Lanxess selects Hima for ESD system upgrades

Lanxess hexane oxidation plant will use Hima HiQuad safety controller to upgrade emergency shut down system. 

By Peter Welander August 29, 2009

Lanxess AG will use Hima’s HiQuad H51 safety controller as part of a larger emergency shut down (ESD) system upgrade at its hexane oxidation plant located at the Krefeld-Uerdingen plant in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany. Lanxess is a specialty chemical manufacturer, and manufactures Ka oil in the Krefeld-Uerdingen plant. This product is used in thermoplastic production, and is a mixture of cyclohexanone and cyclohexanol, produced by the oxidation of cyclohexane. The production process poses high environmental risks, so the ESD system plays a major role monitoring limit values and control valves, prepared to deactivate the reaction in the event of danger.

Hima’s safety system was first installed in the Krefeld-Uerdingen plant in 1999 and the company reports it has built a fault-free track record ever since. The system upgrade involves adding two new module racks and I/Os, extending communication with the process control system, and incorporating new central modules with larger memories. The Elop II engineering tool was upgraded using Ethernet to connect to the engineering PC. The link with the Siemens control system uses Profibus DP. The new ESD system, which includes an H51q safety controller with nine IOMRs (input/output module racks), is housed in two switchgear cabinets, and it uses 936 input and output signals.

Hima counts Lanxess one if its repeat customers with installations in many plants. "LANXESS currently uses Hima’s Planar F, HiQuad, and HiMatrix systems in its plants all over the world," said Holger Pross, Hima’s global account manager for Lanxess.

Before commissioning the project, Lanxess decided to conduct a factory acceptance test using the expanded and modernized safety system. Together with Hima’s project team in Brühl, the entire system was replicated and all the functions were tested in collaboration with Lanxess and TÜV Süd Chemieservice . This enabled the commissioning time to be reduced significantly.

-Edited by Peter Welander, process industries editor, PWelander@cfemedia.com
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