Advant Master evolution to 800xA for Cheminova biological treatment plants in Denmark

Transition from old to new 800xA operator system exceeded expectations

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Cheminova has been a major user of ABB process software since the mid eighties and has long since learnt to appreciate ABB’s Lifecycle Management Program.

Upgrade of the control system without disruption

In 2008 when the ABB operator system at Cheminova’s P1 pesticide plant was changed to System 800xA it had far exceeded the expected lifetime. The transition from the old to the new operator system went without the slightest disruption to production.

Cheminova’s senior engineer Karl Anders Kvist views the future changes of generation that are to take place over the next 2-3 years at the other plants with confidence. The reason why the old MasterView operator interface of the P1 plant had such a long life was the fact, according to Karl Anders Kvist, that Cheminova has built up its own stock of spare parts and has therefore considered it feasible to continue as long as they did.

The MasterView operator system from P1 had a lifetime of over 20 years, which must be said to be excellent considering that Karl Anders Kvist, in his time, expected a life cycle of around 10 years.

The cost for the implementation of the new system is half that of the old one, and Karl Anders Kvist once again predicts a life of around 10 years for the new System 800xA. “By this we have now gone over to the Windows platform,” adds Karl Anders Kvist.

Main facts

Industry	Chemical
Customer	Cheminova
Country	Denmark
Solutions	Advant Master System Evolution to System 800xA 3 System 800xA operator stations

Cheminova has 15 different sub processes at its Lemvig site, Denmark. A net of pipelines connects these plants with each other.

Long lifecycle management

Pesticide production is divided into 15 more or less separate factories, each with their own process specialities and operator rooms, where 2-3 process operators control and monitor production and well over 2,000 signals. According to Karl Anders Kvist there are a total of over 30,000 signals that are controlled and monitored from different operator stations.

ABB is responsible for around 80 per cent of the company’s control systems. The installations have been introduced over a period of more than 20 years, and today almost all generations of ABB’s process control systems are located at the factory at Harboøre Tange.

“We are closely following the Lifecycle program which, among other things, forms the basis of our planning for the coming system generation changes,” says Karl Anders Kvist.

Karl Anders Kvist - Senior engineer, Cheminova

“The ABB Lifecycle program forms the basis of our planning for the coming system generation changes”.

Cheminova is producing different kinds of pesticides and 99% of the production is for export.

Quick and secure change of process system

“Our biological treatment plants and our P1 plant were the first to have ABB equipment installed in the mid eighties, and they have now undergone the change of generation to System 800xA. We are still waiting for four of our plants to undergo the same exercise.”

“We have changed process systems many times before and we have now expertice in doing so quickly, and above all securely. The generation change we are undertaking in the next few years will be from Unix to Windows, and among other things this means that we are compelled to update our 1-1 screens. But practice makes perfect, and the image editing tool in the new system is good and fast to work with. The Windows platform provides us with both better monitoring possibilities and several facilities which will benefit us greatly in the long term.”

“Since we are now switching to Windows I expect that the changes we have to undergo in future will occur more often. Therefore we have entered ABB’s program for current updates, which is called Automation Sentinel,” says Karl Anders Kvist.

Karl Anders Kvist - Senior engineer, Cheminova

"The Windows platform provides us with both better monitoring possibilities and several facilities which will benefit us greatly in the long term.”

Three of the chemical plants have now System 800xA operations upgraded from the MasterView HMI system. Martin Trillingsgaard Jensen (to the left) and Jens Christian Iversen at the P1 control room.

Karl Anders Kvist, Senior Eningeer at Cheminova’s plant in Lemvig.

New system 800xA easier to work with

The old system was quite simply faster to navigate in, thinks process operator Jens Christian Iversen. He misses the short cut keys on his old trackball and is considering testing a mouse with one or two keys that can be coded to provide some of the functionality of the old system.

“There is no doubt that the new system has a number of advantages and is far more straightforward and easier to get used to for the new operators.”

“The trend curves have given us many new possibilities and hence major advantages in the start-up phase or if we are looking for errors. We can combine all the trend curves we want on one screen to give us an overview which is of great help in comparison with the old system,” says Jens Christian Iversen.

Martin Trillingsgaard Jensen has been in the P1 control room for three years and is therefore one of the “new” operators, which does not share Jens Christian Iversen’s unshakable fondness for the old system: “I have been with Cheminova for 25 years, but I was trained as a process operator only three years ago. And I think it is considerably easier to navigate in System 800xA.”

“The whole system is easier and more clearly laid out, and the new screens are far more convenient to work with and look at,” says Martin Trillingsgaard Jensen, who also stresses that working with the trend curves is a big advantage.

“Among other things, we have an overview image with links to the different corners of the system, which is a big help for the new employees who are in a hurry to find the cause and location of an alarm, for example.”

Jens Christian Iversen - Operator Cheminova

”There is no doubt that the new system has a number of advantages and is far more straightforward.”

Martin Trillingsgaard Jensen - Operator, Cheminova

“The whole system is easier and more clearly laid out, and the new screens are far more convenient to work with and look at.”

Cheminova

With a turnover of 5.6 billion DKR, Cheminova A/S is by far the biggest contributor to the parent company Auriga Industries A/S. Cheminova was founded in 1938 in Måløv near Copenhagen, but since 1953 has been located at Harboøre Tange in West Jutland.

Today, Cheminova develops, optimizes, produces and markets existing, tried and tested products. The company specializes in the production of pesticides primarily for the control of weeds, insects and fungal diseases.

Cheminova’s products are marketed in over 100 countries, whereof 99 per cent export.

Cheminova’s process control system

- 14 MasterPiece MP280/1 controllers
- 21 Advant AC450/AC410 controllers
- 17 OS520 Unix operator stations
- 6 MV850 MasterView operator stations
- 3 System 800xA operator stations
- Approxemately 30,000 I/O’s, 80% of these are in the EX area

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