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On December 19, after 24 hours of operational testing, the integrated control stations of Anqing Petrochemical’s Ammonium Sulfate Units I and II were operating normally and in an orderly manner, marking the successful completion of the project to integrate the DCS control stations for these two units by the Chemical Instrumentation Department of Anqing Petrochemical’s Electrical and Instrumentation Center. The first and second sets of ammonium sulfate production units in Chemical Engineering Department 2 originally each had a separate DCS control station; since they could not communicate with each other, the operators of these two units were forced to carry out monitoring and control tasks on a per-unit basis. Meanwhile, the two newly added video surveillance operation stations are installed in Room II for ammonium sulfate operations; operators in Room I for ammonium sulfate cannot conduct monitoring or operations. To address the above two issues, facilitate operators of both sets of equipment in controlling both the DCS system and the video surveillance system, and at the same time alleviate the pressure caused by a shortage of personnel for these systems, the Ammonium Sulfate DCS systems for Sets I and II have been integrated. The integration project involves moving the entire DCS operation station for Set I of ammonium sulfate production to the operation room for Set II of ammonium sulfate production. At the same time, one new network cabinet is added, and all optical cables and network wires are rerouted. Since both sets of equipment are in normal operation, it is essential to ensure that the integration process does not cause any fluctuations or disruptions in production, as the associated risks are quite high. Before implementation, the relevant departments of the Electrical and Instrumentation Center organized carefully, held special meetings to discuss and formulate detailed implementation plans and emergency response plans, and conducted in-depth JSA analyses. The personnel of the acrylic DCS team in the chemical instrumentation area, who are responsible for coordinating the project implementation, worked together as a cohesive unit, exercising great caution and carefully addressing each task. At the end of November, after the network cabinets arrived, the integration project was launched and the on-site installation phase began. The acrylic DCS team fulfilled its supervision responsibilities by assisting the construction workers in positioning the network cabinets and laying the communication optical cables and network cables between the two sets of devices. On December 17, the integration entered the critical phase. The staff in the acrylic DCS team first moved the control stations in batches, arranged them in an orderly sequence based on categories such as video surveillance, alarm systems, and shipping systems, and completed the wiring work. On the 18th, before the two systems were connected to the grid, Chen Bin, the deputy supervisor of the chemical instrumentation area, and Wang Shide, the team leader of the acrylic fiber DCS team, checked the internal functions of the two systems such as video monitoring, alarm systems, and communication capabilities. They also conducted redundancy switching tests, and all functions were found to be working properly. After strictly fulfilling the supervision responsibilities, the settings for the inputs, outputs, and addresses of the switches were configured in an orderly manner according to the plan, successfully connecting and integrating the two sets of devices. Subsequently, the two checked and tested that communication between the systems was functioning properly. Process operators began to carry out production operations and monitoring at the integrated control station. On the 19th, the assessment results were good, and the integration project was thus successfully completed. (Rao Daolin)
Sets I and II of ammonium sulfate plants were likely built and put into operation in different periods, resulting in a DCS system that is not compatible with each other.
There are many similar devices of this kind; currently, many devices originally had their own control rooms, and in line with the principle of centralized control, many of them need to be modified. This represents a significant business opportunity for specialized companies and design firms
Renovating old factories is difficult. In many cases, the technical solution can work, but once things get to the site, various problems arise; the drawings change so much that they become unrecognizable, and the designers suffer greatly as a result.
Speaking of this, it reminds me of Hengli’s sophisticated control room