Refinery and petrochemical company named Plant of the Year

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical Limited (MRPL), located in Mangalore, India, has been named the FieldComm Group 2018 Plant of the Year, which is the first time a process facility from India has received the award.

By FieldComm Group September 6, 2018

FieldComm Group announced that Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical Limited (MRPL), located in Mangalore, India, has been named the FieldComm Group 2018 Plant of the Year. This annual award is presented by FieldComm Group to recognize the people, companies and plant sites around the globe that are using Foundation Fieldbus, HART, and WirelessHART technology in real-time applications for improved operations, maintenance and asset productivity. This is the first time ever that a process facility located in India has been awarded this award.

The company’s culture of improvement has been an integral part of MRPL and close coordination between the many disciplines. This has enabled them to be industry leaders in utilizing the information provided by smart devices, which has led them to be selected as the 2018 Plant of the Year.

"In terms of maintenance, FF and HART provided on our instruments, valves and positioners provide an average savings of 55 man days per month," said B. Sudarshan, chief general manager of instrumentation & electrical at MRPL.

In addition to hard cost savings in infrastructure and maintenance time, MRPL continues to receive savings in averted shutdowns and interruptions. In one instance where an unexpected shutdown would have occurred due to valve fault, valve positioner diagnostics identified an issue that allowed MRPL to avoid shutting down hydrogen generation—saving $60,000 in startup and shutdown costs associated with fuel and energy loss.

Speaking on the importance of open standards and device integration, Ted Masters, president & CEO of FieldComm Group, said, "End users will continue to use multiple communication protocols in their facilities to optimally address process automation use cases. The most adept users will also take advantage of smart data and the tremendous cost savings enabled through its’ use. MRPL is a great example of using smart data and we are grateful that they applied for and won this year’s FieldComm Group Plant of the Year Award."

FieldComm Group

www.fieldcommgroup.org 

– Edited from a FieldComm Group press release by CFE Media. See more Control Engineering process manufacturing stories.