Getting the Chemistry Right
Published on : Thursday 02-12-2021
The chemical industry must continue to optimise its processes in the future to even better protect the environment and resources.
Finding the right balance between safety, economy and ecology is fundamental for the chemical industry1.
Endress+Hauser provides support with innovative products, solutions and services that combine all industry requirements.
Integrated safety
Safety is crucial to the chemical industry. Plants must be fail-safe and have reliable measurement devices to monitor and control processes to prevent humans and the environment from being harmed by substance handling. Endress+Hauser offers the industry the widest range of products for safety measurements2, which were developed with particular regard to functional safety and meet international approvals for potentially explosive atmospheres. The instruments for flow, level, temperature, pressure and liquid analysis offer further benefits in addition to their precision and robustness: They are easy to install, operate, maintain and integrate into various systems, reducing complexity and expenditure while increasing efficiency.
Smart data usage
Digitalisation provides the chemical industry with the opportunity to make their value-added chains more efficient. Endress+Hauser’s cloud-based IIoT ecosystem Netilion3 helps leverage the potential of field devices. Netilion provides a huge amount of extra data as the foundation for process optimisation in addition to measured values. Over 40 million Endress+Hauser measurement devices are used across the globe, and nine out of ten devices can communicate digitally. They are therefore easy to connect to the IIoT via edge devices or adapters. In future, the Advanced Physical Layer will even enable high-speed two-wire Ethernet in Ex-zones. The first digital services for simplified maintenance and increased plant availability are already available. Netilion Analytics, for instance, manages all the plant measurement devices and highlights the potential for improvement. Netilion Health allows operators to see the status of their field devices everywhere and at any time, enabling quick response in case of failures.
Transparency for process trends
Many chemical industry processes are continuous and run without interruption, ideally over months or years. Endress+Hauser is integrating its Heartbeat Technology4 into new measurement devices to reduce unplanned downtime and to schedule maintenance. With this technology, devices continuously monitor themselves and report their status in plain text. Dangerous errors are therefore safely recognised, providing operators with more transparency on the status of their safety installations. SIL proof testing also allows the sensor’s functionality to be verified without disassembly. Heartbeat Technology is furthermore able to detect process influences that affect measuring performance at an early stage: radar level measurement devices detect build-up on the antenna or foam on the medium, while flow measurement devices register any corrosion or abrasion in the measurement tube. Liquiline transmitters monitor analytical sensors to identify trends. New Netilion apps will calculate the ideal cleaning or servicing date, making maintenance even more efficient.
Real-time intelligence
The chemical industry must continue to optimise its processes in the future to even better protect the environment and resources. Advanced process analysis technology, capable of examining substances inline in a matter of seconds, provides assistance. Thanks to the precise knowledge of the compound, the process can be optimally controlled, therefore reducing the use of raw materials and energy. One of the options is Endress+ Hauser’s Raman spectroscopy5. The laser-based method analyses gases, solids and liquids in real time down to a molecular and atomic level, resulting in crucial advantages during complex chemical processes. Waste is also minimised by determining quality parameters such as polymer structures and residual monomer content during the production of synthetic rubber. The production and processing of synthetic gases to create ammonia or urea can also be monitored with Raman spectroscopy, thereby significantly increasing the output.
Added-value relationship
A long-term partnership connects Endress+Hauser and the chemical industry. In parallel to the industry’s globalisation, Endress+Hauser has become a global company with a strong network over the past 65 years.
Industry experts in over 50 countries across the globe are familiar with the requirements and applications of the chemical industry and are skilled in areas such as functional safety or explosion protection. Numerous products have been developed in close cooperation with the industry. Endress+Hauser has the most comprehensive two-wire portfolio – including for Coriolis flow measurement, which is frequently used in the chemical industry. New instruments are always designed in accordance with the international standard IEC 61508 for functional safety – such as radar level measurement devices with 80 GHz technology. And of course there is also a version of the modern FieldXpert tablet PC that brings digital services into potentially explosive areas.
Single point of contact
Endress+Hauser is not just a reliable partner for designing key production processes. The company is also able to support the industry across the globe with its products, services and solutions along various parts of the value-added chain, including inventory management, logistics, energy supply and water and wastewater treatment. This pays off during large-scale investment projects in particular: As an experienced main instrumentation vendor, the company helps meet budgets and deadlines. State-of-the-art tools guarantee seamless data transfer throughout the entire project’s engineering phase, while an Endress+Hauser engineer embedded into the on-site project team ensures that the right measurement devices are selected, configurated and commissioned. Endress+Hauser can later help optimise calibration intervals, reducing costs and increasing plant availability.
For more details, please contact: [email protected]
Or visit https://www.in.endress.com/en/industry-expertise/chemical
References
1. https://www.endress.com/en/industry-expertise/chemical
2. https://www.endress.com/en/industry-expertise/chemical/process-safety-in-chemical-industry
3. https://netilion.endress.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-IvFhdOG7QIVg6rVCh0nBQTyEAAYASAAEgL3kPD_BwE
4. https://www.endress.com/en/field-instruments-overview/measurement-technologies/Heartbeat-Technology
5. https://www.endress.com/en/Endress-Hauser-group/product-center-competencies/kaiser-optical-systems
