How AC drives started ABB’s race to decarbonize metals manufacture

The ABB in metals team embodies decades of collective dedication to gathering both critical and novel data generated by metals processes and harnessing it to reduce waste, and boost productivity and quality. Starting from customer challenges, the team has progressively electrified and automated processes in the production of steel, stainless steel and non-ferrous metals, recognizing that automation is a prerequisite to further integration of digital monitoring and analysis. This has led to advanced software solutions that can control a complex mix of process variables for optimal outcomes. ABB’s aims, which began with improving energy efficiency and productivity, have for many years been reducing carbon emissions by implication — now sustainability guides their teams’ every move at the frontiers of profitable growth.

^{ABB’s AC drives help metals manufacturers to improve energy efficiency, asset reliability, productivity, safety and performance.}

A technology breakthrough that contributed to increasing efficiency and thus sustainability was achieved in 1992: that is, when ABB began replacing less efficient direct current (DC) drives in cold rolling mills of the metals industry with alternating current (AC) drives, explains Frederik Esterhuizen, Global Business Line Manager for Metals at ABB.

“The automation of metals manufacturing processes is crucial for enhancing efficiency and sustainability,” he says. “Electrifying these processes is a key step towards achieving this goal, and AC drives play a pivotal role in this transformation. Their unique efficiency, combined with the use of electric motors and improved optimization, has led to a reduction in energy consumption by of 12% to 15%. This not only lowers operational costs but also significantly reduces the carbon footprint of metals production.”

Moreover, the ability to connect multiple motors to AC drives through a shared DC bus system allows for streamlined multi-motor operations using a single multidrive converter. This capability enhances the automation of processes, enabling more precise control and coordination of various stages in metals manufacturing. As a result, the industry can achieve higher productivity and better resource management.

^{System 800xA is not only a DCS (Distributed Control System) it’s also an Electrical Control System, a Safety system and a collaboration enabler with the capacity to improve engineering efficiency, operator performance and asset utilization.}

Development of ABB’s automation platform, ABB Ability System 800xA was supercharged by integration of a unique Aspect Object function.

The xA in ABB’s platform title stands for “extended automation”. That is, 800xA integrates multiple libraries of object types into one collaborative system. Esterhuizen explains: Rather than the system holding a single object or data model of a real-world object or process, different aspects are separately modeled, stored and managed in a way that is optimal for different users of the information. Each user — the manager, someone in operations, the maintenance person — can right click an object to reveal information relevant to them.

800xA then seamlessly integrates this data into a large range of applications. It also supports third-party systems such as video data and computer-based maintenance management. “Plant operators gain not only insight into information that relates to their KPIs, but the capability for straightforward collaboration with users in different areas of the process control environment,” says Esterhuizen. Outcomes include enhanced decision making, increased productivity, and reduced costs.

^{ABB Ability™ Data Analytics Platform for metals is the digital solution that collects, analyzes and visualizes data from a variety of subsystems and devices within a metals plant to provide an integrated view of operations in real-time via powerful.}

In the mid-1990s central data logging software known as ibaPDA became the standard in metals manufacturing. Using this hardware-agnostic system to log high-resolution data “initially helped ABB engineers to precisely tune our control loops, and allowed efficient troubleshooting to improve productivity, quality and yield in metals production”, says Esterhuizen.

This was the starting point of digital offerings for data analysis. Today, ABB Ability^TM Data Analytics Platform for metals performs automatic analysis and reporting including root cause analysis of problems and failure. It collects, analyzes and visualizes data from a large range of subsystems and devices within metal manufacturing processes to optimize plant-wide operations and/or specific process areas such as cold rolling and long product mills.

One of the first global implementations of ABB’s integrated plant monitoring system was at Sunflag Iron and Steel Company in Bhandara, India. “In 2018,” recalls Esterhuizen, “we integrated the ABB Ability^TM Data Analytics Platform, tying together all manufacturing and operational data of Sunflag’s steel melt shop and rolling mills to improve production planning and plant performance.”

The plant, which had the capacity to produce 500,000 metric tons of high-quality special steel per annum, suddenly also had the ability to integrate data sources across 17 operational areas, including non-ABB systems. For example, information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) converged to positively impact Sunflag’s steel melt shop and rolling mills.

^{The digital Fingerprint will establish a benchmark for current process and control performance levels, and provide a basis for evaluating and identifying improvement opportunities.}

From about 2015 a wave of digital development was building throughout businesses of ABB. In metals, the company was working to engage customers in the benefits that automation and digital technologies could deliver with what was called the digital Fingerprint.

