Control System World

Free Safety ROI Tool from Rockwell Automation quantifies savings and productivity gains to help cost-justify safety investments.

MILWAUKEE, Dec. 19, 2011 — Engineers, plant managers and environmental health and safety (EH&S) professionals now have a tool to calculate the potential annual return they’ll receive if they invest in an integrated safety automation system. Rockwell Automation developed the free Safety Return on Investment (ROI) Tool with J.B. Titus, a machine safety consultant and owner of J.B. Titus & Associates.

The new Web-based tool, launched on Nov. 14 at the annual Rockwell Automation Safety Automation Forum, addresses manufacturers’ need for a tool to help quantify potential savings and productivity gains from new investments in safety.

“An upfront investment in safety programs and safeguarding systems can help significantly reduce the financial and employee impact of incidents in a manufacturing facility,” said Mark Eitzman, safety market development manager, Rockwell Automation. “Still, engineers, plant managers and EH&S professionals have struggled to accurately cost-justify investments in safety. With the new Safety ROI Tool, they can calculate the costs of an incident and see the financial benefits of implementing a proactive safety program.”

At its core, the Safety ROI Tool relies on a basic calculation: benefits divided by costs equals ROI. To help simplify the previously complicated process of assessing those costs and benefits, the tool combines injury and productivity data and collects input from users in five categories:

• Estimated project amount, i.e., cost of controls, software, installation and training.

• Overall equipment effectiveness, based on increases in machine availability because of reduced unscheduled downtime and increases in manufacturing output.

• Increased capital-asset depreciation.

• Direct injury costs, such as medical expenses, wages and worker’s compensation costs.

• Indirect injury costs, e.g., regulatory noncompliance fines and repair costs.

Chiyoda Corporation together with JGC Corporation and Inelectra SACA (Venezuelan Engineering company) has been awarded a contract for the detail engineering, procurement, support and construction management services, associated with constructing heavy crude oil upgrading facilities in the Puerto La Cruz Oil refinery by PDVSA Petroleo, S.A.

The Puerta La Cruz Oil refinery is located about 300 km east of Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. The cost-reimbursable contract calls for the construction of heavy crude oil upgrading facilities with a capacity of 210,000 b/d. The facilities will be first in the world to commercially employ the HDH Plus heavy crude oil cracking process technology, which was developed independently by PDVSA The Puerto La Cruz refinery currently specializes in light crude oil products, and addition of heavy crude oil facilities is expected to bring a large increase in revenue a well enabling more efficient use of non-renewable petroleum resources, making this project a significant asset to the Venezuelan economy.

Case Study by Yokogawa: In 2005, A.T. Biopower Co., Ltd. built a biomass power plant in Pichit, Thailand. Using ground rice husks as its fuel, this plant generates 22.5 MW of electricity, of which 20 MW is sold to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). The plant was built with the support of the Thai government’s Ministry of Energy, which is promoting the construction of power plants by small power producers (SPP) that utilize hydro, biomass, or thermal cogeneration technology.

To further read this Case Study by Yokogawa please click 'Thai SPP Uses CENTUM CS 3000 to Improve Efficiency of Biomass Power Plant'

His Excellency Dr. Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry of the State of Qatar, and Peter Voser, Chief Executive Officer of Shell, has recently signed a Heads of Agreement that sets the scope and commercial principles for the development of a world-scale petrochemicals complex in Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar. This agreement follows the conclusion of a joint feasibility study conducted by the partners, Qatar Petroleum and Shell.

The scope under consideration includes a world-scale steam cracker, with feedstock coming from natural gas projects in Qatar; a mono-ethylene glycol plant of up to 1.5 million tonnes per annum using Shell’s proprietary OMEGA (Only MEG Advantaged) technology; 300 kilotonnes per annum of linear alpha olefins using Shell’s proprietary SHOP (Shell Higher Olefin Process); and another olefin derivative. The complex will produce cost-competitive petrochemicals products to be marketed primarily into Asian growth markets. Qatar Petroleum will have an 80% equity interest in the project and Shell 20%.

Rotork’s innovative CVA electric actuator has been specified for critical valve control duty on high temperature gas turbine pre-heater equipment supplied to the power generation industry. The application demands unrestricted modulation of a three-way valve to control the pre-heated temperature of fuel gas for electricity generating turbines.

To further read this new please click 'Rotork CVA specified for flow control duty on gas turbine pre-heater plants'

Technip has been awarded by Uzbekistan GTL LLC(1) an extension of the existing reimbursable services contract, for the front-end engineering design of a gas-to-liquids(2) (GTL) plant, located 40 kilometers south of Qarshi in Uzbekistan.

This plant will be based on Sasol’s world leading GTL technology and will have a capacity of 1.4 million metric tons per year, a similar capacity of the Oryx GTL facility in Qatar implemented by Technip, with following product slate: GTL diesel, kerosene, naphtha and liquid petroleum gas.

This award follows the successful execution by Technip of the first phase contract related to the detailed feasibility study. The front-end engineering activities will be executed by Technip’s operating center in Rome, Italy, with the support of the Group’s center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

San Donato Milanese (Milan), 16 December 2011 –Saipem has been awarded new E&C Offshore contracts in South America worth approximately $600 million.

In Brazil, Saipem has been awarded an EPIC contract by Petrobras for the development of the gas export pipeline Lula NE - Cernambi, in the Santos Basin Pre-Salt Region, approximately 270 kilometres off the coast of the State of São Paulo.

The development encompasses the engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation of a gas export pipeline 18 inches in diameter and 19 kilometres long, and related subsea equipment, which will be laid in a maximum water depth of 2,200 metres. The pipeline will connect the field of Cernambi to a Central Manifold in the field of Lula.

The majority of the offshore activities will be performed by the deepwater field development ship Saipem FDS 2 during the second half of 2013. This is the third export flow line from the new Pre-Salt FPSOs (after Guara and Lula NE) and the third to be installed by the Saipem FDS 2. The technology of the FDS 2 installation vessel, and specifically its powerful J-Lay capacity, is ideally suited to the installation of the ultra-deep water pipelines and flow lines of the Pre-Salt fields in Brazil.

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