Feature Report
A Boundless Future for
Process Control in the CPI
Emerging automation-system architectures will provide the foundation required for
optimized operations across the enterprise
F
Claudio Fayad or decades, when a person men- New needs
Emerson tioned process control, most engi- For years, teams have considered sustain-
neers’ minds went to proportional ability initiatives, energy management and,
integral derivative (PID) loop control, in some cases, even predictive-reliability im-
interlocks, safety and advanced process provements to be burdens at odds with pro-
control. Perhaps even more in the chemical duction. However, these needs are simply
process industries (CPI) than many others, high-level optimization problems, with each
IN BRIEF the ability to manage these aspects of con- requiring teams to look at process control
NEW NEEDS trol, and correctly configure them, has been and operations in a more holistic way.
the key component to improve operations, Much of this struggle stems from the fact
CHANGING NEEDS, NEW
and as such, the main criteria in selecting that, for decades, automation — often be-
ERA
control systems. Users were laser focused cause of rigid design structure — has been
OLD STRATEGIES on designing systems that ran individual implemented plant by plant or unit by unit,
STRUGGLE plants as efficiently as possible, and these leaving a wide variety of systems all oper-
INTEGRATING tools were integral to those efforts. ating independently. Many process plant
OPERATIONS Of course, part of keeping those sys- teams have long since maximized the gains
tems efficient and effective was isolating from such a strategy. But sustainability, en-
UNIFIED SOFTWARE
them from intentional and unintentional in- ergy and reliability initiatives are refocusing
ECOSYSTEM
terference. As a result, engineering teams efforts on optimizing the entire fleet or en-
A SINGLE TECHNOLOGY employed the Purdue model and segrega- terprise to capture previously unnoticed or
STACK tion of systems to ensure the control sys- undervalued synergies.
MULTIPLE DOMAIN tem was isolated in its own layer, and — For a company with multiple plants man-
OPTIMIZATION perhaps most importantly as technologies ufacturing the same product, a focus on
advanced — isolated from the internet. enterprise optimization typically results in
PREPARING FOR THE
At the time, plants were frequently instru- significant gains from balancing production
FUTURE
mented for control only, and that model based on equipment status or green energy
of control worked well for safe, efficient availability. Or, for companies with limited
operation of individual facilities. Engineers personnel, enterprise optimization can make
focused on ensuring instruments could it easier to move people and products from
communicate with PID controllers. Control one site to another, creating consistency
capabilities and optimal human-machine among plants to improve efficiency. But all
interfaces were therefore key criteria for these strategies require the implementation
selecting technologies. of modern and upcoming advanced auto-
Even in the most forward-thinking plants mation technologies.
— those applying advanced process control
strategies and technologies — the control Changing needs, new era
system was still isolated within its own layer Today, the process control landscape is
in the Purdue model. Communication oc- rapidly changing. As shifts in corporate and
curred among different control technologies public opinion have increased focus on re-
in different process units, but that commu- liability, sustainability, energy use and more,
nication was carefully managed and tightly operations teams are rapidly transforming
controlled. Systems worked well and were the way they design, build and operate their
safe, but they were not necessarily pre- fleet of plants. With those changes come
pared for impending changes, particularly a new needs (Figure 1).
connected future of self-optimizing plants, a Increased production now rarely comes
shrinking workforce, and shifting business from simply deploying a new plant to manu-
and public expectations. These and other facture more product, and costs are higher
trends upended process manufacturing and demand is more volatile than ever be-
across the span of only a few years. fore. As a result, companies are much more
32 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM MAY 2023
vices is providing companies with
access to far more data than ever
Digital IT/OT Data
before, but only if they can harness
Cloud Edge AI/ML the data effectively.
Transformation Convergence Democratization
Creating value from data is difficult
Remote & Asset Sustainability
using legacy automation strategies.
Computer Wireless Virtual
Autonomous Optimization Vision Cellular Reality Often, teams are hesitant to connect
Operations intelligent field devices used out-
side process control into the exist-
ing distributed control system (DCS)
because of the cost of the DCS in-
frastructure. To avoid the extra cost,
operations teams instead design
FIGURE 1. New market needs have created an inflection point, along with a corresponding demand for a
new infrastructure to collect and
new automation paradigm move data where they need it, which
in turn increases complexity and cre-
cautious about approving capital ex- software, replicating entire plants to ates new silos.
