Control System World

The Siemens Industry Automation Division has expanded its portfolio of industrial network products with a fault-tolerant system solution for smooth and thus delay-free redundancy in Industrial Ethernet networks. The new Scalance X-200RNA (Redundant Network Access) network access points have been designed for all applications and sectors in which a network connection with particularly high fault tolerance is required. In addition to the Scalance hardware, Siemens also offers the Softnet-IE RNA software package with which PCs can be connected to parallel networks.

For further information on this product please click 'Siemens expands Industrial Ethernet portfolio with fault-tolerant redundancy solution'

Erlangen, Germany, 2012-Jan-25: Siemens Energy has been awarded three orders by different customers to supply a total of four steam turbine generator units for solar thermal power plants in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The steam turbines of type SST-700 are intended for the Godawari, Abhijeet and Diwakar & KVK parabolic trough power plants. With a total rating of 300 megawatts (MW), these plants will make a contribution to meeting India's growing electricity demand from solar power when they go on line in the spring of 2013.

All four power plant projects in the state of Rajasthan are being constructed as part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), the Indian government's ongoing program for promoting solar power. The program envisages installing up to 20 gigawatts of solar power capacity in India by the year 2022. The parabolic trough power plants Godawari owned by Godawari Green Energy Ltd. and Abhijeet owned by Corporate Ispat Alloys Ltd. are each rated 50 MW. Siemens has been awarded contracts for an SST-700 steam turbine generator unit and auxiliary systems for each of these units. The third customer, Lanco Solar Energy, has ordered a steam turbine and generator rated at 100 MW, complete with auxiliary systems for each of the two units of the Diwakar & KVK parabolic trough power plant.

"As a leading provider of steam turbines for solar thermal power plants with an excellent track record in Spain and the USA, we are now in the front running on the rapidly developing market in India, too,“ says Markus Tacke, CEO of the Industrial Power business unit at Siemens Energy.

Case Study by Rotork Valves: The Borwin Alpha platform is the first offshore installation designed to convert AC power into high voltage direct current (HVDC) for onward transmission. Built and designed by the Heerema Fabrication Group on behalf of ABB, the facility can transfer a power of 400MW at a bipolar voltage of 150kV. The converted current is carried by a 200 kilometre cable for onshore connection to the European power grid.

Please click 'Rotork valve actuation supports offshore wind farm technology' to continue reading

Technip has been awarded by Lukoil Neftochim Burgas ad, subsidiary of OAO LUKOIL, a lump sum turnkey contract, worth more than €900 million (Technip share around €600 million), for the engineering, procurement and construction of Phase 1 of a heavy residue hydrocracking complex to be built at their refinery in Burgas, Bulgaria.

This contract covers the detail engineering, procurement of equipment and material, construction, pre-commissioning and commissioning of a 2.5 million tons/year vacuum residue hydrocracker based on Axens H-Oil process, as well as amine regeneration unit, sour water stripper, hydrogen production units, utilities and offsites upgrading.

Nello Uccelletti, Technip Senior Vice President Onshore stated: "We are proud to have been chosen by the Lukoil Group for this major project. This award recognizes the know-how and expertise of our teams. It also confirms Technip's leadership in the field of refining after projects such as Dung Quat in Vietnam, Jubail in Saudi Arabia, and Algiers Refinery in Algeria”.

Technip's operating center in Rome, Italy will execute the contract which is scheduled to be completed by end of January 2015.

White Paper by LanTech: Nowadays Industrial Ethernet switches and Industrial Ethernet based devices are more suitable for their environments and applications; they are designed to meet the riggers of the task at hand which in some cases includes a harsh environment like Oil, Gas and Mining industry.

Some of the facilities that would utilize equipment that would fall into this application environment would be Oil Refineries, Oil Platforms and Petro-Chemical Plants these types of facilities would have a need to install Industrial Ethernet based switches and devices for process control and monitoring. These types of facilities require devices that are certified to meet the harsh environments they produce.

To continue reading paper by Lantech please click 'Introduction to UL Class I Division II'

SNC-Lavalin (TSX: SNC) has announced that SNC-Lavalin Nuclear has signed a contract with Societatea Nationala “Nuclearelectrica” (SNN) to install reactor containment filtered venting systems (CFVS) at the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant in Romania. The value of the contract is approximately CAN$ 48 million.

“The units at the Cernavoda plant are rated among the best in Europe and this project is part of an industry-wide upgrade strategy for nuclear plant safety in the event of serious accidents or natural disasters, such as those that occurred at Fukushima in Japan,” said Patrick Lamarre, Executive Vice-President, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. “This contract with SNN leverages SNC-Lavalin Nuclear’s expertise in nuclear power plant retrofits and in executing projects with challenging logistics. It also provides a platform for SNC-Lavalin Nuclear to build on its 45 years of experience as opportunities grow in the European nuclear market.”

Engineering and procurement activities are underway and construction is scheduled to begin immediately, with preparations for the work to be carried out in the next unit outages. The expected completion date is late 2013.

Siemens Industry Automation Division entered into an agreement to acquire Cambridge Water Technology, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, on January 24, 2012. With this acquisition, Siemens intends to strengthen its product portfolio with a leading-edge technology.

The acquisition of Cambridge Water Technology is an important building block to Siemens' strategy of pursuing leading-edge technologies with high customer value for municipal water and wastewater treatment as well as select industrial markets. Siemens works with a clear focus to provide cost-effective yet high-quality water treatment in both developed and developing countries by using innovative and standardized solutions.

The technologies developed and patented by Cambridge Water Technology increase the rate of solids removal and enhance the capacity and contaminant removal performance of water and wastewater treatment systems. Compared to conventional technologies, Cambridge Water Technology's proven market solutions require less than half of the footprint and increase the capacity of existing treatment systems by two to three times without adding any new tankage.

For further details please click 'Siemens Automation div broadens wastewater and water treatment portfolio'

The most common technology in use today for measuring flow is differential pressure “dP or ΔP” (orifice plates, pitot tubes, venturis and the like). Indeed, that was the only flow measurement method I was taught in engineering school. Well, things have come a long way in the 28 years since I picked up my degree. Today coriolis, ultrasonic, vortex, thermal and magnetic flow meters have all found their niches, although dP meters are still the most common due to the large installed base.

Please click 'dP or not dP? Capillary Thermal Flow Meters vs. Differential Pressure Devices—Part 1' to continue reading