Xinneng Energy implements Proficy Process Systems

Xinneng Energy, a supplier of energy-chemical products and services, has implemented GE Fanuc's Proficy Process Systems process-control system.

Xinneng Energy is located in Jiangsu Province, Zhangjiagang, China.

Proficy Process Systems is an integrated system that improves quality and reliability, increases throughput, performance and efficiency, and reduces total cost of ownership.

Xinneng Energy produces DME (dimethyl ether), a chemical substance that can be produced from methanol.

The product has multiple purposes, including: use as an aerosol spray propellant; a cryogenic freezing-agent when combined with propane; and as a clean-burning alternative to liquefied natural gas, diesel and gasoline.

When Xinneng Energy set up its plant in Zhangjiagang, the company designed the plant to be able to produce one-million tons of DME per year on three production lines.

Proficy Process Systems will control those lines and will take over two more in 2008.

Proficy Process Systems offers DCS and PLC/HMI systems, without many of the historic limitations of those approaches.

GE Fanuc's multi-disciplined Pacsystems controllers feature powerful memory and execution rates and the ability to implement multiple control disciplines and programming languages in a single controller.

GE Fanuc Proficy software is at the core of Proficy Process Systems, allowing customers to leverage technologies such as Proficy HMI/Scada Ifix; or Cimplicity, batch, historian, and plant applications.

This software gives users excellent visibility, analytics and connectivity to deliver robust control, optimisation and performance.

Xinneng Energy has installed Proficy Process Systems in a high-availability architecture.

The system configuration includes a Proficy HMI/Scada - Cimplicity technology option for its operator consoles, a system server leveraging Proficy Historian technology and redundant RX7i processors with reflective memory.

By leveraging reflective-memory technologies from GE Fanuc Embedded Systems, Proficy Process Systems provides a controller-redundancy solution with data synchronisation rates of 2Gbits a second.

The architecture also includes Ethernet I/O networking with racked-based remote I/O leveraging RX3i high-availability remote I/O stations.

The architecture of Proficy Process Systems is highly scalable in system size and functionality, allowing users to cost-effectively implement applications of any scope.

The system's engineering workstation provides an integrated development environment that centralises project-engineering, allowing it to: control strategies, alarm and I/O configuration; process graphics; configure Historian; and manage system change.

The operator console provides a user-friendly environment for process operations and information access.

The operator console also includes alarm-monitoring and management tools for process and system diagnostics and troubleshooting.

Proficy Process Systems features a common global-namespace that provides simplified configuration and maintenance for the user.

Based on technology co-developed with GE Energy, objects and tags in the system are defined once and then referenced and used commonly throughout the system.

This global namespace capability can reduce system-configuration time by 30 per cent.

The broadcasting technology used by the global namespace between the controllers and the operator consoles provides inherent system redundancy.

The system is also packed with powerful control-features, including a controller-based FAT (factory acceptance test) / SAT (site acceptance test) editor, comprehensive set of function blocks for advanced regulatory control, batch control, sequential control, device control and alarm-strategy development.

In addition, user-defined function blocks can be created for the freedom and flexibility to define control algorithms and embed knowledge as necessary.

Customers, OEMs or system integrators can lock these blocks to protect their intellectual property.

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