Case Studies

Project

DuPont is famous for Teflon®, a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) with many applications. One of the surfactants, PFOA, can be harmful for both mankind and environment. DuPont therefore decided to stop using this surfactant in the production of Teflon® at the Dordrecht factory. DuPont carried out research on substitute chemicals under the project name of Gen-X. DuPond´s goal was to make available critical technology that would reduce the emission of PFOA and, at the same time, had to be applicable of high quality and cost reducing.

Solution

PROFIBUS has been employed at the Dordrecht factory to realize the ‘digital plant’. The PROFIBUS solution comprises approximately 80 PROFIBUS DP slaves, including I/O, AC drives, valve islands and power meters, and about 200 PROFIBUS PA instruments for pressure, temperature, flow, level, analysis and valve positioning (E+H and Metso). All instruments are connected to a PCS 7 control system (Siemens) incorporating five PROFIBUS masters. The implementation and execution of digitalizing the Gen-X installation was based around a Plant Asset Management (PAM, E+H), which contains software tools that contributed to DuPont’s Key Performance Indicator. Fieldgates are placed in the field as intelligent PROFIBUS access points enabling the configuration and reading of all PROFIBUS equipment with a DTM.

Conclusion

DuPont’s Marcel Middeldorp said: “Far-reaching digitalization has helped us reach our targets. We have seen good results with commissioning and start-up. The installation is robust and solid. Unwanted malfunctions can be quickly detected and much more information becomes available than with a 4-20mA environment. In a relatively short time we commissioned our installation in Dordrecht and started production.”  

Contributed by Endress+Hauser