“We wanted to develop solutions to serve individual customers better,” says Mathur, " so we gathered data on the performance of our equipment, such as the motors and drives in use at their plants,” he says. “We then analyzed that performance in a benchmarking report, the Fingerprint, and were subsequently able to help customers more efficiently run our equipment to carry out their processes.”

Fingerprint became the basis from which ABB in metals began introducing digital platforms that offered advanced analytical applications. For example, Fingerprint enables life-cycle management of installations in relation to automation, personnel deployment and preventive, emergency and life cycle strategies to maintain productivity, quality and yield.

Says Mathur, who has led the ABB in metals digital solutions team since 2018, “ABB’s significant investment in R&D has resulted in constant digital innovation that drives improved outcomes for the metals community”.

^{Advanced Process Control is for example used in pellet plant indurating machine burners to improve pellet quality and reduce fuel consumption.}

Advanced Process Control (APC) is a digital technology which has been applied in the oil and gas industry since the 1980s. Mathur’s study and some of his career background had been in oil and gas, so, he says, “When I joined the ABB in metals team, in 2011, we started questioning why that capability wasn’t more prevalent in metals. When we tried to apply it, we realized it can’t simply be migrated to any process.” The metals team still felt that APC had application in metals, and began looking for a part of the process where it would make a difference.

An upstream process in ironmaking, known as a pellet or sinter plant, showed parallels and ABB Metals applied almost exactly the same software engine that had been used in oil and gas, adjusting for slightly different process signals, and the applied automation and insights delivered substantial benefits for the customer.

Since then, APC has been successfully applied in many situations: for example, in pellet plant indurating machine burners it has improved pellet quality and reduced fuel consumption. On a raw material grinding circuit incorporating a roller press and a single-chamber ball mill it improved control performance to deliver a 4% increase in productivity, 3% energy savings, and a 60% reduction in returns standard deviation.

^{ABB Ability™ Smart Melt Shop gathers data from a variety of sensors novel to the steel melt shop context — including cameras and radar — which track the position of all moving equipment.}

One of the drivers of the ABB in metals digital team is to contribute to the operational excellence of its customers. The patented ABB Ability™ Smart Melt Shop solution was developed in collaboration with JSW Steel at its Dolvi Works plant in India. It harnesses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models to improve productivity in melt shop operations.

Smart Melt Shop gathers data from a variety of sensors novel to the steel melt shop context — including cameras and radar — which track the position of all moving equipment, such as cranes. AI then accurately forecasts thermal losses linked closely with ladle movement and heat input across steelmaking stages.

These AI-driven insights deliver real-time recommendations to operators to ensure that each heat achieves optimal superheat temperatures at the caster. This prevents slowdowns caused by excessive superheat, and minimizes heat rejection due to insufficient superheats.

“The outcome?” posits Mathur. “A remarkable upsurge – up to 5% – in caster productivity and a reduction in power input during the ladle furnace process of about 5^oC per heat. That’s a boost to operational efficiency and substantial savings in energy and greenhouse gas emissions.”

^{Data in combination with smart devices and technologies such as image recognition enable metals manufacturers to achieve new heights of performance.}

ABB’s exploration and application of digital capabilities for metals manufacturers never stands still. Over the next decade or two, Mathur envisages end-to end process and quality control, from procurement of source materials to output of the most high-quality products. This will facilitate production of cost effective, low-carbon steel. New processes – such as using hydrogen rather than coal in iron-ore reduction – are already being factored into the overall digital model.

As part of the journey, micro management of phases of production is an important contributing factor. Mathur gives standby modes as an example: “We have been looking at when a metals plant has been stopped, for whatever reason. We have been able to configure what kinds of devices can be switched off in that situation, or switched to standby, so that they are not running and using energy. Such small puzzle pieces also help to improve the total efficiency of metals manufacturing and its carbon footprint, increment by increment.”

Ultimately, says Mathur, metals manufacturers will not only use automation and other sources of digital intelligence for control of processes, but for making business decisions. “Do I need to invest more in this part of the process or in another? Do I need to upgrade this piece of equipment? Data, not gut feeling, should tell you where to invest in order to grow your business and increase your sustainability.”

Esterhuizen agrees, adding that using data in combination with smart devices and technologies such as image recognition will enable innovators like ABB and their customers to achieve new heights of performance. Digital will continue to shape the future of industry, empowering employees to make better decisions at all levels of the organization and enabling safer, smarter and more sustainable operations.