Automation contract for Greenfield pulp mill

World's largest single-line bleached eucalyptus pulp mill in Brazil for Veracel Celulose SA will utilise advanced automation technology from Invensys Foxboro and SimSci-Esscor to achieve 900,000 tpa

Veracel awards Invensys a multi-million dollar automation contract for 900,000 ton per year pulp mill.

World's largest single-line bleached eucalyptus pulp mill in Brazil will utilise advanced automation technology from Foxboro and SimSci-Esscor.

Veracel Celulose SA, a joint venture between Aracruz Celulose SA of Brazil and Scandanavian-based Stora Enso Oyj, has awarded Invensys Systems Brasil a multi-million dollar automation contract to supply Foxboro I/A Series automation systems plus advanced process control applications and associated services for the Veracel grassroots, 900,000 metric ton per year bleached eucalyptus pulp mill now under construction in Eunapolis in the State of Bahia, Brazil.

The plant, which will be the largest single-line mill of its kind in the world, will incorporate state-of-the-art process equipment, fully automated process control systems, and advanced environmental protection installations.

Commenting on this project, Carlos Aguiar, Aracruz president and CEO, said, "The mill will bring about important social and environmental gains to the region together with the generation of economic wealth and hard currency reserves for Brazil".

"This is clearly one of the most significant grassroots pulp mill projects to emerge in many years," said Rick Haythornthwaite, Invensys CEO.

"Invensys is honoured to have been selected to participate in the project as automation vendor.

In this capacity, we are fully committed to helping Veracel meet their ambitious schedule for start-up and, once the mill is commissioned, to help maximise production efficiencies".

As automation supplier for the Veracel pulp mill project, Invensys will provide the latest Foxboro control technology.

This includes a large I/A Series system with all stations linked via a high-performance Switched Ethernet backplane in a high-availability "mesh" network configuration.

The Veracel I/A Series system will also utilise Foxboro's latest Windows XP workstations, new high-performance controllers, and HART field communications with remote I/O.

More than 7,500 I/O points and 20,000 communication points will be integrated into the system.

Invensys advanced process control (APC) solutions for pulp mill applications will be utilised to maximise performance, minimise emissions, and reduce costs.

Several of these applications will incorporate powerful Connoisseur multivariable predictive control (MPC) technology from Invensys SimSci-Esscor unit.

Connoisseur is a comprehensive suite of APC software that allows on-line data collection and analysis and offers real-time adaptive control to help users obtain peak performance from their operating units.

Invensys was selected for this important project based on its robust and well-proven control technology, advanced pulp mill applications, and strong local presence in Brazil.

The mill is scheduled to commence production by mid 2005.

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