Emerson Process Management (www.emersonprocess.com) helped Celulosa Arauco (www.arauco.cl) strengthen its pulp supply capability by digitally integrating the world’s largest "smart" pulping mill. By employing digital automation technologies, mill personnel now can readily access more data, allowing for easier calibration and greater mill-wide visibility, efficiency, and management.
The automation solution at the mill was based on Emerson’s PlantWeb architecture, providing fast start-up while meeting Arauco’s critical goals of environmental protection, personnel safety, and quality production.
"We automated the whole plant from the moment we feed the logs into the chipper until a bale of pulp emerges at the end," said Alejandro Erazo, Distributed Control Systems Project Engineer for Arauco, in a prepared statement. "Our objective was to use the most modern technology in the market and use it in the best way possible, to make each part of the project easier, from engineering to configuration to start-up of the plant."
Celulosa Arauco is one of the world’s largest forestry companies measured by plantation area and production of Kraft wood pulp and sawn timber and wood panels. The pulp mill construction project represents an approximate US$850 million capital investment.
Emerson automation and service experts from Argentina and Chile worked with Celulosa Arauco to provide an integrated Smart Mill solution built around PlantWeb digital architecture, including DeltaV systems and FOUNDATION fieldbus networking. Emerson wrote a Functional Description Specification (FDS) for managing the automation of the project. Arauco delivered the FDS to vendors who returned their digital configuration data for entry into the DeltaV digital automation system.
Digital technology enabled centralized access to all mill data, while wireless networks enabled technicians to roam the mill doing local testing.
The PlantWeb solution integrates 3300 FOUNDATION fieldbus devices including Rosemount flow, level, pressure, and temperature instruments, and Fisher valves with Fisher FIELDVUE digital valve controllers. Predictive diagnostics information is collected from intelligent devices throughout the mill by AMS Suite, which delivers alarms and data to operations and maintenance personnel.
The PlantWeb solution controls more than 2100 Rockwell E3 and E3+ motor control centers (MCCs) through DeviceNet, more than 3500 discrete remote I/O points through Profibus DP, and more than 340 variable speed drives though Profibus DP. It also connects with more than 15 programmable logic controllers (PLCs) through Profibus DP and special analyzers through Modbus.
