Upgrade adds 15 years to system at BASF plant

Staff -- Control Engineering, 9/1/2006

BASF has launched a renovation of its Ludwigshafen, Germany, acetylene plant designed to extend the life of its 16-year-old Foxboro I/A system at least another 15 years. Invensys Process Systems is upgrading the automation system in BASF's sprawling petrochemicals complex, which produces more than 12 million tons per year of products such as plastics, chemicals, fertilizers, and fibers. To maintain critical production within the facility, which at more than 1,730 acres is the largest industrial complex in Europe, implementation will occur while the plant is running.

Invensys has already helped BASF extend the plant's eight Nodebus-based I/A series process control networks using high-speed, switched Ethernet technology. Existing I/A series application processors and workstations have also been upgraded with more powerful and current I/A series hardware. These reside on the new, switched Ethernet backbone. The system, introduced in 1987, “makes it relatively easy and cost-effective for our customers to upgrade,” says Betty Naylor-McDevitt, director of Foxboro systems marketing at Invensys Process Systems. www.basf.com, www.invensys.com