penditures for new plants across a see how changes to improve reliabil- Creating new infrastructure in-
fleet. Moreover, building a new plant ity, sustainability and energy use will troduces its own set of problems,
requires more people to operate it — cascade across all areas. And when however. Most importantly, when
and experienced people are becom- optimization is complete, those same process data bypasses the control
ing harder to find. digital twins are used to train opera- system, it loses all the critical con-
Instead, today’s successful com- tors on the new processes (Figure 2). textual metadata the control system
panies are focused on optimiz- Typically, these new systems can provide, which is often needed
ing existing assets. But because (and their associated integration to turn raw data into valuable infor-
many plants have been optimizing with business systems) also create mation. Data without context can
their local operations for years, ac- a need for cloud connectivity. But potentially be helpful if it is used im-
complishing a true paradigm shift letting control systems touch the mediately and locally, but over time
in operations requires an expanded internet introduces a wide array of and when aggregated, the data be-
vision. The most successful orga- cybersecurity concerns. In the past, comes less valuable.
nizations are optimizing from an those concerns were alleviated by Moreover, every time the team
enterprise level to drive improve- completely isolating the control sys- creates a new infrastructure for
ments, with more confidence in the tem from the outside world. Today, moving data, they create a new data
strategies their teams implement to however, as cloud connectivity be- silo. Such a data set may be use-
achieve these objectives. comes a need rather than a desire, ful in a single reliability tool or edge
For example, more and more operations teams are flattening the analytics package, but it is typically
teams are identifying a need for ad- Purdue model to simplify and en- not available across the enterprise
vanced analytics to optimize opera- able external connectivity. As they to the other users and cross-func-
tions across their fleets. By leveraging do so, they dramatically increase tional teams that might otherwise
artificial intelligence (AI) and machine their need for more cybersecure, be able to use it.
learning (ML), analytics technologies data-centric solutions. Relying on these legacy strate-
provide guidance for holistic optimi- gies puts operations teams in a no-
zation. Data from a robust suite of Old strategies struggle
sensors, software and control tech- At the heart of making all
nologies enable companies to opti- these new strategies work
mize the business and sustainability are data, and operations
performance of their plants and en- teams are rapidly bringing
terprise through advanced asset and in the technology neces-
business optimization software. sary to gather those data,
Similarly, many teams are finding a add value to it, and make
need to employ powerful simulation it easy to access and use.
software to identify, design and test Input/output (I/O) points
process changes to optimize opera- are expanding, with many
tions. Simulation software empow- plants adding three to ten
ers enterprise teams to use design times the number of I/O
models to identify potential changes points they had only five
and improvements across an organi- or ten years ago, many of FIGURE 2. A digital twin can replicate an entire plant, empower-
zation’s facilities. them inputs from wireless ing operations teams to test and train on new operations strate-
Many teams further improve on the instruments. A vast new gies to improve performance, without the risk or downtime of
using live equipment
gains of simulation with digital twin array of intelligent field de-
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM MAY 2023 33
automation vision or fifteen years ago.
will use technol- As teams begin to build an auto-
ogy across every mation architecture comprehensive
domain — reliabil- of all domains, they will rapidly elimi-
ity, sustainability, nate segmentation. All operational
energy use, qual- domains will be integrated into a
ity and more — to single, cohesive software ecosys-
perform optimiza- tem, with information from intelligent
tion across the en- field devices, edge systems, and the
terprise. Much like cloud all coming together as part of a
enterprise busi- cohesive data model. Essential data
ness solutions, will be democratized — standardized
boundless auto- in format and laden with context —
mation will elimi- for easy collaboration among cross-
nate silos through functional teams. Moreover, that
a scalable, interop- same data will be securely available
erable, and exten- on demand to authorized people
sible unified data across the enterprise, anytime from
model (Figure 3). anywhere in the world.
To accomplish
FIGURE 3. As organizations embrace more automation connectivity across
their enterprise, the isolated architectures of the past are making way for an this vision, innova- A single technology stack
integrated, cohesive boundless automation architecture based on the next tive organizations Modern architectures, technologies
generation control system will shift their op- and protocols — such as Ethernet
win situation. They lose the critical erations strategies to embrace digi- advanced physical layer, 5G commu-
context of their data and create ad- tal transformation technologies that nication, OPC UA, hyperconverged
ditional silos, inhibiting access and expand automation and control to infrastructure, containerization and
making it harder to use data effec- encompass all process automation Kubernetes — are creating a bridge
tively for meaningful optimizations. needs. They will begin implementing between operational technology (OT)
And while teams can layer edge solu- next-generation DCS technologies and information technology (IT), en-
tions over siloed architectures to help that have evolved to become enter- abling easier connectivity and more
move data where it is needed, those prise automation platforms, without data flow.
