Shanghai SECCO Petrochemicals selects Emerson for $30 million automation project

China petrochemical facility selects PlantWeb for world's largest installation of fieldbus digital technology

Shanghai SECCO Petrochemicals Company has awarded a $30 million project to Emerson Process Management, to serve as the main instrument vendor for what is expected to be the world's most highly optimized petrochemical facility. SECCO is a US$2.7 billion joint venture between BP, Sinopec, and Shanghai Petrochemical Corporation (SPC).

Emerson will integrate its PlantWeb digital architecture, Asset Optimization technologies, and services for the new 10-plant facility, which will produce 2.3 million metric tons of chemical products annually. The SECCO site, located in Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park, will be the world's largest installation of FOUNDATION fieldbus technology. PlantWeb will provide the platform for collecting, analyzing, and sharing operations and diagnostics information to the 750 operations, engineering, and maintenance personnel manning the SECCO site.

When operational in 2005, more than 23,000 FOUNDATION fieldbus devices and 10 DeltaV digital automation systems within the PlantWeb architecture will control the naphtha-fed ethylene cracker and nine downstream derivative plants.

"PlantWeb is our best choice"

"Our site is being constructed using the most advanced chemical production technologies available. It will be the most highly optimized petrochemical facility in the world," said SECCO Project Director Zhang Zhi Liang. "For SECCO to meet that objective, we needed to select an equally advanced process control system architecture. We have chosen Emerson and we believe that Emerson's PlantWeb is our best choice."

Emerson will arm each of the 10 plants with a DeltaV digital automation system that collectively will manage over 80,000 I/O points and communicate with over 23,000 FOUNDATION fieldbus devices, including Rosemount and Micro Motion transmitters, and FIELDVUE digital valve controllers. AMS predictive maintenance software integrated within the DeltaV system will enable SECCO to maximize up-time and plant performance, utilizing a rich array of device diagnostics and software applications enabled by the intelligence of Emerson's field instrumentation.

"Emerson was also selected for their strong presence in China and local capability to fully support a project of this magnitude. Emerson will provide engineering, integration, and project management leadership for this project from their Pudong (Shanghai) facility," SECCO Project Director Jack Brinly said.

Emerson technology leadership in China

Emerson is a recognized leader in the China process automation market with over $150 million in sales and over 700 employees in total. The Emerson Pudong facility serves as a major operations center for Emerson in China with over 200 employees and complements several other manufacturing, engineering, and sales facilities throughout the country.

"To build a truly world class operation, we will be taking advantage of every technology Emerson has to offer," said SECCO Operations Director Paul Bowdler. "Using our DeltaV systems, we will be able to give appropriate SECCO personnel access to device, equipment, and process health information, no matter where they are physically located on the site. This capability helps ensure SECCO can engage the right people in the minimum amount of time, thus helping to ensure plant activities are optimized to support operational excellence."

Emerson will manage instrumentation, control, and safety system responsibilities, including design and engineering, training, commissioning, and startup. Emerson will also work closely with the engineering and procurement firms serving SECCO on this project to ensure common standards and approaches are successfully deployed across the site and work to minimize start-up time and maintain project timing.

SECCO values the expertise Emerson is bringing to the site and intends to form a long-term relationship to provide continued support after the start-up of the plant. Expected duties include ongoing control strategy improvement, control loop analysis and problem resolution, on-going training, periodic product revisions and upgrades, and spare parts management.

"We are honored by SECCO's choice of Emerson and look forward to applying our total solutions capability to help them reach their goal of world-class production capability," said John Berra, president, Emerson Process Management. "SECCO's foresight in selecting PlantWeb and FOUNDATION fieldbus technologies for a world-class project of this size will give SECCO a competitive advantage for many years to come. SECCO will also benefit from the evolution of our product and services offering. Emerson looks forward to a long-term partnership supporting SECCO."

About Shanghai SECCO Petrochemicals

Shanghai SECCO Petrochemicals Company Ltd. (SECCO) is a US$2.7 billion joint venture between BP, Sinopec, and Shanghai Petrochemical Corporation (SPC) with equity holdings of 50:30:20 percent respectively. The SECCO complex is being built in Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park, about 50 kilometers from Shanghai, China. The complex is expected to be mechanically complete in 2004 and operational in 2005.

The main downstream and derivative plants are planned to produce ethylene (900,000 MTY), polyethylene (600,000 MTY), polypropylene (250,000 MTY), styrene (500,000 MTY), polystyrene (300,000 MTY), acrylontirile (260,000 MTY), aromatics (200,000 MTY), and butadiene (90,000 MTY).

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