Process Solutions For Biomass Power Generation Improve Visibility Of Process Data

Sugar cane is usually refined onto biofuel at thermoelectric plants that burn sugarcane “bagasse”, a residue generated from industrial sugar and alcohol production. The process results in steam vapor and electric energy which is usually sold to companies nearby.

Typical biomass plants that haven’t been automated usually must to solve  the following problems in order to remain competitive:

• integrate islands of information in the plant
• improve process visibility
• create a data repository so information can be leveraged to improve processes
• eliminate as many paper records as possible
• open up the “black boxes” inside the plant

What is usually required is a flexible automation system. When workers are unable to log information about processes occurring in the plan there’s no easy way to troubleshoot and formulate possible solutions.

A key aspect of new automation systems is the ability to democratize information across the organization so that all workers and management can contribute insights and ideas for solving problems. This is a new paradigm of managing plant operations and there is often an immediate payoff in terms of improved communication, exchange of ideas and a better understanding of how people and the plan work.

A typical automation solution includes what are normally called the “10 Proficy commandments”:

• creating a single repository for plant data that is digital, not paper, leading to improved audit trails
• complete and total visibility of plant data, information and KPIs
• integration & verticalization
• more accurate and quicker diagnosis of equipment issues
• less downtime and more production
• remote plant monitoring
• an industrial portal that is 100% web based
• ability to quickly and easily create reports

Companies that invest in “best-of-breed” technology usually get a solution that has a low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). A typical installation for a biomass plant includes the following:

1. Proficy Historian is an administration tool that includes all collectors, statistics for incoming data, number of connected users, alerts from the system, messages, and more. This system is installed in a biomass plant to monitor boiler, utilites, and generate data from a variety of PLCs using RS links at the OPC server. All data from the plant is captured in a Proficy repository where tags can be used to apply compression, filters, collection intervals, calculations and some KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) providing what is essential for analysis and optimization of a plant.
2. Proficy Portal is a web based industrial portal that allows connection to any number of data sources such as real time data from OPC, historical information from Historian and information from systems such as maintenance, laboratory systems, and ERP based on relational databases. These all allow the user to focus on data and process instead of programming. Reports are quickly available via a “drag and drop” interface.

Plant managers who have kept all this information on paper are able to quickly access information through an intranet based web portal, rapidly expanding a company’s ability to manage a plant and improve outcomes.

When a biomass plant produces steam for example, the portal shows the amount of steam being produced by the biomass plant and how much steam is being consumed by nearby customers. This all occurs in real time, whereas previously it would’ve been normal to look at such information a day or two or longer after.

Reports are constructed automatically and in real time so construction of reports via spreadsheet programs with the possibility of errors, duplications or omissions is eliminated. A typical solution eliminates the need for manual input as well, increasing accuracy. Viewing data in a variety of charts, including line charts, bar charts and pie charts helps staff better understand information.

One KPI is how much steam a plant uses to produce one MW of energy and how much sugarcane biogass is used as fuel to produce one ton of steam. The consolidation of reports into single digital views also helps improve understanding of processes and improves efficiency as staff better understands historical, real time and trending information.

There are many more possibilities for using digitized information to better operate a plant including allowing workers to input observations so that when data is analyzed, deeper understanding of what may be occurring, or may have occurred is available.

Finally, alarms alert people to potential problems in a plant and help workers plan and carry out maintenance on schedules so that expenses for errors and omissions are brought under control..

Tags: automating a biogas plant

This entry was posted on August 5th, 2014 and is filed under Automation. Both comments and pings are currently closed.