Plant Construction, Engineering & Components
New flexible safety system
Smooth upgrading of process plants
Hima Paul Hildebrandt, provider of smart safety solutions for industrial applications, has brought a new programmable safety system onto the market. The flexible and scalable Hi-Quad X is a further development of the Hi-Quad, which has been securing over ten thousand applications worldwide for around 30 years. It fits seamlessly into Hima’s Smart Safety Platform.
The Hi-Quad X is not just a flexible, efficient safety system; it is also an important component in Hima’s new, technically coherent Smart Safety Platform, which unifies all safety systems of the company. Hardware and software are closely aligned. Plant operators thus receive a scalable solution which they can use to cover the complete safety and security requirements for small single applications right through to complex architectures of large-scale plants in line with requirements.
The Smart Safety Platform is based on the use of basic components which are identical for all Hima product families, including operating system, engineering tool and communication via Safe Ethernet. The fact that platform components can be combined freely means that virtually every customer solution can be developed and implemented. The holistic approach enables companies to use a solution from one source, thereby reducing the complexity of their plants considerably.
New performance dimensions, flexible system architecture and integrated intrinsic safety
With the implementation of the proven platform technology, the Hi-Quad X reaches a new performance dimension. Users thus benefit from a reduced system cycle and reaction time, particularly for floating point calculations. The increased diagnostic capability, which permits quicker defect tracking during maintenance work, provides additional benefits. On the one hand the more flexible system architecture enables the timely use of redundant modules right through to complete redundancy. On the other hand retrospective adaptations to the system for application programs, hardware and communication can be undertaken – even during operation.
The Hi-Quad X system also enables the use of SIL3 modules with integrated intrinsic safety (Ex protection). Users no longer need a separate isolation amplifier for their intrinsically safe SIL circuits. The benefits of the diagnostics provided can therefore be utilized up to the field device without any losses. Other benefits include the simplification of planning, documentation and furnishing proof of the intrinsic safety. The fact that flawed plant outages due to defective isolation amplifiers are no longer an issue is another huge bonus. This is made possible by the redundant connection options which always permit the exchange of defective system components during operation.
The Hi-Quad X system can of course be connected with every basic process control system (BPCS), even on a redundant pathway. It then continues to run independently even if an error occurs in the BPCS or in the communication. The security mechanisms which are installed assist with this process. They create a virtual and also a physical separation when standard protocols are used.
Hima customers who already use Hi-Quad systems benefit from the upgrade to Hi-Quad X with short plant outages and considerably reduced costs when compared to new installations. The I/O modules including field wiring can continue to be used. This enables users to make savings in terms of investment and costs for testing and documentation.
Food & Beverage Measurement, Instrumentation, Control & Automation Plant Construction, Engineering & Components Videos
Cool-Fit 2.0
Efficient cooling
As a contribution to the worldwide initiative to reduce CO2 emissions and environmental impact, GF Piping Systems brings a revolution to efficient cooling. The efficiency of a cooling plant is defined by the system’s Coefficient of Performance (COP), the heat transfer rate at the air cooler and the efficiency of the chilled water piping system.
Food & Beverage Measurement, Instrumentation, Control & Automation Plant Construction, Engineering & Components Videos
At Viresol
Industrial Centrifuges for Wheat Starch Extraction
Tricanters, Decanters and Sedicanters optimize Viresol’s process in wheat processing.
One of Viresol’s main concerns was to reduce the company’s ecological footprint. Above all, it was about using less energy and water. Flottweg supplies the right overall package for this: two Tricanters, four decanters, two Sedicanters and the right equipment. These include dough mixers, curved sieves, pipes and the static design of the hall. This enables various products such as starch, gluten, maltodextrin, feed and ethanol to be produced in an energy-efficient manner. Flottweg industrial centrifuges also reduced water consumption.
Biotechnology Plant Construction, Engineering & Components
Regenerative storage power plant
ETW Energietechnik expands biogas plant
In Wehrbleck in Lower Saxony, the company ETW Energietechnik from Moers expanded an agricultural biogas plant into a regenerative storage power plant in 2019. The CHP experts were supported by the planning company Energethik from Osnabrück. In addition to the new Flex CHP with the TCG 2020 V20 biogas engine from MWM with 2 megawatts, electric and 2.3 megawatts, thermally, ETW also installed a combined gas storage tank with 8,490 and a heat storage tank with 1,000 cubic metres. The total investment amounts to 1.6 million euros.
Since 2001, farmer Andreas Rohlfs has been operating a biogas plant with an area of around 235 hectares. Based on the input materials maize, dung and liquid manure, the operator generated around 5.4 million kilowatt hours of electrical energy and 4.1 million kilowatt hours of thermal energy before the expansion. Since its expansion into a storage power plant, the plant now produces 5.7 million kilowatt hours of electrical energy and almost 5.8 million kilowatt hours of heat per year. The electricity is fed into the grid; the waste heat is fed into a district heating network for heating private and municipal buildings and is used to dry wood chips. Part of the heat is diverted to keep the engine warm when it is not running. This allows the direct marketer to quickly restart the engine if necessary and immediately access the full output of the CHP.
In addition to the increase in output, the plant now operates flexibly. In return, Rohlfs will earn an additional flexibility surcharge of 40 euros per kilowatt over the next five years. Afterwards, the farmer can optionally apply for a further ten-year EEG payment by means of a tender. His main advantage: thanks to the Flex CHP, his plant is now operated in such a way that electricity and heat can always be fed in at the most productive time of day. For this purpose, the biogas plant is controlled by a direct marketer in such a way that the storage tanks are always optimally filled when prices are at their highest and that the largest possible quantities of electricity and heat are available for this purpose.
The plant is powered by desulphurised biogas. For this purpose, the sulphur content is conditioned down from around 5,000 parts per million (ppm) to around 2 ppm. A safety alarm with integrated stop of the gas supply to the storage protects the CHP at a sulphur content above 2 ppm. This is particularly necessary because the sulphur content can rise faster in flex operation. After the preventive shutdown, operation of the engine is maintained with the gas from the storage tank.
„In order to be prepared for future NOx limits, ETW has already reserved the necessary space on the CHP container for an SCR catalytic converter. The plans also take into account a reserve for exhaust back pressure,“ explains Alexander Szabo, the responsible sales manager at ETW Energietechnik.
The variation of the substrate quantities also contributes to the flexibility of the CHP operation. This makes it possible to reduce biogas production at low electricity prices so that the CHP unit can be shut down for up to two days if necessary without overloading the gas storage tank. The heat storage tank can store 40,600 kilowatt hours of thermal energy and thus supply the heating network for around 50 hours without the CHP unit having to be put into operation. The bottom line is that the CO2 savings achieved by the regenerative storage power plant in electricity production can be estimated at 2,683 tonnes per year and in heat production, including process heat, at around 1,300 tonnes.