StatoilHydro found the self-organizing wireless technology significantly improves the performance of its production facilities.
Bob Karschnia, Emerson Process Management
The reasons for wireless are clear: Broad range of applications can deliver compelling benefits, and open-standard approaches are expanding supplier participation and the range of functionality available to end users. Various sources estimate the demand for wireless technology in industrial process automation to exceed $1 billion by 2012 or earlier. Following more than three years of field trials, Emerson Process Management began shipment of its SMART Wireless products for automation monitoring and control applications in late 2006.
SMART WIRELESS NETWORKS
The self-organizing field network technology delivers data at greater than 99% network reliability, and installed costs are much lower than a wired equivalent. Field network solutions combine gateways with wireless-enabled transmitters and predictive maintenance software, all seamlessly integrated with automation systems or with legacy hosts. Remote Operations Controllers extend the self-organizing wireless networks for use in remote production and distribution facilities.
Wireless network applications can improve the monitoring of:
- Utility usage
- Safety relief valve emissions
- Rotating equipment usage
- Safety shower usage
- Fire, gas and smoke
- Spills and leaks
- Heat exchanges and filters
- Ground faults
- Status of on-off valves
- Corrosion in equipment and piping.
Applying wireless network technology to the facility monitoring process eliminates “clipboard rounds” to collect data; workers can then use desktop applications to perform tasks -including viewing and responding to alarms-from remote locations. Diagnostics in HART devices can also improve asset and personnel management, thereby ensuring authorized facility access. Wireless video surveillance can also improve safety and security inside facilities. Intelligent security monitoring can also be improved by access restriction using RFID badges.
The combined wireless field network and plant communications platform supports current and future applications that help enable faster and more effective business management.
TRANSFORMATION FROM WIRED TO WIRELESS
Beyond cost savings, the potential for wireless focuses on quickly adding a transmitter for a difficult-to-reach process parameter, or on the ease with which a new measurement point can be added to a current installation. But wireless, like Foundation Fieldbus before it, also promises to reduce the cost of routine instrumentation tasks significantly-and ultimately has the potential to revolutionize control system strategies. Whether retrofitting a current system or designing a greenfield project from scratch, wireless now gives system designers out-of-the-box access to multiple instrument variables and a wealth of onboard diagnostics.
The wireless technology solutions provide for a large and expanding list of applications, including monitoring open-loop control and supervisory closed-loop control, with a focus on measurements previously impossible to cost-justify, thereby improving safety, reliability, efficiency and environmental compliance.
Wireless networks connect remote facilities that are impossible or economically not justified for wired monitoring. Easy installation of wireless sensors in a self-organizing mesh approach provides the distance, as well as the ability, to automatically circumvent obstacles, weather or other hazards.
WIRELESS SOLUTIONS IMPROVE WELLHEAD AND HEAT EXCHANGER MONITORING OFFSHORE
Wireless self-organizing mesh field networks now monitor wellhead annular pressure and heat exchanger pressures on the Grane offshore platform. The Grane platform is operated by StatoilHydro and is stationed offshore Bergen, Norway. The self-organizing wireless mesh technology is ideally suited to the application of wireless technology, enabling remote monitoring and control in difficult-to-reach areas.
“We had some concerns that this new technology would work reliably in the harsh environment of our offshore platform,” said Geir Leon Vadheim, instrument lead for Grane operations at StatoilHydro. “We also needed to address the issue of how we would integrate the data gathered by the wireless gateway into a third-party system. As it turns out, the integration was easy, and the performance of the Smart Wireless transmitters has exceeded our expectations.”
The wellhead area is crowded with metal pipework and metal walkways above and below, together with other metal obstructions. Despite the challenging environment, as each transmitter was powered up, the devices found the gateway and the mesh was established, Fig. 1. As new devices were added, they quickly and easily joined the mesh. Signal strength and consistency during the operational period has been excellent.
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Fig. 1. Wireless pressure transmitters are mounted on a wellhead to measure annular pressure.
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The wireless network enables continuous monitoring of pressures and eliminates the need for daily visits to the wellhead to manually record gauge readings. This enables unusual readings to be identified earlier and action taken to investigate and rectify faults before they develop into serious problems.
The wireless network on the platform includes 22 wireless Rosemount pressure transmitters, which replaced traditional gauges. Ten pressure transmitters are mounted on wellheads and used to measure annular pressure. Twelve pressure transmitters monitor inlet pressure and pressure drop over the heat exchanger. Each transmitter relays data back to the operator consoles in the control room. Installation was quick and easy, with a gauge adapter fitting used to allow a direct screw-in replacement. A wireless gateway was mounted outside the process area on one side of the platform, at a height where it oversees the entire wellhead area.
“We are delighted with the performance of the Emerson Smart Wireless network in these challenging conditions,” said Vadheim. “Following a short training program, our instrument engineers are very confident about adding more wireless devices to our installation as required. These typically take around two hours to install compared with up to two days for a conventional wired unit.”
Following the success of this installation, StatoilHydro is planning to install these wireless transmitters on other offshore platforms in the area.
FUTURE OF WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES.
A spectrum of wireless products is emerging to give users the choice of wired or wireless approaches for their facilities and field networks. In 2007, vibration transmitters were introduced, as well as a collaboration with Cisco for complete plant networks. 
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THE AUTHOR
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Bob Karschnia, Vice President of Wireless for Emerson Process Management, has over 16 years’ experience in the process control industry. Before joining Emerson, he developed rotating equipment control systems at Compressor Controls Corp. and satellite control systems for Lockheed Martin. Bob also served as an officer in the United States Air Force working on satellite control and communications systems. Karschnia has a BS in aerospace engineering from the University of Minnesota and an MS in electrical engineering from the University of Colorado.
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