Integrated control system solution increases waste treatment works efficiency
Hazardous waste treatment works sees cost and operational efficiencies thanks to an integrated control system solution, led by SIMATIC PCS 7 from Siemens
A previously mothballed hazardous waste treatment works operated by Fine Environmental Services (FES) has been given a new lease of life following a full refurbishment and upgrade. Central to this has been the specification of Siemens Industry’s SIMATIC PCS 7 process control system sitting at the heart of the site that now has capacity to handle up to 48,000 tonnes of hazardous waste each year.
FES is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fine Industries Ltd and operates from Seal Sands in Middlesbrough. It shares its location with other sister companies within the Fine Industries Group and Seal Sands has been the site of fine chemical production since 1984. As demand grew in the 1980s, a thermal oxidiser was introduced to the site in 1989 to handle hazardous waste produced onsite. It ran continuously for 16 years before production was halted there.
However, following a management buy-out and the recent broadening of licensed consent to also allow for the treatment of third party wastes – in addition to the treatment of on-site generated wastes – new owner, Fine Industries Ltd had the commercial justification to re-develop and re-commission the waste treatment works, which it has done under the auspices of FES. The FES management team has set about the reinvigoration of the thermal oxidiser waste treatment facility ready for a new phase in its operating life.
Integral to the site planning was the critical stipulation outlined in an independent study, which determined that the majority of the 1980s control equipment at the plant was obsolete and required replacement. After careful analysis, the engineering team took the decision to discard the existing system which could no longer be supported, and instead develop a new distributed control system to oversee the plant’s processes. SIMATIC PCS 7 was the chosen solution, based upon the many operational efficiency benefits it would deliver for FES.
Norman Boden, General Manager at the FES site, said: “When it came to assessing the process control system we wanted to support the launch of FES, we were already fully aware of the capabilities of SIMATIC PCS 7. Our sister company, Fine Organics Ltd, use the system and conscious of the operational benefits it was delivering, this made us confident that the expansion of its specification across other areas of the group would be the right move.”
Siemens Industry, together with Solution Partner QSI, set about working with the FES engineering team to ensure the flexibility offered by SIMATIC PCS 7 would suit its needs. Norman Boden continued: “What we liked about the scalable system was that it is relatively straightforward to re-configure, with the user interface being a prime example. This allows us to work on changes in-house without any difficulty.
We wished to operate the plant with a single member of staff per shift, which was a challenge considering it is a large scale plant spread over five floors. We wanted to run it entirely from a single control room setting and SIMATIC PCS 7 allows us to achieve this. The multiple screens in the control room provide a clear visualisation of what is going on around the plant and though it is early days, we are already operating successfully at two thirds capacity.”
Solution Partner QSI has been heavily involved in the commissioning of the new system for FES. Jeremy Hands, QSI’s Managing Director, is clear about the benefits the company will see from its new control system. He said: “The FES incinerator process control project is the culmination of the long-standing working relationship between all three parties. It clearly demonstrates how, by the use of the standard building blocks within SIMATIC PCS 7, and the high level of integration that the system offers, a tightly integrated solution can be provided involving both standard technology from Siemens and third party equipment.”
A range of Siemens Industry technology solutions are now employed at the FES Seal Sands site, which in addition to SIMATIC PCS 7, also includes ET200iSP Intrinsically Safe Remote I/O, 417 controllers and the Simocode Pro V motor management device.
Norman Boden summed up the advantages he and his team are now seeing thanks to the flexible, scalable and supportable integrated Siemens solution. “Utilising the experience of other group companies, using SIMATIC PCS 7 we have further standardised our technology strategy across the site to drive familiarity for engineers and operators.
We have a highly visible processing site requiring minimal manual intervention. This in turn will lead to reduced costs and improved overall efficiencies; for instance the ability of a single operator to control the entire process. Tangible benefits such as those delivered by the smart motor management system and our ability to easily change what is an extremely flexible system without delay, are just some of the key reasons why I believe the system is delivering the production and commercial advantages we had anticipated when we selected it.”
