Mesh network-based system slated for Middle East fertilizer project

By Control Engineering Staff April 4, 2006

Foxboro, MA —A mesh network-based automation system from Invensys Foxboro will become part of a major fertilizer project in Oman, thanks to joint efforts by Invensys Asia Pacific and Invensys Middle East. The project, promoted by the Suhail Bahwan Group, is currently under construction at Sohar, a $638 million (U.S.) fertilizer project of Sohar International Urea & Chemical Industries SAOC (SIUCI).

The effort includes a 2,000 metric tons per day (mtpd) ammonia plant, 3,500-mtpd urea synthesis and granulation plant, and related utilities and offsite facilities. Being built under an EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) contract by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan, it is reportedly one of the world’s largest private sector greenfield fertilizer projects.

Terms of the contract call for a Foxboro I/A Series Version 8 process control system that uses advanced commercial communication technologies in robust industrial configurations. It is to give Sohar Fertiliser a high-availability, self-healing mesh process control network backbone capable of connecting thousands of stations.

The process control system will be integrated with a Triconex Tricon emergency shutdown system. It includes a fault tolerant controller based on a triple-modular redundant (TMR) architecture. TPR integrates three isolated, parallel control systems and diagnostics in one system. Two-out-of-three voting is said to provide high-integrity, error-free, uninterrupted process operation with no single point of failure.

—Control Engineering Daily News DeskJeanine Katzel, senior editor, jkatzel@reedbusiness.com