These four nominees beat the field to make it to our select list of finalists in the 2013 PACE Zenith Best Fieldbus Implementation Awards proudly sponsored by BECKHOFF Automation.
Omron Electronics
Environmentally-friendly Commercial Waste Treatment Plant
Organic Environmental Solutions built a pilot plant in a Melbourne suburb. The facility utilises the new Omron NJ controler and EtherCAT technology for processing and treating greasy commercial waste, including from restaurant grease traps.
Final effluent is treated to a standard that is approved by South East Water for discharge to the local sewer main, thus avoiding the high costs of dumping to landfill. Some 90,000 litres per day of grease trap waste comes into the plant for processing, and that in 2011 around 91,665t of grease trap waste was produced in Victoria.
EtherCAT was selected as it overcomes some of the limitations of Ethernet. EtherCAT can mix star topology with daisy chain topology, which provides flexibility in plant design and layout, as well as reduced installation time and cost.
EtherCAT provides a fast network that achieves high synchronisation accuracy by using a distributed clock mechanism with standard Ethernet cables and connectors, and automatic address assignment for nodes.
Omron's CX-Supervisor SCADA system communicates over the information network to an Omron NJ controller.
The NJ is the EtherCAT Master, controlling the process via the various Slaves on the EtherCAT network.
An Omron Sysmac CJ2 PLC controls the centrifuge that is used to separate the raw material, and an Omron NS HMI forms part of the PLC control system.
Wide Bay Water Corporation
Nikenbah WWTP
Nikenbah Waste Water Treatment Plant's control system utilises a single hot standby Quantum PLC communicating with smart Tesys T starters and Altivar VSDs via Modbus TCPIP on a dual fiber optic ring installed throughout the plant.
All instrumentation is connected to the PLC via Profibus PA allowing for easy remote configuration, commissioning and fault diagnosis.
All valves were connected to the PLC via Profibus DP operating at the maximum speed of 1.5MB/s.
Two remote Citect clients installed on Magelis IPCs were located at the start of the plant and at the end of the plant to allow for full access to the plant for the Operator.
A third client was located in the Corporation's control room and connected via a microwave link to the dual redundant Citect Servers located in the plant's control room.
Automation IT
Gold Coast University Hospital Network Control System
The Gold Coast University Hospital (GCUH) Network Control System (NCS) monitors and controls the electrical network and power supply for the GCUH.
The main objective is to provide power across site with minimal downtime. This is achieved using a generator system to supplement the main supply from the power utility.
During the loss of the normal power supply to the GCUH the NCS interfaces with the generators to automatically restore supply power across site.
The NCS performs the following functions: Monitoring and control of the 11 kV, 3.3 kV and 415V power; The Interface to the Generator Digital Master Controller (DMC); The Interface to the Building Management System (BMS); The Interface to the Fire System.
Due to the extreme importance of maintaining power to a hospital the site has a redundant GE RX3i PLC solution with a network of distributed, redundant communication adapters at each of the main twenty plus substations.
In the result of a network failure, each substation is able to continue processing via a fully redundant communications path.
This is the largest dual redundant GE RX3i solution in Australia. All substation communications are Ethernet based and utilise dual self-healing rings with best in class recover times.
Southern Seawater Desalination Plant
BlochTech, WorleyParsons, Profibus Association of Australia
The Southern Seawater Desalination Plant (SSDP), located in Binningup is Western Australia’s second seawater desalination plant and is owned by the Water Corporation, the main provider of water, wastewater and drainage services in Western Australia.
The design, construction and operation of the SSDP (for 25 years) is the responsibility of the Southern Seawater Alliance (SSWA), comprising Technicas Reunidas, Valoriza Agua, AJ Lucas, WorleyParsons and the Water Corporation.
Winner of the 2012 Global Water Award for ‘Desalination Plant of the Year’, the SSDP is a seawater reverse osmosis based plant, widely recognised around the world as the technology of choice for the desalination of sea and brackish water.
The second desalination plant built by the Water Corporation, SSDP was designed to be constructed in 2 phases, Stage 1 being commissioned in August 2011.
It delivers water to the Integrated Water Supply System that supplies over 1.7 million people in Perth. Stage 2 was ordered to commence before Stage 1 was even completed and is currently being commissioned.
Ever mindful of the area’s delicate environmental balance, the Southern Seawater Alliance consortium chose tunneling methods rather than blasting to construct the marine pipelines. This significantly minimised local environmental impact, particularly on adjacent sand dunes and the neighbouring recreational beach.
Water Corporation’s decision to adopt fieldbus technology, specifically Profibus PA and Profibus DP for all water treatment and desalination plants is seen as the key to Water Corporation's big picture vision for the state’s future water supply.
The 2013 PACE Zenith Best Fieldbus Implementation Awards are sponsored by BECKHOFF Automation.
Read more: BECKHOFF Automation sees 2013 as a rewarding year for the automation industry
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