Honeywell releases comprehensive energy management platform

Honeywell Energy Management Solutions Portfolio integrates many existing and new control software tools to track and evaluate energy consumption in process industry plants. Honeywell hardware, software, and services will help improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in industrial plant and facilities.

By Peter Welander, process industries editor June 19, 2009

Phoenix, AZ – Honeywell has announced its Energy Management Solutions, a customizable portfolio of new and existing hardware, software, and services to help improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The solution is offered through Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) and is targeted at a wide range of energy-intensive process manufacturing facilities, beginning with refining and petrochemical production. It builds on the experience of Honeywell’s UOP subsidiary in these industries. Early deployments also include pulp & paper and chemical plants.

“UOP has extensive capabilities in refining and petrochemical industries,” says Brendan Sheehan, senior marketing manager for Honeywell Process Solutions. “They’ve been a long-time provider into those industries, and offer a number of things specifically focused on energy improvement.”

The portfolio features the new Energy Dashboard, which the company says can gather information from various instruments and systems and tracks their energy consumption against dynamic energy targets. Capturing and analyzing this data allows users to understand key energy indicators and how they affect overall energy consumption . The Energy Dashboard, expected to be commercially available in the fourth quarter 2009, enables users to establish specific goals for reducing energy consumption, costs, and the associated GHG emissions, as well as to measure actual performance against those goals.

One of the tools the dashboard offers is a deviation analysis function that allows a company to measure energy performance for very specific elements of a process or unit. (See graphic, above.) It is capable of indicating the level of severity and duration of any excursion outside of desired parameters. “Over time you can look at a key energy indicator and see the most common causes for deviation from target for that particular energy indicator,” Sheehan adds. “If we think about fuel energy on a particular unit we might see that the most common cause for deviation is excess air in the furnace. If you track that deviation over time, you can find out the fundamental things that are really holding you back in terms of energy performance, which can lead you to improvement projects.”

The dashboard can identify the areas that are deviating most from target values. “Those are the ones you focus on initially,” Sheehan advises. “We all think about the limited time that we have when we’re working on a plant, so we want to put our time and effort on the places that have the most impact.”

Once energy saving potential has been identified , the Energy Management Solutions portfolio provides customizable hardware, software, and services to improve performance, including enhancements to measurement and monitoring, control and optimization, heat recovery, feedstock optimization, advanced process technology, utilities optimization and services to sustain and even improve results over time. Turning more data into usable knowledge is one of six major areas of change in the next 10 years, Honeywell says .

“Many process manufacturing facilities have grown over time in ways that obscure the connections between operations and energy consumption,” says Harry Forbes, analyst with ARC Advisory Group for manufacturing, energy, and supply chain solutions. “These facilities must have strategies in place to identify and execute energy improvements if they are to ensure profitability and appropriately manage emissions. Through Energy Management Solutions, Honeywell is providing a sound framework for helping manufacturers define and manage these strategies.”

Energy Management Solutions can be implemented in stages starting with smaller-scale, quick return-on-investment projects, and moving to more comprehensive, higher-value projects. Honeywell has deep expertise in process technology, process control and energy efficiency along with solid methodologies, best practices and work processes to assure that the value from energy efficiency projects is achieved and maintained.

“The combination of volatile energy prices and increasingly stringent regulations have made energy efficiency one of the biggest issues the process industries have faced in decades,” said Harsh Chitale, vice president of global marketing and strategy for Honeywell Process Solutions. “For example, energy costs typically represent 50-60% of non-feedstock refinery operating costs and about 25-40% of pulp and paper manufacturing costs.”

Sheehan adds, “Improving energy efficiency is a very effective way of reducing your operating costs for cash-strapped industries, and also reducing your CO 2 emissions as we face increased environmental regulations. Honeywell can provide a scope that is complete from start of study, to implementation of process and automation solutions, and sustaining them over time.”

– Peter Welander, process industries editor, Control Engineering , www.controleng.com