Process Plant Automation – what is the future direction?

Dave Green 30/12/2025

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Last week I was delighted to continue my engagement with University students. I’ve been more engaged with students at the Liverpool John Moores University and The Manchester University in my capacity as Local Section Chair for the Institute of Measurement and Control in the Central Northwest (NW England and North Wales) – a role that ended in October 2025. The sessions are aimed at demonstrating to students that their studies in Automation, Mechatronics, Instrumentation, Control or Electrical Engineering brings many industries into their sphere for careers. My committee colleagues asked how it went, with my normal reply of there seemed to be some interest but you can never tell as everyone was so quiet.

Welcome my delight when a comment on the LinkedIn post sharing this session:

‘My daughter xxxx is a first-year Mechatronics & Autonomous Systems student in LJMU who attended the session, and she found it truly inspiring. She came away with a much clearer view of how her skills can be used in industry and is now eager to get involved with InstMC. Thank you for supporting young engineers and helping them see their future path.’

One of my messages to the students was my belief that jobs are not lost to increased automation, but the jobs will change. I’ve seen this in the past in my career across industry before moving into consultancy.

The history

I remember my time in Technical Training Enterprises Limited (TTE – Ellesmere Port) being sponsored by ICI Chemicals & Polymers. The training had to cover all control systems that we would come across on site when we left the training environment and headed onto site. I remember with fondness the different devices and control systems that I learnt to work on.

Pneumatic systems, good old flappers and nozzles
4-20mA control loops with panel mounted controllers
Programmable Logic Controllers
Very early Distributed Control Systems

The control rooms had many operators with clipboards taking readings from panel indicators, making sure that all of the parameters whereas they should be. In the late 1990’s I was privileged to become one of the founding members of the Halochemicals Computer Control Team (HCCT) at Runcorn Site (ICI) with Steve Sinnott and Caroline Gledhill. The company had entered into an automation alliance with Emerson deploying the DeltaV system (a system very much in it’s infancy. Remembering deploying the system at v2.x whilst having demonstrations on v1.x). The system is now on version 15!

Why mention this?

Well, this was the start of the information revolution for the business, new systems challenging connectivity (see my column on Cyber Security in the previous edition). We connected the new systems with an information management system. This meant that more support could be offered remotely in addition to those clip boards. Working with some very clever colleagues, namely Mike Tyrell and Phil Masding.

Data emails (daily reports, abnormal event reports to help diagnose problems)
Data transfer into mass balance / utility usage reports
Online tools (control optimisation calculators, smart data review)

The deployment of these new systems also opened up more control techniques:

Sequential controls
Fuzzy Logic
Logic based control (e.g. Alarm shelving when equipment is off-line, better handling of signal errors etc)

The present

The items I mention in the history as new fan dangled is commonplace. Some of the features that we developed within the early deployment of the systems now come with the systems ‘out-of-the-box’.

Being involved in the InstMC I’m exposed with companies providing technical talks on what they are doing to improve things further. Also is my consultancy work I see so much progress.

Digital Twins of facilities (the modern-day test system to try changes out)
3D plant models so you can see how the space will look for operating and maintenance of the facility (as well as understanding if standards have been implemented correct e.g. machinery guards).
Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) providing much more information from smart sensors in facilities.
Additional information from smart devices to prove correct operation (e.g. valve closure time and seat tightness in safety proof testing).

There are far less comments of ‘It’s the chemistry’ when trying to understand issues within the plant. I do remember installing squirrel chart recorders trying to get data on a quicker scan time so we can see if the slower scanning is missing something.

The manning in control rooms has also changed, many fewer people with clipboards. More people supporting systems and analysing the data. Training on instrumentation includes the advances in the technology too.

The future

Well one thing that I can say is that the industry is most definitely an exciting place at the moment. Companies are developing products at a very fast rate of knots… they have to consider many different aspects:

Technologies of measuring the parameters (flow, temperature, analysis etc)
Communications
Onboard diagnostics / calculations
IIoT

Then there are the impeding movements of technology, which are very much in their infancy:

Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Augmented and Virtually Reality

Maybe the vision of my Engineering Manager in 2005 will become a reality.. gone are the days of DCS screens and in are the days of smart glasses with the screens in the glasses!

I can see many companies developing Digital Twins of their facilities to develop new products, optimise existing operations and investigate incidents when things go wrong without the need for expensive recreations / hardware.

Closing remarks…..

The Automation sector is undergoing a new technical revolution, moving at a really fast pace. The presentation to the university students reminded me of my previous research of where automation can be used, from the traditional process sector, through fast moving consumer goods (warehousing included), pet food production, automation, medical devices, transport networks, energy and many more.

The technology that I saw when I was studying for my Mechatronics degree is now old hat and the new systems are very much advanced from what was envisaged back in those days. The technology of 20 years time is likely to be completely different to now, who knows maybe AI might have come and gone onto something else by then..

One thing is for sure.. those studying now will have a bright future in the automation career. One thing that I’m hoping won’t come along is self-driving vehicles on the open road. I’ve seen autonomous vehicles in factory locations and they are amazing for their roles, but these have dedicated routes, speeds and tasks. The thought of being able to roam anywhere now that seems a bridge too far!