MOSCOW (MRC) -- Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) has announced that BASF has opened a state-of-the-art control room equipped with Honeywell Experion technology at its waste incineration complex in Ludwigshafen, Germany, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The control room was officially inaugurated on November 28, 2017, by Dr. Uwe Liebelt, president, BASF European Site and Verbund Management, and Vimal Kapur, president of HPS.
Honeywell re-designed the plant's control room with BASF's Industrie 4.0 initiative in mind. Virtualization technology delivers consolidated plant information to operators via eight large-screen Experion Orion Consoles, which also embed traditionally separate Microsoft Office desktop applications alongside the distributed control system one. Two Experion Collaboration Stations enable BASF to run production meetings more efficiently by using real-time data and online documents.
As part of Honeywell's Experion Process Knowledge System, 29 C300 Controllers and 20,000 I/O modules facilitate plant-wide monitoring, improve safety and fire protection, and increase reliability. In addition, a new MediluX lighting system in the control room improves visual conditions for operators day and night, reducing eye strain and fatigue.
"This strategic project is a prime example of how Industrie 4.0 is transforming industrial operations," Kapur said. "Previously, BASF operators had to gather and piece together data to form a high-level view. Now, critical information is digitally consolidated and streamed onto central displays, transforming efficiency, productivity and decision-making."
The plant's six incinerators process hazardous waste that cannot be reused or recycled and convert it into steam and electrical power. The clean, reusable energy is channeled back into BASF's production processes, helping the company save resources and reduce emissions.
"Thanks to excellent cooperation with Honeywell, our 60-year-old plant now has one of the most modern control rooms in the world," said Dr. Karin Flore, head of waste incineration, BASF.
The incineration plant serves more than 200 BASF production facilities within the company's flagship,10-square-kilometer production site as well as facilities outside the BASF complex. The reliability of the plant is critical to BASF's wider production operations because any standstill could potentially affect the world's largest chemical complex as a whole.
We remind that, as MRC wrote previously, within the next five years, BASF plans to invest globally more than EUR200 million in its plastic additives business, approximately half of which in Asia, focusing on capacity expansions and operational excellence. Plastic additives improve product properties such as scratch resistance or light stability, and optimize plastics manufacturing processes. As the leading global supplier of plastic additives with manufacturing assets in all regions, BASF is a major partner to the plastics industry.
BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries.
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