Is DCS or PLC generally used for the control of fine chemicals?
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I worked on a project involving catalysts for the chemical industry; the cost was around 2,000 units, and Siemens 400 with redundancy was used in that project. I’m wondering whether DCS or PLC is commonly used in small to medium-sized projects in the fine chemical industry Of course, fine chemicals cover a wide range of areas. I just want to know whether, in general, a PLC is sufficient?
Control in the fine chemical industry generally relies on DCS, namely the “Distributed Control System”. PLC---------stands for “Programmable Logic Controller””
Generally, DCS is used; PLC is only applied to devices such as individual units
Small and medium-sized systems shouldn’t be very complex, right? Is a DCS really necessary?
Reply to 3# wangxl319: DCS is not only used for individual devices; it is commonly employed in chemical processing systems, and the more complex the system, the more necessary DCS control becomes. On the DCS, it is possible to display and adjust individual process parameters such as temperature, pressure, and flow rate, as well as to implement cascade control for multiple process parameters.
As far as I know, DCS is commonly used in small and medium-sized projects in the fine chemical industry
Reply to 4# xw712: Nowadays, DCS is used almost everywhere; PLCs are just single-unit devices
PLCs can also be used; they are usually from Siemens, I guess
I’ve seen quite a number of fine chemical processing units – around 30 sets in total – and 60–70% of them use DCS. I have analyzed it, but this is not comprehensive; for devices of a very small scale with few components, using a PLC is appropriate. PLCs still have some viability sometimes.
This post was last edited by xw712 on 2010-8-7 19:22. The analog control capability of PLCs is indeed not very strong, but for fine chemical plants with around 1,000 points and 32 or fewer circuits, is it really necessary to use a DCS? Or, to achieve better results, is it better to use DCS? Are options like redundant AB 5000 and SIEMENS 400 feasible?
Generally, a DCS system is still used! !