Control System World

ANCHORAGE, Alaska--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, BP and TransCanada, through its participation in the Alaska Pipeline Project, announced today that they are working together on the next generation of resource development in Alaska.

The four companies have agreed on a work plan aimed at commercializing North Slope natural gas resources within an Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) framework. Because of a rapidly evolving global market, large-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from south-central Alaska will be assessed as an alternative to a natural gas pipeline through Alberta.

“Commercializing Alaska natural gas resources will not be easy. There are many challenges and issues that must be resolved, and we cannot do it alone. Unprecedented commitments of capital for gas development will require competitive and stable fiscal terms with the State of Alaska first be established,” the CEOs of ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and BP wrote in a joint letter to Governor Sean Parnell.

The producing companies support meaningful Alaska tax reform, such as the legislation introduced by Governor Parnell, which will encourage increased investment and establish an economic foundation for further commercialization of North Slope resources.

With Point Thomson legal issues now settled, the producers are moving forward with the initial development phase of the Point Thomson project. Alaska’s North Slope holds more than 35 trillion cubic feet of discovered natural gas, and Point Thomson is a strategic investment to position Alaska gas commercialization.

Bark is burned in a bark boiler along with other waste wood products to produce steam that is used in the pulping process, to drive the paper machine, and for many other uses. After combustion, the flue gases from the boilers are often passed through an electrostatic precipitator that uses static electricity to gather the fly ash. An electrostatic charge is induced in the flowing particles and then the particles are collected onto the energized plates with a negative voltage through electrostatic attraction.

Please click to read Blog on website of Emerson Process Management

The Amplicon Measurement & Control Group has launched the Moxa ioPAC 8000 series RTU Controller, a ruggedized and reliable RTU controller suitable for all harsh environments, but designed specifically for rail applications.

The Moxa ioPAC 8000 series modular RTU controllers are designed for remote data acquisition and monitoring. With a powerful processor and a variety of interfaces, the ioPAC 8000 can connect to PLCs, other serial devices and smart meters. They are suitable for applications that require a rugged and reliable design.

Please click Moxa Controller by Amplicon for fuether details.

Rueil-Malmaison (France), April 3, 2012 – Schneider Electric and its Foundation announced the creation of Schneider Electric Teachers. This Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) aims to promote volunteering of current and retired Schneider Electric employees in partner organisations of the Schneider Electric Foundation, dedicated to teaching and professional training within the energy field.

Schneider Electric Teachers’ role is to link partner organisations of the Schneider Electric Foundation with volunteers, current or retired employees of Schneider Electric. For this, a dedicated website (www.teachers.schneider-electric.org) was created: missions are posted by partner organisations¹, and then offered to pre-registered volunteers whose profile meets search criteria². Schneider Electric Teachers then organizes contacts, provides pre-departure training, takes in charge the organization and bears the costs for transport and accommodation.

An ABB variable speed drive solution has reduced the power consumption of the Valorsul waste-to-energy plant in Portugal by 9 megawatt-hours a day, equivalent to a saving of $320,000 a year at current energy prices. Valorsul processes the waste of Lisbon and much of western Portugal into valuable electrical energy, producing enough electricity to power a city of 150,000 inhabitants.

One-fifth of Portugal’s waste is processed and converted into electricity at the Valorsul waste-to-energy plant. Located on the outskirts of Lisbon, the plant recovers the solid waste of 19 municipalities in the capital and western Portugal, and turns it into 50 megawatts of electricity – enough to meet the needs of a large city.

Looking for ways to reduce the energy consumption and CO2 emissions of the plant, Valorsul identified six fans with a high energy saving potential: three induced draft (ID) fans and three secondary air fans.

Please click Case Study by ABB for details.

The Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and Field Service Management (FSM) market has achieved strong growth particularly in the area of field service despite the difficult economic environment. In 2011, the market size passed the previous 2008 peak just prior to the economic decline. Overall, the market is expected to grow from $2.2 billion in 2011 to $3 billion in 2015 for a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.7 percent.

Some regions will grow more quickly due to macro-economic trends. China, India, and Brazil, though having a smaller base, will grow rapidly. The Middle East and Russia, with high oil related revenues, have the fundamentals for robust growth. The Americas, with the largest regional market, will also show strength. With the acceptance of mobility, field service applications achieved double digit growth that is expected to continue.

"ARC’s 2012 user survey confirms that four factors — uptime, cost control, asset longevity, and safety — represent the key business reasons organizations acquire maintenance management systems,” according to Ralph Rio, Research Director, the principal author of ARC’s “Enterprise Asset Management and Field Service Management Worldwide Outlook”. Ralph continued, “The growing variety of technologies and the rising speed of business require a modern EAM/FSM system for asset management.”

Mobility Expands EAM Applications and Benefits

As smartphones and other mobile devices for consumers become more pervasive, expectations and willingness to adopt mobile devices improve. The expanding capabilities of mobile devices drive new areas of business value – especially for EAM/FSM systems. The convergence of technologies includes GPS, GIS, Wi-Fi, RFID, voice-to-text data, text-to-voice, digital camera, and gauges with Bluetooth enable more powerful applications. Increased productivity can be realized with applications such as location identification to optimize the travel time of technicians to geographically dispersed assets. Mapping the location of people in real-time in the plant, mine, or field also improves safety (emergency management). The benefits of real-time location awareness are magnified when combined with the optimized planning, scheduling, and dispatch functions provided by an EAM and FSM applications. Mobile solutions drive EAM upgrades and wider user adoption.

There is a broad range of hazardous weighing applications in the process industry. Many of the applications require weighing equipment to be located in  hazardous locations. Batches of powders and solvents need to be mixed for an accurate step in a recipe. This is true in products where you might think that the end product is not hazardous at all. In many cases, minor spilling of chemical agents can’t be avoided. Scales in an industrial environment must withstand harsh conditions due to corrosion and explosive or flammable materials.

Please click White Paper by Pepperl+Fuchs to read in detail.

Warrendale, Pennsylvania, USA, 2012-Apr-04: The Italian company Multiservizi will install a Sludge Belt Dryer (SBD) from Siemens Industry Automation Division at its plant in the city of Jesi, Ancona. The belt dryer evaporation capacity is 2000 kg/hr. Once the dryer becomes operational in 2012, it will allow the Jesi plant to reduce the amount of biosolids produced annually by roughly 75 percent.

Multiservizi, a publicly owned Italian company, operates water and wastewater treatment plants for 45 communities in Italy. The plant in Jesi serves 60,000 residents. Its new SBD from Siemens will reduce sludge production from 16,500 to 4,125 tons per year. The plant, which also has a natural gas boiler, is designed to recover thermal energy from the cogeneration plant, thus reducing CO2 emissions.

With the SBD, evaporation takes place when biosolids come in contact with the heated air. Biosolids are uniformly distributed on the entire belt width to cause uniform evaporation. The dryer is supplied in a two-belt system configuration. The belt speed and the temperature of the process air can be adjusted for different residence times. Varying residence time in the drying zone provides the means to adjust the product moisture to meet final use or disposal requirements.

The Siemens' thermal drying system was selected because of the technology's high reliability and safety, low maintenance, and high automation level. Other advantages include high energy efficiency, minimal environmental impact, and agriculture-grade pathogen reduction.