring together digital automation services, technology and people to produce such outstanding results," said John Berra, president of Emerson Process Management: "The teamwork has been great throughout the project, and we are committed to having this on-going partnership continue to build automation excellence leading to higher and higher performance".

PlantWeb architecture is an open, standards-based digital automation solution that networks intelligent field devices, digital systems, and software to control processes and manage equipment and other assets.

It delivers information for facilities management, including predictive alerts of pending malfunctions and guidance for corrective action to avoid production interruptions and shut downs.

At the Motiva refinery, PlantWeb uses Foundation fieldbus communications to network Emerson DeltaV digital systems, Rosemount flow, level and temperature instruments, Micro Motion Coriolis flowmeters and Fisher valves with Fisher Fieldvue digital valve controllers.

Predictive diagnostics information is collected by AMS Suite: Intelligent Device Manager which delivers alarms and data to operations and maintenance personnel.

Back to top