From cod-liver oil to DNA with PlantWeb at Maritex
User friendliness and the capability to handle fast changes
were central criteria, when Maritex selected PlantWeb digital plant architecture
to automate its process equipment.
 Maritex
was established 1994 beyond the Artic Circle at Sortland in Vesterålen,
Norway, by parent company Aarhus Olie AS, Denmark, to get access to fresh
raw materials in the North Norwegian fish realm. At the factory, fresh
raw material, consisting of fish internal organs, are processed into marine
oils. The oils are then used as ingredients in health foods. One example
is Omega-3 margarine. In addition, advanced products are extracted, like
DNA salts from cod milt, enzymes from cod stomach, and peptone, which
is one of the building blocks in proteins. Research to establish new products
is ongoing, so the production process must be flexible to adjust to these
continuous changes.
Maritex chose the PlantWeb field-based architecture to control a new process,
which included an evaporator. The solution included the DeltaV digital
automation system, which uses FOUNDATION fieldbus
to communicate with Micro Motion coriolis mass flow meters, and Rosemount
pressure-, temperature- and pH-transmitters. In addition, existing field
equipment, based on traditional 4-20 mA technology, was connected to the
DeltaV system.
Fast adaption to changes important
"We found the solution very user-friendly and have in fact been able to
do the configuration of the second evaporator ourselves," said Maritex
Plant Manager Viktor Johnsen. "This attests to the system's ease of use,
while handling everything from monitoring the tank farm to advanced processes
control, which was the impression I got the first time I saw the system
at our parent company Aarhus Olie. Continuous changes are taking place
in our process equipment and for that reason it is important that we can
quickly adapt the automation system to them. Our experience so far has
also shown that the production has become smoother. Now we are able to
document our production better, based on the features built into DeltaV."
Johnsen continued, "In the long run, DeltaV will take over the control
of all our existing process equipment, and we will continue to use PlantWeb
with FOUNDATION fieldbus technology where ever we
can. We are presently installing a new alcohol-based process module, which
will use fieldbus. There are so many possibilities with this new technology,
that we want our employees to learn as much as possible about it through
training courses, with the goal of mastering this important tool as well
as possible."
Proven solutions
It's easy to understand how there could be skeptics to using new technology
based on FOUNDATION fieldbus in a plant located so far away from the supplier,
and with few engineers working with traditional automation in the neighboring
area. Maritex did not even have its own electro- or automation department.
"The long distances have not been any problem," says Erik Skov, Emerson
Process Management Denmark, who together with Aarhus Olie, configured
the first evaporator. Using PCAnyWhere, I have been able to do remote
configuration modifications, of the DeltaV system on-line. Furthermore
the integrated program for Asset Management Control, AMS Inside, was very
beneficial during commissioning, when we got error messages from the field-based
multivariable 3244 temperature transmitter. The diagnostic screens showed
that the transmitter had been set up with the wrong sensor input. By changing
the configuration from 1 pc 4-wire, to 2 pcs 3-wire pt-100 elements, we
eliminated the error. The PlantWeb solution has now been well proven,
with more than 1000 systems delivered world wide, and with more than 8
million operational hours so far."
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