Freelance DCS in oil refining process at CNPC Qingyang Petrochemical in China

Effective process control and efficiencies with ABB’s control solution and Operator Training System

分享本页

To ensure safety across the production process, ABB provided redundancy across the whole system.

Qingyang Petrochemical’s oil refining project has a 3-millionton annual capacity

CNPC Qingyang Petrochemical Company is located in Qingyang City, Gansu Province. It has an almost 40-year history, with operations starting in 1971.

Qingyang Petrochemical’s oil refining project, with a 3-millionton annual capacity, officially began in March 2009. But its history of using ABB’s Freelance distributed control system goes as far back as 2006.

Redundant solution for high availability

Main facts

Industry	Oil, gas and petrochemicals
Customer	CNPC Qingyang Petrochemical Company
Country	China
Solutions	Freelance DCS with 19 pairs of redundant AC 800F controllers 4 engineering stations 32 operator stations 10,000 I/O signals

To ensure safety and availability across the production process, ABB provided redundancy for the whole system, including process control stations, network connections and power supply.

The communication protocol between process control stations and operator stations is via fiber industrial Ethernet, with communication speeds of up to 100 Mbits. The operator stations provide a convenient operating environment, with operators able to view process graphics and parameters, logs and alarms, to name a few.

Through extensive fieldbus protocols such as PROFIBUS DP/PA, HART, FF and Modbus, various kinds of instrument equipment can be integrated into the system. In addition, ABB also provided an operator training system (OTS) that helps operators in the early stage to quickly become familiar with operating each production process.

Improved competencies of the personnel to reduce or avoid errors in operation

As this was a new oil refining project, CNPC’s operators were not familiar with some devices. In order to achieve steady operation, ABB provided the Operator Training System (OTS) as part of project delivery.

Based on the customer’s requirements, ABB experts extended the standard emulator (soft controller) function of Freelance and added special functions and their corresponding interface software.

The result — with the OTS, CNPC was able to improve the competencies of its personnel, and reduce or avoid errors in operation. CNPC operators were able to handle the system within a short period of time.

Powerful and award winning automation solution for CNPC

The integrated operation environment of the Freelance DCS helps ease the tasks of engineering, commissioning, maintaining and managing the system, including fieldbus management. An intuitive operator interface also makes operating the whole system more simple, enabling operators to make timely and correct diagnoses.

Furthermore, powerful redundant functions ensure uninterrupted production. This oil refining project of Qingyang Petrochemical was awarded the 2011 Annual Scientific and Technological Achievements by
China Instrument and Control Society.

CNPC Qingyang Petrochemical Company

“With Freelance's flexible communication protocols and support for multiple protocol standards, we are able to realize efficient and safe production.”

Learn more

Download PDF