types of solutions do not address the giving up on core process control. For example, smart sensors can
core problem of creating a truly con- Control will still be a strong core perform more tasks right at the asset
nected system to seamlessly move competency, but it will be one of the and pass large amounts of data di-
data sets where teams need them functions manipulating and modify- rectly to process control, and send
without losing any context. ing contextualized field data. data to reliability and analytics soft-
To meet those more holistic needs, While much of this boundless au- ware hosted at the edge or in the
today’s forward-thinking automa- tomation future is focused on ad- cloud. Not only do these new tech-
tion providers are breaking down the vancements beyond the horizon, nologies improve visibility and deci-
boundaries around automation tech- the building blocks are visible today, sion making at the enterprise level,
nologies by expanding the next-gen- and they provide a roadmap to help they also assist operations teams in
eration control system to incorporate organizations prepare for the brave their efforts to improve operations.
all essential operational domains. new world of automation that is rap- Teams will be able to use new, criti-
idly approaching. cal information from the field to make
Integrating operations better decisions and continuously
To truly get the most benefit from Unified software ecosystem improve efficiency.
automation, organizations need an New technologies and applications
architecture that will seamlessly in- combined with market needs — in- Miltiple domain optimization
tegrate the software, tools, technol- cluding “born digital” companies, While most modern plants can op-
ogies, data and controls of a next- decentralized operating models, timize their own operations domain
generation automation stack across and the move toward self-optimized by domain, boundless automation
every operational domain, from the plants — have created demand for architecture creates a framework for
field to the edge to the cloud. Driv- a new automation paradigm where tensioning multiple domains against
ing this type of holistic optimization, a unified software environment each other simultaneously to deliver
necessary to compete in a global streams data across the enterprise enterprise-wide optimization. A uni-
market, will require more than com- effortlessly, when and where it’s fied software platform combined with
plex independent edge architec- needed. Today’s operators expect next-generation automation systems
tures to collect, standardize and intuitive, integrated software plat- will help organizations continue to
democratize data. forms, much like the solutions that digitally transform their operations
Innovators leveraging a boundless revolutionized business software ten through an intuitive ecosystem of
34 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM MAY 2023
seamlessly interconnected technologies from the intel-
ligent field across the edge and into the cloud. Every
piece of operations-relevant data will flow securely from
any operations domain to all relevant OT functions in
the ecosystem.
Cross-functional teams from all levels of the organiza-
tion will be able to instantly access that democratized
and contextualized data. When needed, these data can Waste Heat Boiler
Services
be fed to artificial intelligence and machine learning sys-
tems, simulations and digital twins, reliability and energy
monitoring, and other solutions hosted on premises or
in the cloud. Using this deep well of critical data, teams
will be able to develop the control strategies necessary
to ensure peak performance, drive more sustainable
operation, lower energy use, and begin the move to-
ward autonomous operation.
Preparing for the future
Today’s automation technologies are purpose-built for
improved performance, but often leave out domains
critical to modern, efficient, fully optimized operation. In
most cases, this disconnect happens because data in
those domains are stranded, or accessible only through
custom overlay architectures built at the edge. But the
newest automation technologies on the market today,
as well as those coming in the years ahead, will change
that paradigm.
Operators want comprehensive, unified solutions
•Thermal Analysis•
that deliver consistency and ease of use, and forward-
thinking automation providers are modernizing control
•Engineering & Design•
systems to meet that need. Tomorrow’s automation •Inspection•
architecture will dramatically expand to encompass all
domains, providing highly contextualized data that are
standardized for use by any authorized person or sys-
tem, anywhere and at any time.
As more companies modernize their automation
systems to deliver the flexibility, standardization, and
visibility necessary to meet a future more focused on
malleable, sustainable operation, they are changing
the criteria by which they evaluate the technologies
that will carry them into the future. Efficient, effective
control is no longer enough. Fully optimized operation
across the enterprise will require an automation vision
for industrial architecture that integrates all of opera-
tions, using next-generation tools to make the most of
data. n
Edited by Gerald Ondrey
Acknowledgment
All figures courtesy of Emerson
Author
Claudio Fayad serves as vice president of technology of Em-
erson’s Process Systems and Solutions business (1100 W.
Louis Henna Blvd., Round Rock, TX 78681-7430; Phone:
512-835-2190; Email: pss.marcom@emerson.com). Prior to
this role, Claudio held a variety of positions within Emerson,
from sales and marketing director to vice president of soft-
ware. He joined Emerson as director of Process Systems and
Solutions in May of 2006, based in Brazil. Claudio holds a
www.hrstinc.com
bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Universidade Es-
tadual de Campinas and a master’s degree in business ad-
ministration from Northwestern University.
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